Hand-to-hand fights in the streets
By Charles McDermid and Jakkapun Kaewsangthong
BANGKOK - The short stretch of Putchiawat Road between Bangkok's multi-level
Din Daeng traffic intersection and Victory Monument was an urban battleground
on Monday as a bloody, day-long street battle raged between the Thai army and
anti-government protesters.
Its aftermath was a series of running shootouts and alley-to-alley fighting
between protesters and ad hoc neighborhood militias, as witnessed by Asia Times
Online. It was the turning point in a tumultuous day.
By Sunday, the area already looked like a war zone. Red-shirted protesters, in
numbers reported as high as 100,000, had descended on the capital - seizing
vital traffic hubs, closing
Bangkok's train station and besieging Government House, the office of the prime
minister, some two kilometers from Din Daeng.
Prior to the battle, protesters stole at least 10 Bangkok Mass Transit
Authority buses and used them to block access roads to the traffic chokepoint -
torching several. Black smoke billowed from charred buses and piles of rubber
tires set alight by the mob.
The government vowed late on Sunday to punish the protesters and restore order
to the capital. A state of emergency decree opened the way for the Thai
military to quell protests and banned public demonstrations. There were roughly
1,000 "red shirts" defying the government at Din Daeng, and an estimated 20,000
scattered at other protests sites around the capital.
The stage was set: Din Daeng and Victory Monument, a memorial to Thai fighting
with French colonialists, was about to witness the decisive engagement in what
historians may remember as Bangkok's bloodiest Thai New Year, or Songkran.
"Din Daeng," incidentally, means "red dirt" in Thai.
Surapon Samwon lives and works in the area. The willowy shopkeeper, tattooed
profusely with sacred Pali inscriptions, was awoken just after 4am by "bullets
and bombs", he told Asia Times Online. He said the first concern was his two
small children.
"I thought they would burn the whole area," Surapon said of the protesters.
So began the government's assault on Din Daeng. Thai army regulars and commando
units carrying automatic weapons advanced behind a phalanx of riot shields and
salvos of tear gas grenades. They were supported by a military cargo truck
mounted with a water cannon and a Humvee carrying a 50-caliber machine gun.
In response, protesters doused intervening buses with gas and set them ablaze.
According to one report, a leader of the group told the army by megaphone that
the protesters had put a bomb in one of the buses - one of many such threats to
come in ensuing hours.
The army moved forward, firing bursts above the heads of the protesters and
into the flaming buses. Protesters fought them off with a flurry of rocks,
Molotov cocktails and, according to the military, their own tear gas and small
arms fire.
Protesters rammed government lines with stolen buses, in at least one case
rigging a vehicle to roll forward driverless, sending it kamikaze-style into
the fray. The hurtling vehicles destroyed everything in their path, including
trees and, according to al-Jazeera, "an electricity pylon, which snapped and
sent sparks on to the battle raging below".
In response, Thai troops enabled their weapons with live rounds and sprayed the
crowd - injuring dozens. A military spokesman said troops were advised to shoot
above the crowd but ultimately had no other choice. The army said there were no
deaths from the shootings, a claim their opponents deny. There were pools of
blood on the scorched street.
At least 70 people were injured, according to reports, including more than 20
soldiers.
Chinawat Klantoksuwan, 30, an emergency medical technician at nearby
Ratchavitee Hospital, told Asia Times Online that he helped carry two
protesters with gunshot wounds to the chest into intensive care. Locals said
they saw government troops dragging bodies beneath an overpass.
Government forces pushed fleeing protesters down Putchiawat Road and into the
Victory Monument traffic circle - another important traffic hub. Its four
access roads were blocked by burned-out buses and bonfires. Din Daeng
intersection was overtaken by Thai government troops just before 7.30am. Smoke
and tear gas filled the air.
Jintana Luengsakwapanit, a 62-year-old street side omelet vendor, was glad to
see them go. "We are safe now. The protesters didn't let local people walk
around or go to work," she said. "If the soldiers hadn't come here the 'reds'
would have set off a bomb or a gas truck."
According to local residents, the protesters continually threatened to blow up
one of five fuel trucks stolen that morning and claimed that they possessed a
massive bomb of some sort. As the Bangkok Post reported, "An LPG [liquefied
petroleum gas] tanker hijacked earlier by the protesters and driven to the Din
Daeng area was found parked nearby King Power headquarters."
Jintana said the protesters had parked the truck in front of an apartment
complex, prompting a rapid evacuation and angering residents. They threatened
government forces by occasionally opening the valve to release gas from the
tank. The tank was later found to contain only vapor, the Post reported.
Threat of explosion may have led to the next few hours of tense stand-off. It
may also explain, in part, the impending street fights between furious locals
and the protesters. During the lull, Thai troops gave out military chants and
drummed their riot shields. Protesters responded with anti-government slogans
and jeers. A red-shirted cross-dresser glided between the groups and taunted
the troops with a salacious, impromptu cabaret act.
The Thai army moved on Victory Monument at noon. The protesters hurled
firebombs and again ignited buses, but their defiance was short-lived. Repeated
bursts of army gunfire drove the protesters back to the opposite side of the
traffic circle. Baton-wielding troops charged up the pedestrian overway and
dispersed screaming onlookers, including women and children.
Victory Monument fell to the government at 12.25pm. The landscape was littered
with bullet-strewn buses and broken glass. Shell-casings viewed by Asia Times
Online were blanks, but the protesters were on the run.
Over the next several hours, the protesters retreated in disorganized bands -
burning everything in their path. Buses parked as roadblocks towered with
flame. Firebombs were thrown indiscriminately, and fires raged out of control.
At this point, the locals' patience ran out for the interlopers.
Ad hoc militias rose up against the passing protesters. In at least three
locations, Asia Times Online observed street battles with small arms and
homemade bombs raging deep inside residential neighborhoods. The day's two
confirmed fatalities were a result of these alley-to-alley engagements.
In a predominantly Muslim district near Nanglaeng Police Station, gunshots and
Molotovs were exchanged and hand-to-hand fighting was witnessed. Residents
claimed that protesters had sought refuge in a mosque and, once repelled,
firebombed it.
Further down the road, as the red shirts retreated to their last enclave at
Government House, a street fight commenced with fists, sticks and makeshift
weapons. Locals yelled into upstairs balconies and doorways for their neighbors
to come and join them against the retreating mob.
According to a homeowner, the area houses a major electricity hub and fuel
center and locals were defending it against a takeover. Mothers were seen
dragging screaming infants out of the way of opposing mobs. As the protesters
retreated, they threw miniature, basement-made explosives known locally as
ping-pong bombs.
With the army and increasingly the public in chase, the red shirts had little
choice but to beat a harried retreat to Government House. By nightfall, their
numbers had dwindled to roughly 5,000, according to local media reports. By
Monday morning, they had surrendered.
After a week of high-profile public relations victories, the red-shirted
anti-government group and its leader and benefactor, exiled former Thai premier
Thaksin Shinawatra, were dealt an iron-fisted military defeat by the government
they attempted to overthrow. Perhaps more important, the people of Bangkok have
voted with their fists.
Analysts believe the future of the protest movement, whose leaders have
previously claimed to abide by the law and peaceful protest, may have gone up
in the flames of its own violence.
Charles McDermid is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
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