Thai protest leader shot by sniper
A renegade army general backing Thailand’s Red Shirt protesters was shot in the head by a sniper today as the government moved to crack down on an opposition encampment.
Shortly before he was hit Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdiphol said he expected the military to move in soon to the area of central Bangkok which has been occupied by thousands of the protesters for weeks.
“It’s either dusk or dawn when the troops will go in,” he said. He was shot soon after night fell.
An aide who answered Khattiya’s mobile phone described the injury as “severe”.
“Seh Daeng was shot in the head,” said the aide, referring to Khattiya by his nickname.
The government’s medical emergency centre confirmed that Khattiya was shot in the head and admitted to the intensive care unit at a hospital.
The Red Shirts, many from the rural poor, are demanding an immediate dissolution of Parliament. They believe Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s coalition government came to power illegitimately through manipulation of the courts and the backing of the powerful military.
Tens of thousands of them streamed into the capital on March 12 and occupied an area in the historic district of Bangkok. An army attempt to clear them on April 10 led to clashes that killed 25 people and wounded more than 800. Another four people were killed in related clashes in the following weeks.
Today’s shooting will only deepen fears of more bloodshed.
Khattiya is a renegade army major general whom the government has labelled a “terrorist” and a mastermind behind some of the violence.
He bitterly opposed reconciling with the government and had recently become critical of Red Shirt leaders, some of whom had wanted to accept a government proposal to end Thailand’s political crisis.
The shooting came after the government said it would impose a military lockdown on the Rajprasong area to evict the protesters.
Khattiya, who helped construct the Red Shirt barricades of sharpened bamboo stakes and tyres around the protest area, was accused of creating a paramilitary force among the anti-government protesters and had vowed to battle the army if it launched a crackdown.
He accused Red Shirt leaders of taking government bribes to accept Abhisit’s reconciliation plan to hold elections on November 14. However, the plan was abandoned after the Red Shirts made new demands and refused to leave.
“The prime minister and the Red Shirts were on the verge of striking a deal but then I came in. Suddenly, I became an important person,” he said.
“This time, the people’s army will fight the army. There is no need to teach the people how to fight. There are no forms or plan of attack. You let them fight with their own strategies,” he said.
Khattiya was suspended from the army in January and became a fugitive last month after when an arrest warrant was issued against him and two dozen others linked to the Red Shirts for their purported roles in the violence. Yet he has wandered freely through the protest zone, signing autographs just yards from security forces watching the protesters.
Earlier Thursday, an army spokesman said troops were preparing to impose a lockdown on the square-mile area where the Red Shirts have barricaded themselves in an upmarket area of shopping malls, hotels and apartments.
