Protest general dies from sniper bullet
The renegade army general who worked for Thailand’s Red Shirt protesters died today, five days after he was shot by a sniper.
Channel 9 television, Thai Rath newspaper and other media outlets said Major General Khattiya Sawasdiphol died early today.
Khattiya, the military strategist of the Red Shirts, was shot in the head on Wednesday.
The attack triggered widespread street fighting between anti-government protesters and the army in central Bangkok. At least 36 people – all civilians - have died in the violence.
The Red Shirts have been protesting since mid-March demanding the immediate resignation of prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the dissolution of parliament and new elections.
Meanwhile the anti-government unrest in central Bangkok spread to other areas today as the military defended its use of force.
Thai leaders flatly rejected protesters’ demands that the United Nations intercede to end the chaos.
Rapid gunfire and explosions echoed before dawn outside the luxury hotels bordering the barricaded protest zone, where the military has attempted to seal in thousands of demonstrators camping in the streets. Guests at the upmarket Dusit Thani hotel were rushed to the basement for safety.
Reporters at the scene said the gunfire came both from government forces and protesters trapped inside the encampment who appear to have stockpiled a sizeable arsenal of weapons.
Yesterday towering plumes of black smoke hung over city streets where protesters set fire to tyres, fired homemade rockets and threw petrol bombs at soldiers who used rubber bullets and live ammunition to pick off rioters who approached their lines.
The leaders of the protesters said they wanted talks mediated by the United Nations, provided the government agreed to an immediate ceasefire and pulled its troops back.
But government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said a pause was unnecessary since troops were “not using weapons to crack down on civilians”.
The government maintains it is targeting only armed “terrorists” among the demonstrators.
Authorities insisted they would continue the crackdown aimed at choking off the Red Shirts, who have occupied a square-mile protest zone barricaded by tyres and bamboo spikes in one of Bangkok’s ritziest areas since early April.
The political conflict is Thailand’s deadliest and most prolonged in decades, and each passing day of violence deepens divides in this nation of 65 million - a key US ally and south-east Asia’s second-largest economy.
Thailand has long been considered a democratic oasis in south-east Asia and the unrest has shaken faith in its ability to restore and maintain stability.
Soldiers have encircled the core protest site and cut off power to the area. Protest leaders told women and children with them to move to a Buddhist temple compound within the zone.
The areas between the site and the military’s perimeter have become a no-man’s land where gunshots and blasts can regularly be heard. But some of the worst clashes yesterday were behind the military cordon – an indication the unrest was not contained within the protest area and was spreading.
In one working-class neighbourhood, several hundred demonstrators gathered under a flyover and in small side streets, where they sheltered between clashes with nearby soldiers.
There were also reports of scattered unrest outside the capital. A military bus was burned in the northern city of Chiang Mai and protesters demonstrated in the north-eastern towns of Nongkhai and Udon Thani to defy the government’s state of emergency, which bans gatherings of more than five people.
The decree, which gives the army broad powers to restore order, was extended yesterday to 22 of Thailand’s 75 provinces, up from 17.
According to government figures, 65 people have died and more than 1,600 have been wounded since the Red Shirts began their protests in March. The toll includes 36 killed, most of them civilians, and 255 wounded since Thursday in fighting that has turned parts of central Bangkok into a battleground.
Army spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd held a nationally-televised news conference to defend the military’s use of force, showing images that appeared to show protesters firing guns and grenades at soldiers and in one case trying to light the diesel tank of a government truck.
He said army sharpshooters were there only to provide cover for security forces on the ground and were not firing arbitrarily.
The Red Shirts, many who hail from the impoverished north and north east, say Oxford-educated Mr Abhisit’s coalition government came to power through manipulation of the courts and the backing of the powerful military, and that it symbolises a national elite indifferent to their plight.
Nattawut Saikua, one of the protest leaders, said the Red Shirts were willing to negotiate immediately with the government.
“What’s urgent is to stop the deaths of people. Political demands can wait,” he said.
Nattawut said the UN must serve as a mediator in the talks because, “we don’t see any (other) neutral and just organisations”.
The government has also announced sanctions banning financial institutions from doing business with 93 individuals and 13 companies it says are associated with former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and is seen as a major backer of the Red Shirt movement.
The list included Mr Thaksin’s family members, his political and business associates and Red Shirt leaders.
