Thai political protests turn violent, one dead

[wolf5370]

There was a video clip somewhere here (too many threads and posts for me to locate it now) of Suthep being told (in his absence) that if he did not persist in 2 days they would kill him -there was also mention that a 5m baht bounty would be raised from Thaksin's son (though I doubt he knew of this pledge himself!) to be put on Sutheps head. Actual footage from the stadium of this being said.

The Reds were not in the stadium when the (so called) whites began their protests nor when Suthep first appointed himself their leader - it was alter the Reds were bussed in - very few came locally, so buses came from, further afield. This is what I meant by being there first. The protestors were there to protest - the Reds went there to protest what exactly? Pro-government - no one in their right mind could possibly believe this was the aim! Why wait 2 years and then only come when there are protestors? The only reason was to confront the whites - this was provocative regardless of the motives, but the tone of the speeches from onstage in the stadium shows there is a violent motive.

21:43: Arisman: " if Suthep-led protest doesn't stop, he will take the reds to stop them."

Yesterday: Nattawut: "If Suthep steps up his protest tomorrow, red nationwide will do likewise. Please get set people. "

Yesterday: Thida: "If this government can't control the situation, we will show them the real people's revolution."

Yeah, noted the Arisman comments. Just I find it strange if the reds had said something that exteme on stage, usually The Nation folk etc (on twitter) would be all over something like that. Yet I've heard no mention except allegations from avowedly anti-govt people on twitter. Not saying I don't believe you, but if it is true, I'm sure it'll be mentioned in tomorrow's paper etc.

I'm not talking about the anti-govt people, I know they were protesting first. But reds didn't go to confront them. I'm talking about the specific protests at RU. To confront the reds was a specific strategy RU students decided on today. What about their democratic right to assemble peacefully at the stadium? The world over, when a govt is threatened by protests, it's not surprising that they organize pro-govt protests. Not necessarily to directly confront, but as a show of strength. You wouldn't expect any different. The speeches are completely irrelevant I'm afraid. You're making the mistake that people did in 2010, thinking that speeches provoked people to fight. Those at the stage were completely peaceful. It was those that weren't at the stage listening to the speeches that were violent. And that's exactly what happened today. It wasn't reds from Issan fighting students, it was local reds (according to a journalist on the scene).

Not to condone provocative speeches, I think the less of that the better at this point. But to highlight that as a cause, when people involved in fighting likely hadn't even listened to speeches seems mistaken. Note that Nattawud called for reds to stay in the stadium.

If we're in the business of condemning speeches though, here's what a journalist present had to say about the RU students:

georgehenton ‏@georgehenton 9h

Last tweet not fair. This fuelled by hateful political rhetoric from 'leaders'. An attack on totally innocent and defenceless ppl. Sick.

This was before anyone was shot, of course, during the period where the students were having a free run at people who couldn't defend themselves.

Yes I mentioned somewhere earlier (or maybe I twittered it - gets so confusing at 5am - been a long day!) about the students chasing Reds and clubbing them with sticks. I do not know if this was before or after the defacing of the Uni logo or the threat to burn the Uni down - but still no excuse unless there was more immediate to it (and no one has since said there was).

You know, I really wish Suthep and the Dems and the Reds had just stayed out of it - used their social media and press etc and made their points and left the anti-amnesty people to get on with it and go home. I also wish Thaksin would do likewise, I wonder just how much money that man has "invested" (read: wasted) in the last few years on the gamble to get back his frozen billions (sure as heck he isn't coming home to stay whatever happens - he was never a fool). Reminds me of on of Aesops fables about a guy given his wish of a pot full of gold, only to find he is missing one coin to make it completely full, and ends up losing the lot chasing that one missing coin. ASEAN would have come along and forced open the gates and slowly but surely things would have sorted themselves out.

Too many agendas and too many sheep (with clubs and guns) willing to be pawn in the game.

[F430murci]

BRAVE Red shirts standing up for what they believe.

reportedly now burning cars and shops and stealing food, beer and liquor.

Obviously their belief is that food and drink should be free, and they can wreck people's livelihoods at whim.

Source? That is the way it goes down in a riot, of course, but you're the only one I've seen say anything about this. btw I've seen several pictures on social media of red shirts beaten by student mob, worst one probably being a red shirt they'd 'captured'. I could post them but I don't really want to go down the route of exchanging endless pictures. For what purpose? It's clear that both sides used violence. They seemed to be evenly matched on that score before guns were brought into the equation, but that, as I say, was sadly inevitable.

But if you still want to believe the students were peaceful and the red shirts were aggressors, please look at these pics which were taken before hardcore red shirts responded: http://www.demotix.com/photo/3380166/red-shirts-targeted-anti-govt-protesters-outside-university.

Exactly, until one is there and experiences the fluid, but abrupt dynamics of a mob scene like this, they should not judge.

[george]

This topic continues here:

1 dead, four people shot at Ramkhamhaeng University after clashes

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/685650-1-dead-four-people-shot-at-ramkhamhaeng-university-after-clashes/