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  1. #1
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    Thai ‘Red Shirts’ start hiding, regrouping

    Thai ‘Red Shirts’ start hiding, regrouping
    May 26, 2014

    BANGKOK: With leaders rounded up and soldiers deployed in their rural heartlands, Thailand’s “Red Shirts” have gone to ground but experts say they will regroup against the military’s toppling of the government they helped elect.

    Meanwhile, Thai former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, anti-government protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban and a number of other people under military detention have been released, local media reported on Monday. Yingluck was allowed to return home on Sunday night from an army camp in Bangkok in an order issued by the National Council for Peace and Order, Bangkok Post quoted an army source as saying.

    The red-clad street protest movement, established in the wake of a 2006 coup to rally support for ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, has warned that the kingdom’s long-running political conflict could descend into civil war.

    The Red Shirts say they have been hit hard by a crackdown since army chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha deposed the Thaksin-allied government last Thursday and seized wide-ranging powers.

    Several activists told Agence France-Presse they have been hemmed in by a big army presence, detentions and closures of influ–ential local radio stations used to spread their pro-Thaksin message.

    “There are no leaders,” said Aporn Sarakham, a former senator and the wife of Kwanchai Pripana, a hardline Red Shirt from northeastern Thailand detained by the army on Friday.

    The movement’s hierarchy—from the firebrand protest leaders to local village heads—are being held or harassed or have gone to ground to avoid detention.

    “The Red Shirts do not know what to do . . . we have to wait and see what the army does and what our leaders in other provinces and districts say,” Amnuay Boontee, a Red Shirt co-ordinator in Buriram province, told Agende France-Presse by telephone.

    Phone lines have also been cut, according to the activists. Calls by Agence France-Presse to several other leading Red Shirts could not be connected.
    “In our hearts we are against the coup but people are scared. All of our leaders are detained,” said a Red Shirt leader requesting anonymity.

    “People are sitting and talking about it, but things are quiet,” he added.

    Red revenge

    Thaksin still draws strong support in northern Thailand for his populist policies such as nearly-free healthcare, micro-loans and generous rice subsidies that satisfied the Red Shirts’ burgeoning political and economic aspirations.

    Parties led or aligned with Thaksin have won every completed election since 2001, most recently in 2011 under his younger sister Yingluck Shinawatra.
    While the Reds may for now be cramped by martial law, observers say they are likely to regroup in coming months. They foresee protests, road blocks and moves to cripple provincial governments.

    Attacks by armed militant cells and a crescendo of calls for a parallel government—a direct challenge to the army’s writ over the country—could also be on the cards.

    “The chance of violence is very strong,” said Kan Yuenyong, executive director of the Siam Intelligence Unit think-tank.

    “I don’t expect we will have a kind of civil war yet, but we will see a kind of insurgency or random violence in different areas,” he added.

    Soldiers deployed

    An analysis by IHS Country Risk said there was a “real risk” of Red Shirt paramilitaries attacking opposition-linked commercial assets in central Bangkok.

    They were also likely to block road access to various districts of the capital.

    “The Red Shirts’ strategy could center around supporting a retreat by leaders of the deposed . . . government to their strongholds to effectively control swathes of the north and northeast, with the mi- litary controlling Bangkok and the south,” according to the analysis.

    Soldiers were deployed over the weekend at anti-coup rallies in Chiang Mai—the northern home town of the Shinawatra family. A local police source said more than 10 people had been arrested there.

    Elsewhere, the army said it had arrested more than 20 people allegedly intent on a “large-scale attack” in Khon Kaen, one of the largest northeastern cities.

    An army spokesman said the suspects were arrested with bombs and hundreds of bullets.

    Over the weekend small, sporadic but vociferous anti-coup rallies took place across Bangkok, although the army chief on Monday threatened to take action against protesters and even their families under martial law.

    Antipathy towards the estab–lishment-backed army runs deep among the Reds.

    Scores of people died in 2010 in a military crackdown on a Red Shirt rally in Bangkok, held to protest the earlier ousting of a Thaksin-linked government by a judicial coup.

    Prayut is widely seen as having played a big role in that crackdown.

    manilatimes.net

  2. #2
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    Very interesting...
    History repeating itself.
    Cycles around.


    Yet, no one seems to be paying much attention to this connection.

  3. #3
    . Neverna's Avatar
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    I wonder if they will produce a browser toolbar for their suporters.

  4. #4
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    Do wonder how this will end.

  5. #5
    Days Work Done! Norton's Avatar
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    Not well I fear.

  6. #6
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    Nor very soon.

  7. #7
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    Anyone prepared to lay their life on the line to enrich a billionaire wants their head testing.

  8. #8
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    Anyone who thinks that's what's at stake needs a clue.

  9. #9
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    The rulers don't care. They feel teflon coated. To me, it's their weakness. Let's see if the reds have figured that out. Because attacking grunt soldiers will backfire. They need to be more strategic. I rather doubt they are able or willing to attack the real weakness (partly because the red rulers steer them away, afraid of an all out mafia war should that happen - you know like against their families), and I also guess the elites have factored in, but time will tell. This is one big mafia of course, and it's so sad that all these brain washed people can't figure that out and understand they need to unite against the rich en masse, regardless of affiliation - only then can they really run their own country for the benefit of a progressive Thai nation. Maybe in 50 or 100 years they'll figure it out. Of course, by then the world will have become very different - and I can only hope for the better, but fear the opposite for ordinary people (don't you?)
    My mind is not for rent to any God or Government, There's no hope for your discontent - the changes are permanent!

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Sawyer View Post
    The rulers don't care. They feel teflon coated. To me, it's their weakness. Let's see if the reds have figured that out. Because attacking grunt soldiers will backfire. They need to be more strategic. I rather doubt they are able or willing to attack the real weakness (partly because the red rulers steer them away, afraid of an all out mafia war should that happen - you know like against their families), and I also guess the elites have factored in, but time will tell. This is one big mafia of course, and it's so sad that all these brain washed people can't figure that out and understand they need to unite against the rich en masse, regardless of affiliation - only then can they really run their own country for the benefit of a progressice Thai nation. Maybe in 50 or 100 years they'll figure it out. Of course, by then the world will have become very different - and I can only hope for the better, but fear the opposite for ordinary people
    Come the revolution, TS....

  11. #11
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    And would the person that owns the car with the registration S53 5GN please move it - you're blocking the emergency vehicles

  12. #12
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    they need to unite against the rich en masse,
    What you singularly fail to understand, in your idealistic infantile left wing 1970 agitprop freedom fighter schoolboy take on politics, is that making the rich poor may satisfy your envy, but will never ever help the poor to get richer.

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    ^

  15. #15
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    There are reports on Main stream international News channels that are not aired in Thailand.
    I cannot discuss them here because of a law in Thailand that forbids discussing the dirty laundry at the top being aired in public.

  16. #16
    Elite Mumbler
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Sawyer
    and it's so sad that all these brain washed people can't figure that out
    What's sad is people like you who can not understand that this is not a fight about democracy. It's about *censored* *censored* *censored*.

    So who do you think would be better? A sociopathic sadist former commie killer, or an elderly tom?

    Deleted in 3....2....

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by pickel View Post
    So who do you think would be better? A sociopathic sadist former commie killer, or an elderly tom?
    The one being endorsed from upstairs, of course.

  18. #18
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    The fight is at the top of the pond, and I sadly will see the lower pond life dying for the top feeders.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by neemo
    The one being endorsed from upstairs, of course.
    That's not the one who gets to choose though.

  20. #20
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    Yep, won't be pretty if squarehead orders them forward.

    Otoh, a workable tactic is strictly peaceful civil disobedience, while the world watches. No military is equipped to deal with such things, and certainly not the Thais.

  21. #21
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    There's a longstanding insurgency in the south. Despite all the efforts made over the past decade to crush the insurgency, it is still going strong. And now the same folks who planned and carried out the counterinsurgency in the south are going to apply their failed strategy to the north. The difference is that the north is friendly to the hunted. It is a fairly homogeneous population. The border is porous with willing merchants in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos who will gladly sell weapons to the hunted. The more the hunt intensifies, the more the locals will be alienated, and the more they will sympathize with their family members who are hunted.

    Yup, brilliant strategy, and one that has repeatedly failed. This time around, the people who gave tacit support to the slaughter of commies won't be supportive. The Thai military commanders who have not seen war, do not understand what war is, and I fear are sowing the seeds of bloodshed. We will all suffer the consequences.
    Kindness is spaying and neutering one's companion animals.

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Sawyer View Post
    only then can they really run their own country ...for the benefit of a progressive Thai nation...
    Thaskin could have ruled for the benefit of a progressive Thai nation, and had a statue in Lumpini Park. Instead he tried to rule for the benefit of himself and/or his clan.

    He is the sole cause of this latest intervention. He was out maneuvered and knows it, but still wants it all.
    Better to think inside the pub, than outside the box?
    I apologize if any offence was caused. unless it was intended.
    You people, you think I know feck nothing; I tell you: I know feck all
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  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by pickel
    What's sad is people like you who can not understand that this is not a fight about democracy. It's about *censored* *censored* *censored*.
    It's about different things to different people. Yes, it's about the big event. Yes, it's about money and power. Yes it's about people's right to vote. Yes, it's about social inequality and a changing society. It's not binary - it's fluid and complex. Having an ideological stance as a starting point is a strength, not a weakness - from that standpoint, one can be pragmatic, fluid, adapt, etc...
    Cycling should be banned!!!

  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by pickel View Post
    So who do you think would be better? A sociopathic sadist former commie killer, or an elderly tom?

    Deleted in 3....2....
    There is a third option that she who pulls the strings is aiming for if various reports are to be believed that obviously can't be discussed here.

  25. #25
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    I know what you are talking about, and would like to respond fully but can't. It's more like 2 and a half options.

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