I've been closely following events in Thailand this past week, but found them too upsetting to comment upon in this blog. This video just released says it all - for any who are interested. Red Shirt protesters, from the poorest areas of the country in the North and Northeast, fueled and financed by former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a military coup in 2006, occupied a prime area of downtown Bangkok for the past two months. Their demands were for the immediate resignation of the current prime minister, Abashit Vejjajiva, to be followed by elections. When the government offered a compromise with elections scheduled for next November, the Red Shirts seemingly agreed, then broke the deal with further demands. The government then sent in the army to disperse the nearly 5,000 protesters who had exercised a stranglehold on a key area of the city. The dispersal was followed by a night of rampaging, riots and arson which set the capital city ablaze. The situation is too complicated for easy analysis. For any who are interested, Thailand has two superb English language daily newspapers, which offer excellent commentary from a variety of perspectives.
The Bangkok PostThe Nation
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