THAI ANTI-CENSORSHIP FILM DIRECTOR WINS CANNES INTERNATIONAL

Cead Mile Failte, A Hundred Thousand Welcomes

LINK TO THAI ANTI-CENSORSHIP FILM DIRECTOR WINS CANNES INTERNATIONAL

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.

FRIENDLY SHOOT TO KILL THAILAND ORDERED BY RIFLE OF ETON

The Thai army yesterday shot one of its own on the streets of Bangkok. They have been ordered by the British born, Eton educated, unelected Prime Minister Abhisit, to shoot to kill unarmed civilians protesting in Thailand. The following is a link to a discussion in the pro-government media in Thailand, about what is happening in the background currently, between Eton Abhisit and the Army Chief of Staff General Anupong. All of the independent media sites numbering several thousand have been shut down with many sent to prison with long jail sentences. So remember its a pro-government and try to read between the lines.

To carry out such a policy of heartless murder on civilians, Eton teaches a culture of supremacy, of seeing poor and native people as sub-human and then demonizing them with their media mafia, before the many slaughters and massacres ordered by the Eton Rifles. It is heartless and merciless.


LINK FROM THE BARRACKS


Remember Sharpeville
bullet-in-the-back day
Because it epitomized oppression
and the nature of society
more clearly than anything else;
it was the classic event
Nowhere is racial dominance
more clearly defined
nowhere the will to oppress
more clearly demonstrated
what the world whispers
apartheid with snarling guns
the blood lust after
South Africa spills in the dust
Remember Sharpeville
Remember bullet-in-the-back day
And remember the unquenchable will for freedom
Remember the dead
and be glad.
- Dennis Brutus

From Ireland their first colony to India to Pakistan, to the Middle-East, to the war ravaged continent of Africa, the Eton legacy continues with centuries of a policy to foster division  and then conquer the people of no property, the peasants. Whether to antagonize racial or religious division for conquest, the Rifles of Eton educated on this supremacist basis, the British imperialists still cause mayhem on a daily basis while their educated and their heirs the Americans, carry on the tradition of the Butchers Apron, under a flag of the same colour and design. Now we have another Eton educated and British Abhisit, directing another Bloody Sunday and the creation of another civil war  in Thailand.

Link to AllVoices Report

ONE DAY & ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK - Thailand

LINK TO THAI VOICES of THE STREET

Comfort the Disturbed, Disturb the Comforted  


DOG is something spelt backwards, like LIVE for example. DOG can organize, he ran a highly profitable team of international fraudsters in South-East Asia, until he was chased into hiding by hit-men. With hardly any human contact and only a white crow for company, Dog survived only on paranoia and old memories.Now he's back, he's still alive and desperate for life, real life. He's had time to re-evaluate his own life and realizes that he doesn't relate to most people's normality but is addicted to the lure of the buzz, the money, the power but the bullshit is too much: He wants to get his old team together again for one last throw of the dice. He's back on the case, putting together another massive scam. We're there to witness it on camera, in details so accurate, it's almost a beginners guide to fraud! Will this latest night in Bangkok provide him with enough illusions he needs to believe it himself?






"If the government accepts and is open to the talks, we are ready to disperse to restore peace in the country. But the government has to stop threatening people and show responsibility for what has happened," he says a Redshirt leader.

The offer to the government iincludes an implicit demand that the Redshirts are not attacked during peace negotiations, and a full independent inquiry is held into the violence that left 26 dead. "If the government accepts and is open to the talks, we are ready to disperse to restore peace in the country. But the government has to stop threatening people and show responsibility for what has happened," he said.

Redshirt leaders offered to call off  a street rebellion that has crippled Thailand's capital Bangkok for six weeks offering a peaceful solution to the country's crisis instead of revolution. One of the leaders of the Redshirts, Veera Musikapong offered the olive branch if the government agrees to dissolve parliament in 30 days, with elections to be held within three months.

Previously, the prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva offered to hold elections by the end of the year but the offer was rejected. Now a government spokesperson, Panitan Wattanayagorn said the prime minister had received the offer, saying; "The prime minister attended a meeting on the matter and the government has always been open to talks."

Before the offer to resume talks, Thailand appeared to be heading for civil war. The Redshirts, behind their street barricades built of bamboo and tyres, said they would not leave until the government stepped down.The Reshirts are principally people of no property who say the Abhisit government is just a puppet of the Bangkok elite and the Thai military.

The army appears to be reluctant to move against the Redshirts again, after an earlier failed attempt to clear them from the streets with tanks and guns in the bloodshed of April10. The army chief, Anupong Paochinda says an election is the only solution to Thailand's political crisis. Many soldiers in the lower ranks secretly support the Redshirt's cause being from the people of no property themselves. Royalists and the middle-class elite call them "watermelon soldiers", with green uniforms on the outside and red empathy within. The principal vitriol comes from the nouveau riche, insecure about clinging onto their new wealth and limited privileges.

There are more than 10,000 thousand troops currently on the street with machine guns, and riot police still in battle mode. Royalist and the right wearing yellow shirts have held counter-protests against the Redshirts with bottles and rocks just been fired so far. Now as the wheeling and dealing of politicos begins its a question of replacing bullets with ballots, holding the power of the street and challenging institutional power with gains for the masses as opposed to gains for just a few.

Link to One Night in Bangkok

IrishBlog: ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK - Thailand

ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK - Thailand

IrishBlog: THAILAND ARMY CHIEF TAKES OVER IN CENSORED SILENT COUP

IrishBlog: THAILAND ARMY CHIEF TAKES OVER IN CENSORED SILENT COUP

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.

Links to Further Coverage and Analysis http://www.allvoices.com/users/BFClarkeNUJ

SATURDAY BLOODY SATURDAY

LINK TO REPORT

THAILAND TO IRELAND THE ETON RIFLES

LINK TO REPORT



The "terrorists" the prime minister said instigated the bloodshed on Saturday night are malcontent soldiers intent on bringing down the government, UDD leader Natthawut Saikua said on Tuesday.

He said the government should find and arrest them.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Monday the government had evidence that "armed terrorists" aiming to bring down his government were among the red-shirt protesters on Saturday.
He said they instigated the bloodshed that resulted in 21 deaths and more than 800 people injured.
Deputy Prime MInister Suthep Thaugsuban also accused unidentified armed men of causing the chaos.
"The terrorists the government claimed [were there] are soldiers who do not accept the current administration, causing conflict within the army," Mr Natthawut said.
"They used the opportunity on Saturday to create unrest."
He did not identify them, or offer to help with their arrest.

Seelink Report

BANGKOK TO BELFAST ATROCITIES MANAGED BY THE RIFLES OF ETON

LINK BANGKOK TO BELFAST ATROCITIES MANAGED BY THE RIFLES OF ETON

Thailand Class War a New Phase

Link to Thailand Report

People of No Property and Elite Middle Class in Siam

Since 1946, when King Bhumibol Adulyadej came to the throne in Thailand at 18-years of age, the country has had nine military coups and more than 20 prime ministers. Only two constitutions of seventeen since the abolition of absolute monarchy ended and the introduction of a British style monarchy in 1932, have allowed parliaments that are entirely elected. The king, who is revered by many across the nation and  protected from discussion by lese-majesty laws, has been in hospital since Sept. 19 without speaking publicly about  the demonstrations.

The current Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva who was born in England, in the city of Newcastle, attended Eton College and Oxford University. Abhisit earler went to Satit Chula, an elementary school linked to Chulalongkorn University, Thailand’s oldest institution of higher learning. He moved back to England to attend Eton, founded by King Henry VI in 1440, and then Oxford. One of his friends is classmate, London Mayor Boris Johnson. He entered politics in 1992, a year after the military appointed his father to serve in the Cabinet following a coup.

Ordinary people say his elite British upbringing, makes him ill-suited to bridge glaring class differences, that forced him to declare a state of emergency for a second time yesterday and permit another silent coup by the army. Abhisit yesterday gave the military powers to scatter thousands of impoverished protesters, who after a month of rallies stormed Parliament, forcing politicians to flee by helicopter. Stocks fell the most in Thailand for almost six months today, with the SET Index down 3.5 percent at the close of trade in Bangkok.

Many of the red-shirted demonstrators are loyal to exiled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire who won over the poor with extremely cheap healthcare and low interest loans. The mostly poor demonstrators, people of no property, angered by  huge income differences, say Abhisit is the stooge of a privileged class of military officers, judges, bureaucrats and royal advisers that are above the law in Thailand.

“Abhisit’s Oxford British education is a liability,” says Suranand Vejjajiva, Abhisit’s cousin and a former spokesperson for Thaksin’s party. “He thinks that by implementing programs for the poor he can win them over, but he’s missing the point. They see him as the representative of the elite, and they’re angry about injustice.” Closing the people's TV station and websites underpin the double standards after anti-Thaksin rivals were allowed to seize Bangkok’s airports in 2008, said protest leader Weng Tojirakarn.

“We’re not afraid because what we’re doing is right,” he said, after Abhisit issued the emergency decree last night. “Even if they suppress us violently, they cannot stop what we believe.”

Sitting around a campfire in Chiang Rai province, Noonai Binsamun said Abhisit’s party draws up policies from the comfort of Bangkok’s air-conditioned rooms, rather than mingling up country with the poor to hear their grievances.

“We don’t need a higher education to tell right from wrong,” said Noonai, a 53-year-old rice farmer. “Abhisit can speak very well and has some good ideas, but he can’t change the double standards in society.”

In 2007, Abhisit’s Democrat party won just 6 of 176 seats in the north, home to 40 percent of Thailand’s 67 million people. Per capita income in those areas is about a third of that in Bangkok, where he won 75 percent of seats.The richest fifth of the population earn about 55 percent of the income while the poorest fifth get 4 percent. 

Abhisit, who moved from his Bangkok residence to an army barracks last month, with security concerns,  saying protesters have violated the constitution. The emergency decree bans gatherings of more than five people, allows detention without charge and gives all the military immunity from prosecution.

The military government today blocked access to websites of the opposition. The sites had been hosting live video and audio of speeches by leaders of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship.

Abhisit who has never won a national election, was picked by the remaining politicians, after a court dissolved the pro-Thaksin ruling party in December 2008,  for election fraud, coinciding with the seizure of Bangkok’s  international airports by protesters wearing yellow,  who support the middle-class elite, the military and Abhisit.

On the other hand Thaksin and his allies have won the past four elections. The former leader has organized protests from overseas, since fleeing a Thai jail sentence handed down in 2008 after the military coup. 

STATE OF EMERGENCY - SIAM REDS

STATE OF EMERGENCY - SIAM REDS

PEOPLE OF NO PROPERTY READY TO TAKE ON TANKS AGAIN

LINK TO PEOPLE OF NO PROPERTY READY TO TAKE ON TANKS AGAIN