Thailand's Red Shirts Will Not Cause a "Bloodbath"

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Threatened by tens of thousands of "red shirts," who are crippling Bangkok's streets while demanding elections, the government promised to prevent a "bloodbath" or any repeat of the November blockade of Bangkok's airports which stranded 300,000 travelers.

"I don't think that if the government complies with their demands our country will return to peace," Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Thursday (April 9), rejecting the red shirts' demand that he resign.

To avoid violence, Mr. Abhisit promised not to shoot first, so the protesters stormed barricades, encircled official buildings, gridlocked traffic, and created mob scenes which frightened businesses, residents, tourists and others.

Mr. Abhisit hosts, on April 10-12, an East Asia Summit of leaders from Southeast Asia, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, in the nearby beach resort town of Pattaya.

The red shirts said on Thursday (April 9) they would protest in Pattaya during the summit, to pressure Mr. Abhisit.

The anti-government demonstrators, all wearing red clothes, also broke one of Thailand's major taboos by demanding the resignation of three of the king's top advisors for allegedly supporting a bloodless September 2006 coup against then-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej's three advisers, including Privy Council Chairman Prem Tinsulanonda, and councilors Chanchai Likhitjittha and Surayud Chulanont, spent much of the past week issuing denials.

But hovering over this divided, pro-American, capitalist Southeast Asian nation, is the disembodied voice and face of self-exiled Mr. Thaksin.

The former telecommunications tycoon is using satellite technology to outwit Bangkok's rigidly bureaucratic and hierarchical elite.

Mr. Thaksin, reportedly based mostly in Dubai, appears almost nightly on huge screens erected at the red shirts' protest sites.

Speaking at length, he is sometimes tearful, defiant, groveling, or bold while demanding elections and an end to several court cases against him, his family and colleagues, for alleged corruption.

"We are gathering here because we are thirsty for real democracy," Mr. Thaksin said during Wednesday's (April 8) video link.

When Mr. Thaksin was prime minister for five years, starting in 2001, he proved a staunch ally of Washington's war on terror during the arrest, interrogation, and extraordinary rendition of three alleged Islamic terrorists in 2003.

Mohammed Arik Bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, two Malaysians, were arrested in Bangkok on June 8 and August 11, 2003, while Encep Nuraman, an Indonesian also known as Hambali, was seized in Ayutthaya city also on August 11, 2003, according to a Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) report.

The "strictly confidential" ICRC report about "High Value Detainees in CIA Custody," appeared on Internet on Thursday (April 9).

It was purportedly sent in February 2007 by its Washington-based Regional Delegation Head, Geoff Loane, to the CIA's then-acting general counsel John Rizzo.

The 40-page ICRC report was linked to a story headlined, "U.S. Torture: Voice from the Black Sites," by Mark Danner in the New York Review of Books, and listed damaging allegations made by 14 detainees in various countries, including harsh treatment the three men said they suffered in Thailand when Mr. Thaksin was in power.

Today, Mr. Thaksin is on the run as a convicted fugitive, dodging a two-year jail sentence for corruption, and desperate to get back two billion U.S. dollars in assets which the government froze.

"Thaksin's U.S. visa had not been revoked as widely rumored," America's Ambassador to Thailand, Eric John, told reporters in February.

Thailand, however, has begun investigating ways to have Mr. Thaksin extradited to serve his sentence and stand trial for other cases.

After Mr. Thaksin was overthrown, his political allies eventually rose to power through elections.

But they lost out after street protests, legal snafus, and military pressure, destroyed their administrations.

Their problems worsened in November, when anti-Thaksin demonstrators wearing yellow shirts seized Bangkok's two airports for eight days, grounding more than 300,000 passengers here and abroad.

That doomed the government of Mr. Thaksin's brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat, who had become prime minister in September 2008.

The royalist, pro-military, yellow shirts' protests receded after several pro-Thaksin politicians swapped sides in Parliament, enabling the opposition Democrat Party's Mr. Abhisit to become prime minister in December, atop a vulnerable coalition.

Mr. Abhisit now appears concerned that he would not win a mandate among Thais in an election.

Mr. Thaksin and his allies remained confident their candidates could win, based on three earlier elections in which Mr. Thaksin led them to victory.

To remove Mr. Abhisit, the red shirts are now copying the street tactics successfully used by the yellow shirts.

The red shirts however said they would remain "non-violent" and not blockade the airports.

"State officials will not use force against the people, but at the same time they will make sure the situation does not get out of hand and affect the people's lives to the point of a civil war, a revolution, or a bloodbath," Mr. Abhisit said on Monday (April 6).

Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist who has reported news from Asia since 1978. He is co-author of "Hello My Big Big Honey!", a non-fiction book of investigative journalism, and his web page is http://www.geocities.com/asia_correspondent.

© Scoop Media