9 dead, 554 hurt in 84 days of rallies

[SU8ZER0]

9 dead, 554 hurt in 84 days of rallies

WISIT CHUANPIPATPONG
THE NATION January 23, 2014 1:00 am

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/lbpykgVIMSk?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" width="560" frameborder="0" height="315"></iframe>

EIGHTY-FOUR DAYS of anti-government rallying in Bangkok have seen a total of nine deaths and 554 injuries, while the authorities intercepted 44 guns and five explosives. The casualties were reported by the Erawan Emergency Medical Service Centre, as of January 20.

One reason given for the caretaker government to implement the emergency decree covering the capital and its outskirts for 60 days was the violence and weapons usage leading to deaths and injuries.

The People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) and its allies launched the protest on October 31, 2013, when the House passed the amnesty bill. Violent incidents broke out around the rally sites and worsened during the "Bangkok Shutdown".

A total of five M26 and RGD-5 type hand grenades were hurled at Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva's home, Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra’s Suan Pakkard Palace, the marching protesters on Banthad Thong Road, and the rally's backstage area at Victory Monument.

Some explosives were also used to threaten individuals.

Other indicating factors of potential violence were the seizures by police of guns and explosives.

The Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order reported the following weapon seizures during arrests (excluding those seized from checkpoints around rally sites), as well as missing weapons, from October 31, 2013 to January 16, 2014:

1. 44 guns seized as evidence and another 27 guns reported stolen or missing during the Thai-Japanese Stadium and Labour Ministry clashes.

2. The guns seized from the Ramkhamhaeng and Thai-Japanese Stadium clashes were mostly pistols. The Ramkham-haeng incident yielded 34 spent cartridges and seven spent bullets from the 18 guns involved (.45, .38 spc, 9mm, .32 (long), .32 (7.65), .25, and .22LR calibres). The clash between the Student and People Network for Thailand's Reform (STR) protesters and riot police yielded 6 spent cartridges and 31 spent bullets from 16 guns involved (.32, 9mm, .38 spc and .45).

A police source in the investigation into protest guards' shooting around rally sites said the .38 calibre bullets used were found to be fired from homemade guns.

 

[LightYears]

Drive-by shooting of 'red shirt' leader raises tension in Thailand

Gunmen wound pro-government leader in the country's northeast as a state of emergency begins in response to violence in Bangkok

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 22 January, 2014, 3:47pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 22 January, 2014, 11:24pm

Reuters in Udon Thani

Kwanchai Praipana, a pro-government "red shirt" leader, is wheeled into an intensive care facility after the shooting. Photo: Reuters

A pro-government leader was shot and wounded yesterday in Thailand's northeast, a stronghold of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, as a state of emergency began in and around the capital Bangkok where protesters are trying to force her to resign.

The government issued the 60-day emergency decree late on Tuesday, handing security agencies wide powers to detain suspects, impose a curfew and limit gatherings.

Officials said it was aimed at preventing an escalation of the protests that have gripped the capital for more than two months and brought parts of the centre to a halt.

Bangkok appeared normal and people were going about their business as usual with police making no attempt to break up the protests, including one outside a complex where Yingluck was working.

But highlighting the risk of the political deadlock turning violent, "red shirt" leader Kwanchai Praipana, who had warned of a nationwide fight if the military launched a coup, was wounded in the arm and leg in a drive-by shooting at his home in the northeastern province of Udon Thani. Dozens of shots were fired in the attack.

Police said they believed it was politically motivated.

"From the way the assailants fired, they obviously didn't want him to live," said his wife, Arporn Sarakham. Police said they had found 39 bullet casings at the house.

Kwanchai leads thousands of pro-government supporters in Udon Thani.

On Tuesday, he said that if the military attempted a coup: "I can assure you, on behalf of the 20 provinces in the northeast, that we will fight. The country will be set alight if the soldiers come out."

So far the military, which has been involved in 18 actual or attempted coups in the past 81 years, has kept out of the fray. The police are charged with imposing the state of emergency, under orders from Yingluck to treat protesters with patience.

"We will try our best," army chief Prayuth Chan-Ocha said. "But if any violence erupts and no one can solve it, the troops will have to step in and tackle it.

"We will look after our nation with the right methods. We will not lead the nation into any violence," he added.

Nine people have died and dozens have been wounded in violence, including two grenade attacks in the capital over the weekend, since protesters took to the streets in November to demand that Yingluck step down and an unelected "people's council" be set up to bring sweeping reforms.

Yingluck and her supporters deny responsibility for attacks on the protesters, and some accuse the military of trying to provoke a violent confrontation as a pretext for it to oust the government.

Those suspicions were heightened when a group of navy officers were arrested in plain clothes carrying pistols with silencers as they mingled with the protesters. They had been driving a car with false plates.

The protests are the latest eruption in a political conflict that has gripped the country for eight years. It pits the middle class of Bangkok and royalist establishment against the mainly poorer supporters of Yingluck and her brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, toppled by the military in 2006.

Thaksin and his allies have won every election in Thailand since 2001.

 

[LightYears]

Pools of blood at the victim's home in Udon Thani province, where local police found 39 bullet casings. Photo: Reuters

Bullet holes at the victim's home.


​