Bad Day For Bangkok
Today was terrible. Dozens of people were injured after riot police used teargas to break up a blockade of parliament. A couple of protesters were injured including one guy who had his left leg completely blown off at the knee from the blast of a teargas grenade. Nevertheless, the government has come out and defended the use of teargas while denying any other lethal weapon had been used. They said it’s conventional practice in dispersing a crowd and that no disproportionate force was used.
Not long after the rally dispersed, thousands of protesters regrouped to shout down the very first policy speech by the new prime minister Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin’s brother-in-law. They blocked all entrances to the parliament building, effectively locking ministers and MPs inside and cutting off their electricity and water supply with surprisingly the help of some sympathetic utility workers.
Apparently the PM and a few other MPs had to crawl through a fence to escape from the besieged parliament. And later on, a bomb exploded in a jeep killing a woman believed to be a PAD protester. She was sat in the jeep at the time of the explosion.
I’m appalled, absolutely appalled. I’m also speechless, horrendously speechless. I said before this wasn’t going to end happily but really didn’t expect to see anyone dead or so many seriously injured. Whatever the government is trying to say, there is absolutely no excuse for using such disproportionate force against unarmed protesters.
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October 7th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
There’s this clip of a policeman firing a tear gas canister into the crowd on the Nation’s website. Now I recall that from watching one of the shows on the Discovery channel that these tear gas guns/launchers are meant to be fired onto the ground around the proximity of a crowd, NOT aimed directly into the crowd like how you would a conventional gun or rifle as shown in this clip
This simply shows the lack of police training and incompetence in handling crowd control situations. These morons aren’t even properly trained to properly operate a simple crowd dispersal equipment such as the tear gas grenade launcher. Even a guy like me who’s just watched a few shows on the Discovery channel knows how to at least properly fire a tear gas grenade launcher.
Instead of using tear gas, why didn’t the police/government use water cannons which are just as effective and would’ve less likely escalated the situation.
October 8th, 2008 at 12:39 am
I couldn’t agree much more with you, Pat. Whenever I hear the term ‘Thai police’ it just makes me cringe. They simply haven’t got a clue, not a bloody clue. They’re not only corrupt to the point of nausea, but totally, totally incompetent and useless.
October 8th, 2008 at 12:41 am
* update *
Forensic official identified the victim in a bomb attack in front of Chart Thai Party as a man aged between 40-50 years old.
October 8th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Oh dear! I thought the situation in Bangkok has cleared up already till I saw you post..
I hope everything will settle down soon… ={
October 9th, 2008 at 12:08 am
This is the way Thai police and politicians always treat people who do not agree with them. That’s why the protesters want to change to the new political system. Although I do not agree with the protesters all the issues, I agree with them at this point that too much corruption in Thai society due to Thaksinomics (new term of corruption which the ousted PM brought to THAILAND a couple of years ago) and we need to do something to make those politicians and police realize that they have to change their behaviors. As you can see it is easy to become the PM in Thailand if you were Thaksin’s relative. The representatives and parliament didn’t do their job at all. Police always serve the politicians and never stand beside people at all.