Tag: bangkok_protest

The truce holds, at least for now.

The Thai king turned 86 today; it’s a national holiday.

Meanwhile, protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban told supporters Tuesday night:

“We will start our fight again on December 6. We will start as dawn is breaking and we will fight every day until we get victory…”

Here are a few items worth reading:

• Thai king urges people to do their duty; declines crisis comment — Reuters
• Thailand’s street politics turns violent yet again — Kevin Hewison at The Conversation
• Thailand’s stark choice — Andrew Walker at the ANU College of Asia & the Pacific

Stay tuned.

Police outside the Met Police HQ waiting to greet protesters – with red roses! pic.twitter.com/IiXgZ73tBN

— Andrew R.C. Marshall (@Journotopia) December 3, 2013

See today’s stories from the WSJ, the AP, the BBC, Reuters, and the NYT. For the tick-tock, see Saksith Saiyasombut’s liveblog.

Meanwhile, I wrote this Quartz post: “Cops giving protesters roses does not mean Thailand’s unrest is over.”

Last week I wrote a story for Quartz about the increasing use of drone journalism here in Bangkok amid ongoing protests.

At that time, Thai media outlets and others were using the devices to photograph demonstrations around Democracy Monument.

Protests have escalated in recent days, and the drones are providing some vivid footage.

Today Bangkok Pundit linked to two videos that are worth checking out.

Here’s the first, embedded below and on YouTube here, from 3:20 p.m.

And here’s the second, embedded below and on YouTube here, from 6 p.m.

The videos show protesters at a gate leading to Government House. Throughout the day, as you can see, demonstrators tried to breach barriers that the police had set up. Police, time and again, repelled them with tear gas and water cannons.

Meanwhile, I took in the scene in from a pedestrian walkway several hundred meters away; it’s the walkway the drone passes over at about the 2:55 mark in the second video.

Here’re some photos I snapped as tear gas sent protesters scurrying away from the gate that afternoon and early evening.

And here’s an image of a wounded protester being trucked away.

As for the latest today, here are some stories worth checking out. In short, the protests continue. And Yingluck says she’s not stepping down.

• Yingluck Says Constitution Won’t Allow Her to Meet Protesters’ Demands — WSJ
• Thai PM says protesters’ demands unacceptable — AP
• Long-running societal divide fuels Thai conflict — AP
• Thai PM calls for talks as police use rubber bullets on protesters — Reuters
• Thailand protests: PM rejects resignation demand — BBC
• Thai Police Step Up Defense in Bangkok as Protests Continue — NYT

As ever, follow me on Twitter for updates throughout the day.

The AP reports:

A mob of anti-government protesters attacked at least two people they suspected of supporting the current Thai government and smashed the windows of a moving Bangkok bus Saturday in the first eruption of violence after a week of tense street protests.

The mob also smashed the windshield of a taxi carrying people wearing red shirts, a sign of government support.

The violence erupted when the crowd of more than 1,000 people led by university students who oppose the government tried to block people from entering a stadium where supporters of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra were holding a rally.

Embedded above and on YouTube here is a short clip of what appears to the incident in which demonstrators attacked the bus.

Earlier in the day, the anti-government demonstrators rallied at two state-run telecommunications agencies, CAT Teleom and and TOT. Here’s an AP story, and one from Reuters.

Meanwhile, more and more Red Shirts have been gathering at Rajamangala Stadium.

Here’s a photo @caldeiradasilva posted at about 7:30 p.m. tonight:

From inside right now pic.twitter.com/lMpBvK5TQb

— caldeiradasilva (@caldeiradasilva) November 30, 2013

And finally, a Wall Street Journal story today looks at whether or not the army might stage a coup. The answer, according to analysts, is: probably not.

“The army has learned its lesson from the coup in 2006 and the Red Shirt protests in 2010,” said Panitan Wattanayakorn, a professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University and spokesman in a previous, anti-Thaksin government. “Meddling with politics has cost it support.”

As for tomorrow, protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban has announced plans to target Government House — the prime minister’s offices — and other locations such as police headquarters and various ministries.

For the latest, follow me on Twitter, and see my Bangkok journalists Twitter list.