TN opinion: Thaksin's red shirts upgrade campaign to terrorism

[WorldFun]

Interesting summery of the situation. So what's it gonna be - martial law or total anarchy?

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/04/13/opinion/Thaksins-red-shirts-upgrade-campaign-to-terrorism-30127095.html

" By Sopon Onkgara

The Nation

Published on April 13, 2010

 

IT WAS a bitter night for all Thais on Saturday night. On Rajdamnoen Avenue and in nearby areas troops in anti-riot gear tried to disperse the red shirts who were armed with sticks, stones and bottles. When the clashes started, they became ugly urban warfare bordering on full-blown rebellion. Or was it?

 

As skirmishes continued, horror ensued. Among the crazed red shirts were men armed with weapons such as M16 and AK47 assault rifles, M79 grenade launchers and hand grenades. Their targets were the soldiers.

 

It was a lop-sided battle from the start. The soldiers were instructed by their commanding officers not to use firearms except to defend themselves. They got no chance as live bullets and grenades flew towards them, and they started to fall like ten-pins. Blood flowed in the streets as soldiers tried to drag their comrades to secure positions. There were none.

 

The red-shirt leaders have lived up to their vow. They intend to upgrade their fight into a free-for-all against government forces. Terrorism has become their means to achieve victory. No more attempts to hide the hidden agenda under false claims of peace and "ahimsa".

 

The urban terrorists who attacked with lethal weapons had long been expected to show their menace once confrontation with government troops occurred. They chose the time well, right after dusk, when they covered their heads with hoods and selected their targets with minimal discrimination.

 

It was a miscalculation on the part of the soldiers, who got direct orders from politicians with no battle experience. It was wrong from the beginning when Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, in charge of security affairs, took command of operations instead of delegating the task to a commanding general.

 

This was not the first failure by Suthep. His errors in judgement are numerous and his overconfidence knows no bounds. Worse, he refused to learn the costly lesson of the red-shirt riot last April when Bangkok was turned into a battle zone.

 

After peace was restored, instead of taking tough legal action against the ringleaders and preventive measures such as an active media campaign to educate the gullible victims of propaganda (and money distributed by the cronies of Thaksin Shinawatra) the government did virtually nothing until the revival of the red shirts.

 

Ironically, the ringleaders in their current acts of high treason are the same ones who incited the previous riot following many days of tirades in front of Government House. They have become bolder, more prepared, as we witnessed on Saturday.

 

The red shirts have become a real force of terror in the city this year. They roam the streets on motorcycles, in pickup trucks and other vehicles including taxis and tuk-tuks. They are menacing, spoiling for blood, and will react with senseless brutality if provoked. As of Sunday, there were 20 dead, including four soldiers, while the number of injured was in the hundreds. Among those killed was a military colonel.

 

The red shirts remind many people of thugs in Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Somalia. They are a brute force. TV viewers saw groups of red shirts running after a pickup truck carrying wounded soldiers. When they caught up, they beat the victims without mercy, then went on to search hospital wards for more victims to exact senseless revenge. Such inhumane and cruel acts were once so un-Thai. Not anymore. They are bloodthirsty political thugs, paid well to serve masters who are crooks seeking political power.

 

During the entire crisis, the chiefs of the armed forces and the defence minister appeared on TV only once, with Prime Minister Abhisit. None of them made public comments about their plans. It was total indifference, if not ignorance, towards a crisis which is threatening to lead the country into anarchy. None offered to take responsibility for the failure and fatalities.

 

The fate of the country hangs in the balance, with more rallies and attacks on government premises likely. This is full-blown treason with terrorism. The damage so far has yet to be calculated, but is certainly in the billions of baht.

 

Prime Minister Abhisit has a few choices left. If he wants to survive this snowballing terror, he must delegate authority to the military to take action and deal with the red shirts by whatever means to restore law and order, with martial law as the last resort. Already the red-shirt leaders are wanted under arrest warrants issued by the court.

 

Like it or not, Abhisit should know that time is running out for him in this critical challenge. The national institutions, especially the monarchy, face real peril. Thaksin, bed-ridden with serious illness, shed crocodile tears in Dubai over the dead in the street battles, but failed to hide his euphoric mood.

 

It is the ultimate duty of all Thais to keep this fugitive criminal living with more delusions of grandeur in the desert."