Yesterday started off with red-shirt protesters mulling a return to the Thaicom uplink station in Pathum Thani after the red shirt TV station was taken off the air again on Friday night. Then skirmishes began in Bangkok near the First Army Region headquarters, and soon after that tension escalated as troops formed lines to try to edge red shirts from the streets. Water cannon and tear gas were used, baton charge initiated and finally rubber bullets were fired.
18 people died including 4 soldiers and one Japanese journalist.
This is from the Nation newspaper this morning - The saddest thing is everyone had predicted this and there were so many opportunities to prevent it. In the end, either the curse was too strong or the dark wills of some of those involved to see it happen simply overwhelmed efforts to stop it from happening. A nation that once thought it had matured learned the hardest way that it hadn't.
The red shirts protests have revealed a deep well of resentment, a perception that the political deck is stacked in favour of an establishment elite who believe they have a right to rule. The red-shirts are demanding the right to elect their own government through the ballot box. The government has consistently said that it respects the red-shirts' right to demonstrate but thinks the protesters' grievances would be better expressed through the system rather than on the streets.
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