Bullets shatter fragile Thai peace
By Brian McCartan

BANGKOK - The Thai government has finally matched its strong rhetoric with action by surrounding "red shirt" demonstrators and cutting off food and utilities to force them out of their protest site in the heart of the capital.

The move appeared to be backed up by the shooting on Thursday evening of Major General Khattiya Sawasdipol, a high-profile protest leader and renegade army general in an apparent assassination attempt. Within hours, however, the plan to isolate the protesters seemed to stall in another show of lack of determination.

Sporadic gunfire and several grenade blasts occurred after the shooting and one protester was killed during clashes late on

 

 Thursday night. But on Friday things became much more serious as troops clashed with the protesters, firing rubber bullets, live ammunition and tear gas in an attempt to seal off their encampment that, according to news reports, had yet to succeed.
Khattiya, also known as Seh Daeng, was shot at about 7pm while talking to a group of international journalists at one of the protest barricades at Lumpini Park. He remains on life support at a nearby hospital.

Seh Daeng was widely believed to be the leader of the "armed wing" of the protest movement, a shadowy group of men in black who appeared during the April 10 military crackdown with automatic rifles. He is also believed to be behind a series of grenade attacks and shootings that took place around Bangkok before and during the demonstrations.

Although some observers pointed to Seh Daeng's uncanny ability to predict grenade attacks, there is little hard evidence. Regardless, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajeva branded him a terrorist and named him as a major impediment to a peaceful solution to the crisis that has gripped the country for months.

While the government is clearly the side with the most to gain from removing Seh Daeng, military spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd announced on Friday the government did not order his shooting. Seh Daeng was previously suspended from the army without pay and currently the subject of a special committee looking into stripping him of his rank for his role in the protests, a move which would have to be signed off on by the king.

A military officer who talked to Asia Times Online noted that Seh Daeng had made his share of enemies with his outspoken ways. Conflicts had apparently arisen between himself and the leader of the red shirts so-called "guards" who man their barricades and take security for the main stage of the protest site. He had also become unpopular with many of the protest leaders for his obstruction of plans to compromise with the government and end the demonstration.

While it is unlikely that the protesters would have assassinated their own man, another possible culprit could be businessmen in the area who are tired of the huge losses they have suffered as a result of the protests. Some observers have speculated that they could be behind running fights between red shirts and anti-red shirt demonstrators at the Silom intersection involving sling shots, rocks, bottles and fireworks.

Whoever shot Seh Daeng will probably never be known, but what matters most at present is the perception of the protesters themselves, who overwhelming believe he was shot by an army sniper, likely from the Dusit Thani Hotel across the street from the barricade at Lumpini Park. This has served to stir up considerable anger among some protesters, especially the guards who idolized him. Many of them are former paramilitary Rangers drawn by Seh Daeng's personality.

The general had created something of a cult following due to his flamboyant personality and penchant for wearing military fatigues and bush hat festooned with grenade pull rings. His popular autobiographical books detail his service fighting communists and Muslim insurgents in the south of the country and his role as an intelligence officer. Seh Daeng's outspokenness and support for self-exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a driving force behind the protest movement, earned him the enmity of many in the military, and especially General Anupong Paochinda, the army commander who had him assigned as an aerobics instructor.

A short while after Seh Daeng's shooting protesters seized the Wireless-Rama IV-Sathorn intersection. It was unclear to this reporter whether the move was planned, done in outrage over the shooting of a leader, or a spontaneous move to block government forces who had to pass the intersection to get to the protest site at Silom Road. The effect was the same either way; soldiers and their armored personnel carriers were prevented from getting to the intersection by the traffic jam its seizure caused.

The move also made clear that if the army wanted to move on the protesters up Rama IV road, the main route to the protest site at Lumpini Park, it would come at a price. It was on Rama IV road between the two intersections that at least 10 protesters were wounded and one killed by a rubber bullet that hit him in the eye late on Thursday night.

The army apparently balked at trying to take the intersection during the night and decided to wait until Friday. As this story is being written there are reports of more clashes between troops and protesters as soldiers fired tear gas to push protesters out of the Wireless intersection so they could move in to finish their encirclement of the protest site. Electricity and cell phone signals have been cut off around the protest site, where protesters have been encamped within makeshift barriers of tires and sharpened bamboo poles since April 3.

Red-shirt leaders, who on Thursday were showing signs of division, especially after rumors of the desertion of core leader Veera Musikhapong, began to disagree more. The division appears to be between those who want to compromise with the government and disband the protests and others who want to continue, believing the can topple the Democrat Party-led coalition and force new elections.

The government's threats to seal off the protest site were a result of a lack of agreement among the protest leaders on whether to accept a government offer of new elections in November. Those opposed said the government should declare an exact date for the dissolution of parliament and Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaungsuban should surrender himself to police and face charges for his role in the deaths of protesters during the April 10 crackdown.

Any move on the main protest site will undoubtedly cause many casualties. As well as the death of one demonstrator, around 30 people, including Seh Daeng, were injured during Thursday night's violence. Within minutes of the shooting at least four grenades exploded outside the barricades outside Lumpini Park, apparently without causing any casualties. More explosions were heard during the night.

This reporter watched as black-shirted "guards" assembled a M16 carbine before running off to fire several shots at the Dusit Thani Hotel. Another automatic weapon could be heard firing in the vicinity of Chulalongkorn Hospital where journalists saw what appeared to be another M16. During a lull, a protester showed journalists shell casings from inside the barricade perimeter that could only have come from weapons fired by red shirts.

Many of the weapons seized by protesters after the April 10 crackdown are still in their possession and military officers worry that they are being distributed from hiding places. Seh Daeng may have been the perceived leader of the "armed wing", but some analysts and military officers are not so sure and believe others within the movement may be behind the violence and control the weapons.

Only a few days ago, Thailand looked to be pulling back from the brink of a situation that some thought might dissolve into civil war to an uneasy truce between the government and protesters. Most observers believed the protest would be over in days and issues would be solved, or at least discussed, in the coming months before elections promised by the government on November 14.

A showdown now looms as government troops tighten their grip on the protest site. With violence already escalating it remains to be seen whether the government has the will to follow through with its crackdown and risk many more deaths, or pull back, as it has in the past.

Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.

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