“BANGKOK – Seven minutes of film taken by Reuters cameraman Hiro Muramoto illustrate how a scrappy street protest turned deadly on a balmy Bangkok night.
It is some of the last video Muramoto, 43, a father or two young children, ever took. He died on Saturday from a gunshot wound to the chest, his killer unknown.”
Thank you so much for your article which I found interesting and gave insight into the programme I intend participating in at the end of this year. I will let you know how it goes. Wishing you happiness
Aren
StanG – Tulasit’s translation must refer to any type of military rifle. The size of the charge and the length of the barrel result in a velocity and consequent trajectory in human tissue that looks very different from a pistol shot and is a lot more destructive. An M16 round tumbles around in human tissue doing terrible damage (an unintended result of the lightness of the bullet that was nonetheless welcomed by the US military) and an AK47 round is not much fun either. This would be very obvious even to the low quality pathologists working in Thailand. There seem to be pictures of black clad figures hiding amongst the red shirts holding both M16s and AK47s. One of them was holding something that could have been an M16 fitted with an M203 grenade launcher (the generation after the M79 that is commonly mentioned in the press these days). Sorry, I forgot the pictures are, of course, all as fake as the soldiers’ wounds.
You need a battle-hardened and brutalized troops overwhelmed with hatred to shoot at their own unarmed people.Thai army doesn’t really have that sort of troops like Burmese army has.
Thai army should contract out the mass slaughter to the Burmese army if they want their Bangkok back from the Red-Shirts.
There are several. Sure, General Prem is the real bete noire. Do I think he is evil? In parts. His ideas sometimes work out that way, I suppose. I guess he sees himself as some sort of protector for a certain very naive & tempestuos (but aging) playboy. He may have even been commanded to take this role.
I really think General Prem’s biggest problem is that he was in the way of Thaksin’s plans to be the successor’s right-hand man. And just like hydro-plants in Burma & Laos, and splitting the offshore oil concessions with Hun Sen, old Square Face really was planning to muscle in and soak up some debts for his own long-term profit. Visions of the IJA, feeding opium to Poo Ye, definitely spring to mind.
What would Thaksin be if General Prem died? Chairman of the Privy Council most probably. A glorious retirement from a stunning PM-ship, and guaranteed he would have been far more obnoxious than Prem has ever been. But things HAVE misfired somewhat. He might be pardoned, and get every last baht of his ill-gotten gains back, but he most certainly isn’t going to get Prem’s job when the old boy snuffs it. Such a shame …..
Great. Now we are now poised to exchange one “neo-fascist” government for another one and one group of “amarts” for a new one led and financed by a paranoid kleptomaniac and murderer. Thailand has not progressed since 1932 and power still comes from the barrel of a gun. Only this time it will come from the Kalashnikovs and M79 grenade launchers of the urban terrorists who shelter behind the non-violent red shirt protestors like the IRA’s gunmen did in the 70s, desparately trying to draw fire onto innocents. Abhisit may as well dissolve Parliament and pass the poisoned chalice back to Thaksin’s cronies to let them reap the harvest they have sowed. It will not be an easy job for anyone to control these armed terrorists now they know they can wage war with impunity, not to mention all the other disparate red factions that will want a slice of the action. Death squads, kidnappings, extortion and banditry are the natural consequence of giving in to terrorists, not democracy. Good luck to them.
Very interesting report, written well and full of telling observations. I discerned no bias either way. The writer seems admirably disinterested (which doesn’t mean “un”intereseted, mind) about what he witnesses, despite the topic’s tendency to inflame sensibilities.
I was saddened to read that most university students the writer knows seem “apathetic” and consider politics “boring”. What happened to youthful idealism and passion? What happened to wanting to try to change the world for the better? What about gobbling up information from many sources, forming opinions, exchanging ideas — isn’t that what university is for? Blimey, I remember staying up until 2am with my housemates debating issues even as silly as whether the Starbucks chain could survive in Oz (turned out I was wrong on that one). I pity those kids sleepwalking through uni in Chiang Mai.
(By the way, as I type this, a very long, loud caravan of UDD vehicles is making its way south on Asok, approaching Sukhumvit; I can hear the music and loud-hailers and clappers. The speaker sounds irate but I can’t understand his words. Many shopkeepers and massage ladies and security guards etc etc have poured onto the pavement to wave and shake their own clappers in support.)
How fortunate now that “terrorists” have been found and they caused all the problem ?
LOL
Burma, Burma Burma. Its no longer Thailand its just like Burma.
Of course the government does not want to admit their solidiers killed others, any excuse they can think of now to cover their very exposed rears.
Question : How many government plants were in the crowd mingling to get photo’d with guns to help the Yellow media with excuses in the following days ?
Abhisit and Suthep should resign and flee the country, they are the terrorist masterminds, the real ones who attacked red shirts and tried to kill them using force. They cannot deny, the solidiers carried live ammo.
They bleat first they did not have live ammo, and so lie.
Then they say they did have it but just shot in the air.
Finally they say they did have it and shot in the air, or only used it in certain situations.
Watch how their story changes all the time.
Its only deceitful liars that need to change their story !!!
Notice also it was “Impossible” to hold elections sooner than 9 months. Now the liars are saying it could be quicker, maybe 6 months.
Liars again, who told the world impossible quicker than 9 months.
Yellow liars and murderes, who took power though a military and then a parliamentary coup.
Supported by a Yellow media and what seems to be a Yellow judiciary.
They have made their own massive hole, and now they are falling into it.
“Third hand” or “terrorist snipers” as Suthep and the military called them in a latest press conference can change the whole course of how the situation will develop.
Forget reds, the army has found new enemies they are not likely to pursue at all and they no have no more beef with reds.
All we need is for UDD to drop their own war mongering, admit both sides fell victim to provocation, and agree on new talks with the government.
Then we are likely to see Songrkan truce.
For now reds only are spoiling for a war, it seems.
If there was going to be trouble in Chiang Mai it would have been on Saturday evening when the reds were called to go to the City Hall, but as the reds have been active for a long time here, and most police here are red sympathizers and ‘co-operative’, things seem to cool down fairly quickly.
(though it might be a different situation if an Abhisit, Korn or Suthep ventured this way)
The daytime numbers at red corner have been quite small during the Bangkok protests, and even in the evenings probably not much more than a few hundred.
One really striking thing to me was on the Sunday morning after the crackdown, when I asked one of the reds what was happening, he said to me: “the world is watching, and he expects the UN will come help them soon”
I found his naivety & idealism really quite moving.
“Again, those who looked and Prachatai and didn’t find anything offensive – you should have looked at their Thai section, not English, to form an opinion.”
I did regularly look at Prachatai’s Thai-language section. I did not find anything offensive there. Certainly, nothing offended me–and there was nothing that would have justified the closure by the government.
Sorry, I don’t agree — the author of this piece has no inherent anti-Red bias. The anonymous author has written a full account based on what was seen and heard. This report shows that there can be unexpected lulls, even at a time of great national distress. Not everybody will appreciate this kind of report but that is precisely why it is a valuable contribution.
New Mandala is, as ever, keen to publish other perspectives. Contributions from Chiang Mai or, better yet, other provincial centers, would be warmly received. Perhaps somebody in Khorat, or Udon, or Yala, can offer reflections from those areas? Please feel free to send reports and pictures through to us at the usual addresses.
And a quick observation on the flow of critical comments: I am intrigued that New Mandala is increasingly absorbing jabs from hard line Red supporters. For so long we have largely heard critics, online and elsewhere, from the other side; they often felt Andrew and I were far too sympathetic to the Reds. Will we now find ourselves taking heat from both Red and Yellow?
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Crackdown in Bangkok – after 8 PM
Cameraman’s last videoshow:
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_513612.html
“BANGKOK – Seven minutes of film taken by Reuters cameraman Hiro Muramoto illustrate how a scrappy street protest turned deadly on a balmy Bangkok night.
It is some of the last video Muramoto, 43, a father or two young children, ever took. He died on Saturday from a gunshot wound to the chest, his killer unknown.”
Mixing religion and commerce: The Monk for a Month Program in Fang, Chiang Mai
Thank you so much for your article which I found interesting and gave insight into the programme I intend participating in at the end of this year. I will let you know how it goes. Wishing you happiness
Aren
War at Khao San
StanG – Tulasit’s translation must refer to any type of military rifle. The size of the charge and the length of the barrel result in a velocity and consequent trajectory in human tissue that looks very different from a pistol shot and is a lot more destructive. An M16 round tumbles around in human tissue doing terrible damage (an unintended result of the lightness of the bullet that was nonetheless welcomed by the US military) and an AK47 round is not much fun either. This would be very obvious even to the low quality pathologists working in Thailand. There seem to be pictures of black clad figures hiding amongst the red shirts holding both M16s and AK47s. One of them was holding something that could have been an M16 fitted with an M203 grenade launcher (the generation after the M79 that is commonly mentioned in the press these days). Sorry, I forgot the pictures are, of course, all as fake as the soldiers’ wounds.
War at Khao San
You need a battle-hardened and brutalized troops overwhelmed with hatred to shoot at their own unarmed people.Thai army doesn’t really have that sort of troops like Burmese army has.
Thai army should contract out the mass slaughter to the Burmese army if they want their Bangkok back from the Red-Shirts.
The scene at Phan Fa
#32 “Who is the very very high person?’
There are several. Sure, General Prem is the real bete noire. Do I think he is evil? In parts. His ideas sometimes work out that way, I suppose. I guess he sees himself as some sort of protector for a certain very naive & tempestuos (but aging) playboy. He may have even been commanded to take this role.
I really think General Prem’s biggest problem is that he was in the way of Thaksin’s plans to be the successor’s right-hand man. And just like hydro-plants in Burma & Laos, and splitting the offshore oil concessions with Hun Sen, old Square Face really was planning to muscle in and soak up some debts for his own long-term profit. Visions of the IJA, feeding opium to Poo Ye, definitely spring to mind.
What would Thaksin be if General Prem died? Chairman of the Privy Council most probably. A glorious retirement from a stunning PM-ship, and guaranteed he would have been far more obnoxious than Prem has ever been. But things HAVE misfired somewhat. He might be pardoned, and get every last baht of his ill-gotten gains back, but he most certainly isn’t going to get Prem’s job when the old boy snuffs it. Such a shame …..
Oh, but i forget! Thaksin is now ….. history
War at Khao San
How many guns can you spot in this picture?
This devoted buddhist is not anonymous, btw, his grandson outed him out.
Meanwhile, Tulsathit translating autopsy announcement:
“10 bodies – causes of deaths were from being hit by high-power rifle bullets.”
Could it mean NOT the army issued weapons? Any gun experts here?
Scholars’ press release and letter
1) Thaksin return to Thailand and face jail term.
2) Gov’t then dissolve parliament and call new elections.
War at Khao San
tulsathit: Translating @mktmag: It’s believed CAT Telecom chief cud be taken to satellite centre in Kaelai to facilate restoration of PTV signals.
War at Khao San
Great. Now we are now poised to exchange one “neo-fascist” government for another one and one group of “amarts” for a new one led and financed by a paranoid kleptomaniac and murderer. Thailand has not progressed since 1932 and power still comes from the barrel of a gun. Only this time it will come from the Kalashnikovs and M79 grenade launchers of the urban terrorists who shelter behind the non-violent red shirt protestors like the IRA’s gunmen did in the 70s, desparately trying to draw fire onto innocents. Abhisit may as well dissolve Parliament and pass the poisoned chalice back to Thaksin’s cronies to let them reap the harvest they have sowed. It will not be an easy job for anyone to control these armed terrorists now they know they can wage war with impunity, not to mention all the other disparate red factions that will want a slice of the action. Death squads, kidnappings, extortion and banditry are the natural consequence of giving in to terrorists, not democracy. Good luck to them.
War at Khao San
Tulsathit
Urgent: a red mob led by Arisman had taken Jirayut Rungsrithong, CEO of CAT telecom, to unknown destination.
Viva la revolucion!
War at Khao San
[…] […]
Red Shirts in Chiang Mai
Very interesting report, written well and full of telling observations. I discerned no bias either way. The writer seems admirably disinterested (which doesn’t mean “un”intereseted, mind) about what he witnesses, despite the topic’s tendency to inflame sensibilities.
I was saddened to read that most university students the writer knows seem “apathetic” and consider politics “boring”. What happened to youthful idealism and passion? What happened to wanting to try to change the world for the better? What about gobbling up information from many sources, forming opinions, exchanging ideas — isn’t that what university is for? Blimey, I remember staying up until 2am with my housemates debating issues even as silly as whether the Starbucks chain could survive in Oz (turned out I was wrong on that one). I pity those kids sleepwalking through uni in Chiang Mai.
(By the way, as I type this, a very long, loud caravan of UDD vehicles is making its way south on Asok, approaching Sukhumvit; I can hear the music and loud-hailers and clappers. The speaker sounds irate but I can’t understand his words. Many shopkeepers and massage ladies and security guards etc etc have poured onto the pavement to wave and shake their own clappers in support.)
War at Khao San
Spin and propaganda.
How fortunate now that “terrorists” have been found and they caused all the problem ?
LOL
Burma, Burma Burma. Its no longer Thailand its just like Burma.
Of course the government does not want to admit their solidiers killed others, any excuse they can think of now to cover their very exposed rears.
Question : How many government plants were in the crowd mingling to get photo’d with guns to help the Yellow media with excuses in the following days ?
Abhisit and Suthep should resign and flee the country, they are the terrorist masterminds, the real ones who attacked red shirts and tried to kill them using force. They cannot deny, the solidiers carried live ammo.
They bleat first they did not have live ammo, and so lie.
Then they say they did have it but just shot in the air.
Finally they say they did have it and shot in the air, or only used it in certain situations.
Watch how their story changes all the time.
Its only deceitful liars that need to change their story !!!
Notice also it was “Impossible” to hold elections sooner than 9 months. Now the liars are saying it could be quicker, maybe 6 months.
Liars again, who told the world impossible quicker than 9 months.
Yellow liars and murderes, who took power though a military and then a parliamentary coup.
Supported by a Yellow media and what seems to be a Yellow judiciary.
They have made their own massive hole, and now they are falling into it.
War at Khao San
Srithanonchai #71
“Third hand” or “terrorist snipers” as Suthep and the military called them in a latest press conference can change the whole course of how the situation will develop.
Forget reds, the army has found new enemies they are not likely to pursue at all and they no have no more beef with reds.
All we need is for UDD to drop their own war mongering, admit both sides fell victim to provocation, and agree on new talks with the government.
Then we are likely to see Songrkan truce.
For now reds only are spoiling for a war, it seems.
What next?
Nice to hear someone authouritative on the situation interviewed by the Australian media.
Red Shirts in Chiang Mai
If there was going to be trouble in Chiang Mai it would have been on Saturday evening when the reds were called to go to the City Hall, but as the reds have been active for a long time here, and most police here are red sympathizers and ‘co-operative’, things seem to cool down fairly quickly.
(though it might be a different situation if an Abhisit, Korn or Suthep ventured this way)
The daytime numbers at red corner have been quite small during the Bangkok protests, and even in the evenings probably not much more than a few hundred.
One really striking thing to me was on the Sunday morning after the crackdown, when I asked one of the reds what was happening, he said to me:
“the world is watching, and he expects the UN will come help them soon”
I found his naivety & idealism really quite moving.
State of Emergency in Bangkok
“Again, those who looked and Prachatai and didn’t find anything offensive – you should have looked at their Thai section, not English, to form an opinion.”
I did regularly look at Prachatai’s Thai-language section. I did not find anything offensive there. Certainly, nothing offended me–and there was nothing that would have justified the closure by the government.
War at Khao San
StanG #44
StanG — the ever insightful analyst with incomparatively insightful judgment…
Red Shirts in Chiang Mai
Dear Nowt Taken Out,
Sorry, I don’t agree — the author of this piece has no inherent anti-Red bias. The anonymous author has written a full account based on what was seen and heard. This report shows that there can be unexpected lulls, even at a time of great national distress. Not everybody will appreciate this kind of report but that is precisely why it is a valuable contribution.
New Mandala is, as ever, keen to publish other perspectives. Contributions from Chiang Mai or, better yet, other provincial centers, would be warmly received. Perhaps somebody in Khorat, or Udon, or Yala, can offer reflections from those areas? Please feel free to send reports and pictures through to us at the usual addresses.
And a quick observation on the flow of critical comments: I am intrigued that New Mandala is increasingly absorbing jabs from hard line Red supporters. For so long we have largely heard critics, online and elsewhere, from the other side; they often felt Andrew and I were far too sympathetic to the Reds. Will we now find ourselves taking heat from both Red and Yellow?
Best wishes to all,
Nich
Red Shirts in Chiang Mai
Have they ever made any more sense than what is reported here? From all I’ve heard earlier, these topics is their staple food.