UPDATE
PM Abhisit Vejajiva made a television speech tonight that called on the reds to stop their protest. He said that troops will clear them from the streets otherwise.
News Analysis
BURNING tyres under a Bangkok overpass lit the night sky in Bangkok this evening as the urban guerrilla struggle being played out in the streets of Thailand's capital took a new tactical turn.
The acrid smoke disappeared into the dark yet seared nostrils on both sides of the battle for Bangkok. That's what it has now become.
A rising toll of dead and wounded and graphic images of skirmishing soldiers and citizens - a sight one usually only sees in revolutions and uprisings - has tainted Thailand's tourist-friendly image.
Yet in Phuket and along the holiday destinations of the Andaman coast, tourists remained perfectly safe, as concerned as everyone else in Thailand for a peaceful outcome to be achieved in Bangkok.
What becomes less certain with every hour that passes is whether the authorities can place the barricaded red protest site in a stranglehold and end the struggle, or whether red reinforcements are likely to outmanoeuvre and encircle the troops.
With every hour that passes, a peaceful resolution seems less likely. The Prime Minister, a regular figure on television in the days before the latest violence, has not made an appearance lately.
Playing out in the streets of Bangkok is a rebellion that has been simmering for a long time in a country where political protests have, over the past two years, often taken novel forms.
The rival yellow shirt 2008 invasions of Phuket airport then of Bangkok's major airports were peaceful and helped to bring a change in government.
However if a negotiated peace settlement does not come now within hours or days, the red rebellion can only lead to a more widespread and damaging unrest.
Real bullets are now being used, on both sides. While troops are being told to fire at the legs of protesters, some of the dead have clearly fallen to shots to the chest and to the head.
The main road north from the red redoubt has been designated by razor wire and by signs declaring it in Thai and English as a ''Live Firing Zone.'' Many are tonight wishing it was the only firing zone.
Letting soldiers do police work will always result in bodies to count. On the other hand, with hardened rogue ex border militia men, former founded and nurtured by Gen. Chavalit, as red "security" aka liberating army, you cannot bring in the police.
I am sorry for all civilians in the cross fire and for the reds who really wanted to protest peacefully for a better democracy in Thailand. They and their good case was hijacked by the guy in Dubai.
I really was hoping the roadmap to reconciliation could have worked. Shame on Thaksin, shame on his demon Major General. I do not care if there was a hit on him or not. They both wanted the rally to not end peacefully in the first place, so much is clear for now.
Posted by Lena on May 15, 2010 20:48