The AP ran an important story yesterday about an issue that hasn’t received as much international attention as I would have thought: ongoing web censorship in Thailand. Give it a read.
For more, there’s this May 7 Bangkok Post story.
And here’s a GlobalVoices post from April 29 with more details. 2Bangkok.com also has some info on the topic.
Red Shirt leaders say they won’t leave the Rajaprasong protest site ((Again, Bangkok protest site maps are here and here. And my photos from Rajaprasong and elsewhere are here (May 1), here (April 6), and here (April 4).)) until an exact date for potential new elections is set. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva earlier proposed Nov. 14 for a new poll. ((Interestingly, I noticed earlier today that there is already a Wikipedia page called Thai general election, 2010.))
But the red shirts say they want to ensure that the Democrats’ coalition parties are on board with the plan, and the reds point out that only the election commission, not the PM, can call new elections. Red Shirt leaders also say they want to know the exact date that Parliament will be dissolved, which would determine the date for a new poll.
Meanwhile, the PAD — the yellow shirt group that shut down Bangkok’s international airport for a week in Nov. 2008 — have voiced their displeasure with Abhisit’s plan. They say he should step down if he cannot enforce the rule of law, and that he shouldn’t give in to the Reds’ demands.
Earlier, there was a sense that the red shirts might take the deal, and that it would be a few days until they dispersed. Not anymore.
Here are stories about the current state of affairs from the BBC, WSJ, and Reuters.
Red shirt leaders have said they accept, in principle, Prime Minister Abhisit’s proposal for new elections in November. This would be 13 months before Abhisit was originally due to face new polls. But there are a few sticking points.
First, as political analysts have pointed out, both sides want to be in control of the government in September. That’s when the military re-shuffle, or promotions, are set to occur. ((For previous posts about divisions within the Thai military, see here, here, and here.)) And this is also when the national budget it set.
Second, red shirt leaders say they want more details about how the new elections will come about. Some leaders have said that Abhisit himself lacks the power to call new elections, and that only the election commission can take such action.
For more, here’s a CSM story from yesterday. And for more on the Thai military, I suggest reading this WSJ story from today.
Here’s a Google Map of red shirt protest sites. The map (embedded below) also includes the locations of various clashes and blasts that have occurred here in Bangkok over the past weeks.
I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the points or the descriptions of the various incidents, but the map is helpful in gauging the scale of the space red shirts have occupied.
The map was created by Bangkok resident Richard Barrow, who has also been posting his observations about the protests on Twitter.
View Bangkok Dangerous – Red Shirts Rally March-April 2010 in a larger map
(Cross posted to TopicThailand.com.)
The latest here in Thailand is the ongoing fallout from the red shirts’ invasion of a hospital on Thurs. night. Here’s a story from the BBC that explains what happened.
Meanwhile, below are a few miscellaneous images I’ve snapped over the last few days. There have been various troops stationed in Bangkok’s Asoke area (in addition to other areas around town); here are a few soldiers standing guard. (There have been no sizable red shirt protests or “mobile rallies” in this area, so far.)
The other images here are photos I snapped at the Rajaprasong intersection — home of the main protest site — yesterday.
Thailand violence flares as red-shirts and troops clash [BBC, April 28, 2010 — includes video footage]
Thai troops and a convoy of hundreds of red-shirt protesters have clashed on the outskirts of Bangkok.
One soldier has died, reportedly from a shot fired by a member of the security forces, and at least 10 people have been injured.
The protesters had earlier left their fortified camp in central Bangkok to drive to a rally 50km (30 miles) away.
Thai troops, protesters clash in Bangkok suburb [Reuters, April 28, 2010]
Thai troops fired live rounds in the air and shot rubber bullets in a chaotic clash with anti-government protesters on a highway in Bangkok’s suburbs on Wednesday that wounded 10 people and possibly killed one.
Stay tuned for more. And don’t forget that for real-time updates, you can consult my Thailand Twitter list.
Above is a map of the red shirt protest zones here in Bangkok. It appears to be accurate as of April 25.
The map shows the areas currently occupied by protesters, and includes details about roadblocks. You can find a bigger version here, or by clicking on the image above.
(The image source is unknown; found via @farangone)
Cross-posted to TopicThailand.com, where I continue to add resources (and fiddle with the graphical design).
Here’s the latest news:
And for those of you wondering whether or not it’s safe to visit Thailand, I suggest checking out Staying Safe in Thailand: Streetwise Advice + Twitter, a post from Catherine Wentworth.
Here are my images from the time I spent at Silom last night. I arrived not long after what authorities say was an M79 grenade exploded near the Dusit Thani hotel, in an area where pro-government demonstrators had been rallying.
This area is across an intersection from the red shirt barricade that I wrote about previously. (Compare this image from April 21 with this one from last night.)
The blast that happened here was one of a series of explosions that killed at least one person and injured at least 75. (Various sources are providing different numbers at this point.)
You can find more details by searching Google News or by checking out this story in the Bangkok Post.
I was concentrating on TV and radio work, so I didn’t have much time to snap many images. But these photos should give you a sense of what the scene looked like in the hours after the blast occurred.
For commentary on the evening, I suggest checking out this blog post from Andrew Marshall, who was there last night.
UPDATE: As Andrew points out, you can find some images from last night in this New York Times slide show.
