COMMANDER RED

Profile: Thailand's 'Commander Red'

Khattiya Sawasdipol was offering security advice to red-shirts this week Khattiya Sawasdipol, the renegade Thai general better known as Seh Daeng (Commander Red), sees himself as "security adviser" to the country's red-shirt opposition movement. He could be found training activists on the streets of central Bangkok just days before he was shot and seriously wounded on 13 May. A loyal supporter of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, he is allied to the more radical wing of the broad protest movement but has frequently been disowned by the more political leaders, the BBC's Rachel Harvey reports from the Thai capital. Comparing himself this week to the Mel Gibson warrior character in the epic Hollywood film Braveheart, he nonetheless denied being involved in anti-government violence, saying he was concentrating on checking the protesters' street barricades. Photographs showed him in camouflage gear using a bamboo stick to teach red-shirt guards the correct distance to maintain between each other while on patrol, and to hit one guard's home-made shield in order to test its durability. Guards could be seen kneeling before the general, who enjoys cult status among some opposition supporters. Aged 58, he has been suspended from duty in the Thai army, where he has the rank of major-general, since January. An army source told the Bangkok Post on 8 May that he had subsequently been found guilty by a defence ministry panel of "repeatedly defying orders from his superiors to not get involved in political movements, particularly with the red-shirts". 'A warrior like me' Speaking before troops moved against the protesters' sprawling camp in a Bangkok shopping district, Seh Daeng told AFP news agency he was "always controlling the security".  Do you know the Braveheart movie? Mel Gibson is the same as me  Seh Daeng "We want to check to make sure there are no weapons around and no-one comes to attack us," he said. "It's important that I'm here. Everyone is here because Seh Daeng is here." He rejected accusations of involvement in the numerous mysterious grenade attacks plaguing the Thai capital since the mass protests began in March. "People kept screaming my name but I had nothing to do with it," he told Reuters in another interview. "I have no guns but there may be others who want to help. Not just help the protesters, they want to help the country, but I don't know who they are." He told AFP that his fall-out with commanders went back to 2008 when he publicly criticised the head of the army and was reassigned to lead aerobics classes at a local market. "Everybody laughed at me," he said. "You don't assign a warrior like me to do a stupid thing like that. Do you know the Braveheart movie? Mel Gibson is the same as me." If Seh Daeng has antagonised the Thai military leadership, he has also been at odds with leaders of the opposition movement itself. Days before he was shot, he accused the movement's current leaders of "colluding with the government".

REVOLUTION THAILAND

The Redshirt leadership are about to set a date for withdrawal at Ratchaprasong and from their rallies elsewhere in Bangkok but a final decision is expected sometime very soon and authorized to be made public.



On Saturday morning, two policemen were killed with many others wounded in more M-79 grenade attacks and shootings in the business district of Bangkok. Blame is being apportioned to the militant wing of the Redshirts, who want total victory, now. Not all sections of the redshirts are happy with the compromise, particularly after losing so many comrades, to the Governments attack on April the 10th, in which which 26 people are believed to have lost their lives, including many Government soldiers. This is one of the primary factors that has delayed a date to end the rallies, so far.






A general election will be held on Nov 14. with a House dissolution in September. That is the compromise on the table in Thailand's political crisis, most parties favour it but there is a considerable section of the Redshirts reluctant to accept. The Royalists want martial law and the Redshirts suppressed ruthlessly, immediately.



One spokesperson has said there may be a hidden agenda within the compromise proposal and further attempts at dispersing the protesters, along with further intimidation by the corporate media mafia. The Royalist PAD are also suspected of being possibly behind the recent attack on the police to provoke a crackdown on the Redhirts. Like the conflict in occupied Ireland the politics are both complex and ugly with many provocateurs, sub-plots and departmental agendas. There are several players in the equation besides the Redshirts and the royalists.



Elite corporate interests, army, police factions, securocrats and feudal warlords are just some.Sondhi Limthongkul the leader of the royalist yellow-shirt PAD and New Politics Party is extremely unhappy with the compromise reached. The reason they are against an early house dissolution and an election in November, is that there is no way they can win, its too soon. If the Prime Minister finished his term, which ends in January 2012, the two years would give the yellows time to organize properly. They might then have a possible chance but six months is too soon.



If the Democrats win, it is a four year wait for the corporate/royalist party. The Prime minister and the new party, share primarily the same middle class base, so if the Prime minister triumphs in November, they will have effectively pushed the new royalist/corporate party into obscurity. If on the other hand the Redshirts win, the new party will be obliterated to oblivion. The corporate mafia media's role is critical in all of this.



The new party demands the prime minister resign for his failure to annihilate the Redshirts. Maj Gen Chamlong has recommended military commanders declare martial law, without seeking permission from the government. Fighting talk and highly reactionary words, hence a suspicion for possible responsibility for the attacks on the police Saturday morning. However to directly connect the attack without proof would be irresponsible. However even if the Government and Redshirts are able to compromise and the Redshirts vacate Bangkok along with parliamentary dissolution and the election, it does not automatically mean there will be peace. What it could mean, is that there will be reactionary elements and new havoc created, similar to formerly Franco Spain.



At the end of the day, this is all about strategy, in a deadly power game. There may be a compromise called but a the peace road map, cuts through a jungle of lions, tigers, bears and hunters in black. For now it is colour coded Reds, Yellows, Multi-colours along with the greens of the army with a new chief in September.Then there is Newin Chidchob's blues who have been quiet and yet to make their play. This mix is what Hillary Clinton referred to as "Thai spicy politics" on her most visit last year.



Thailand abolished slavery less that a century ago, fifty years after the British realized it was more expensive to support a slave rather than an employee and abolished it 50 years previously. Society in Thailand today is still feudal in many respects, hence the importance of Buddhism and the Monarchy for its traditional form of stability. Further discussion of this matter is not permitted under penalty of lengthy prison sentence and of course with rampant censorship along with the British corporate media mafia in occupied Ireland and the UK, it is not possible to report the matter objectively presently there either.








The attack on Saturday involved assassins on a motorcycle opening fire on a group of policemen guarding a bank. They hit three policemen and two civilians. One of the police died later at a hospital. In the other attack killing another policeman, spokesperson Pol Lt Gen Pongsatat Pongcharoen said police believe the grenades were again M79. He said the two attacks were by the same group.



Handling buttless homemade copies of M79 grenade launchers on motorbikes, with only one hand, demonstrating quite a degree of versatility and cool 3 warheads being launched from motorbikes, is reminiscent once again, of the latter stages of the present troubles, on the border in occupied Ireland. There have also been plenty of heavy weapons seized from army depots in the troubled south of Thailand, with cross border smuggling and captures made in confrontation with fighters trained by Al Qaeda.

"Things may get more tense in the coming days," a source has confided.

Military in Thailand Finally admit Shooting.

Military in Thailand Finally admit Shooting.

The Thai miltary has admitted yesterday, that some of its soldiers fired live rounds at red shirt demonstrators but they are now saying, that it was only to provide cover, for injured soldiers who were retreating, a spokesperson for the Government's Centre for Public Administration in Emergency Situations is claiming.

Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd tried to maintain yestersday that they had no choice, after the Army attacked the protesters but to open fire at gunmen hiding among demonstrators, to protect their comrades from more atrocities. He claimed to have soldiers ready to testify to a committee purportedly investigating the atrocity, similar to the Widgery tribunal after Bloody Sunday in occupied Ireland. Widgery's report was later discredited internationally as a whitewash by the British Government and another inquiry which cost almost 300 million dollars set up under a failing peace process, still cannot be published 38 years later because of "security concerns".

The Thai Government, headed by a British born Eton educated, unelected Prime Minister, yesterday released the statement, as public anger grows over the use of violence by government forces during the April 10 atrocity on Black Saturday in Bangkok, Thailand. Video footage, including news coverage by foreign media outlets, show pictures of soldiers firing automatic gunfire, directly into the protesters.

Col Sansern maintained at a news conference yesterday soldiers fired only live rounds for two reasons. They fired into the air to intimidate demonstrators he said and to protect injured soldiers from the advancing crowd. He tried to maintain they fired only one bullet at a time and that they did not switch to automatic gunfire so as to avoid causing more casualties, he maintained.

The Government's spin doctors, showed reporters five video clips of Saturday's atrocity. Just one of the clips showed soldiers firing at demonstrators. In another clip, a red shirt demonstrator was shot in the head from behind, which according to the Government meant the man was not shot by a soldier.

Other clips show protesters saying they saw a civilian wearing a blue shirt firing an explosive from a rooftop, another protester asks, "Has Seh Daeng come to help us?" with footage of protesters attacking a vehicle apparently carrying the injured soldiers to hospital.

Col Sansern said judging from the five video clips he believed protest leaders were aware there was an armed group among the demonstrators. Khattiya, a rebel army specialist who supports the Reds said, "Ronin warriors" fired weapons at soldiers only after the military attacked and fired M16 rifles at demonstrators first.
He said he believed those firing M16 rifles were army snipers. They fired from the rooftops of buildings in the area. "Ronin warriors", were set up by the Red movement, after the 2006 coup, when they were trained by Seh Daeng.

Bangkok Emergency Medical Service's confirmed yesterday that there were two more deaths from the Black Saturday Atrocity increasing the number of deaths to 23. The latest victims are Pvt Anupol Hommalee, 29, and Napaton Paopanas. Pvt Anupol died of shrapnel wounds to his head, while Napaton died from a gunshot wound to his stomach. They also reported 195 injured civilians and soldiers who are still in hospital, 14 of whom are in a serious condition.

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