Seh Daeng is dead. The UDD’s Rajprasong rally site has been cleared by troops. Smoke from arson attacks has mercifully, abated, ending days of having to breathe foul-smelling fumes, even several kilometres from the scenes of horrific violence and destruction.
But it appears all of Bangkok is not yet totally secure. Heavily-armed troops and barricades of razor wire, tires and sandbag bunkers remain in place at key points around the main rally area. Reports continued to filter out this morning of gunshots fired overnight and of small groups of protesters, some with weapons, still being found by security forces scouring the areas that have seen so much mayhem over recent weeks.
Burned ATMs sit at the site of a gutted building near Victory Monument.
Yesterday, I ventured down to the Victory Monument – Din Daeng area to check for myself whether authorities had fully wrested control of lawless streets from the groups of protesters with whom they had skirmished, often to deadly effect, on and off for days. News reporting overall during several weeks of dangerous political upheaval has, in the main, been almost as appalling as the descent into anarchy. Key news has often emerged late or with a lack of concrete details. With a few notable exceptions, foreign coverage of developments would be laughable were it not for the fact that the lives and futures of people and a nation are at stake.
Something like a hundred people have been confirmed killed in violence related to this year’s upheaval (Update: according to this report in The Nation, the death toll since the UDD rally began on 12 March is officially 85 and 1,898 have been injured.). More than a thousand have been injured. Many others have lost businesses, homes, jobs and belongings. Bangkok needs to get on with the job of rebuilding families, lives and livelihoods. Both the BTS Skytrain and MRT underground services remain closed. Key roads are still closed by security forces. Embassies, schools, banks and shops in many areas are unlikely to open until next week. A night-time curfew (9pm-5am as of this post) will continue until Sunday morning.
So, given the paucity of reliable information about what was happening on the streets right NOW, I needed to check the practicality of trying to travel from my home to key commercial areas.
Locals sit at a disused bus stop the day after it was damaged in rioting at Victory Monument.
I found many people who said they were ‘democracy supporters’ gathered around Victory Monument. Lines of parked taxis blocked many lanes of this big roundabout. I spoke to one group of Thais standing on a traffic island in the middle of the road. Tight smiles and furrowed brows, they watched from afar ongoing efforts by fire fighters to damp down the flames at two retail developments on Rajavithi Road. They told me they were UDD supporters. These were most definitely not Isaan famers. One woman who looked in her twenties spoke very good English and told me they were not happy with developments. We discussed politics no further. Everybody was very pleasant and there was the usual epic delight one typically gets from Thais everywhere who meet a farang who speaks even passable Thai. Just before I left, a girl aged about five years, proudly handed me a little bouquet of bright yellow, purple and pink flowers she had just picked from the manicured green area on the traffic island.
Locals gather to watch firefighters damp down two retail developments gutted in arson attacks during rioting at Victory Monument.
I crossed the road through mired traffic to the end of Rajavithi Road. On the corner I found another clump of UDD supporters and about two dozen police scattered about. They were silently watching the smouldering ruins of the Center One shopping mall. Once packed with young shoppers, it now stands gutted by arson. Along both sides of Rajavithi Road, people stood around or sat on steps, quietly taking in the spectacle. People everywhere took pictures of the destruction using everything from mobile phones to expensive digital SLRs. I saw not a single easily identifiable journalist. In the past few days’ mayhem, many journalists had discarded their green armbands amidst fears of targeting by snipers and angry mobs but still, I spotted nobody who looked even remotely like a professional journalist here. Down the road, I did meet one Thai news cameraman and saw a lone foreign photographer.
Scene of massive arson attacks during rioting on Rajavithi Road.
Many of the people taking photographs were employees of companies whose premises had been gutted in the fires.
Center One, once a popular shopping center with hundreds of shops, stands gutted by arson.
I made my way east on Rajavithi Road, towards the ‘Din Daeng triangle’. The area is centered on the Sam Liam Din Daeng intersection at the northern end of Rajprarop Road, some two kilometres due north from the Pratunam entrance to the now-disbanded Rajprasong rally site. Here, I found a scene of utter carnage just outside an army barrier preventing access to a ‘live fire zone’. Shocking destruction could be seen everywhere.
Buildings gutted by arson, remnants of burned tyres, and other detritus of a war zone at the Sam Liam Din Daeng intersection.
Scene of carnage at the northern end of Rajprarop Road, some 100 meters from heavily-barricaded Thai army troops. This area was the scene of some of the most fierce and deadly protest activity and clashes with security forces over several days of rioting.
An army truck that was gutted by arson amid scenes of deadly mayhem on 15 May near the northern end of Rajprarop Road. At least three Thai soldiers were dragged from the truck and beaten, one was shot.
I found many redshirts (covertly so, they displayed none of their once-trademark red regalia) hunting for evidence of the sniper they told me had fired on them in previous days from a half-built condominium tower. They were scouring the area opposite the tower for bullet holes and gathering recovered slugs. One man showed me a palm full of metal missiles – 5.56mm copper-jacketed slugs, steel nuts (presumably fired from slingshots), and steel cylinders that appear to be the cores of less-lethal riot-control rounds after their rubber coating has been cooked off in the fires. Others quickly gathered around, eagerly picked up the slugs and discussed them.
A Thai man displays some of the missiles collected around the scene of intense violence at the Sam Liam Din Daeng intersection.
I was trying to take a good photograph of these eager hands reaching in when a terse (but polite, “na krub”) announcement was barked out on megaphone from behind the army barricade 100 metres away. I didn’t understand the words but the tone seemed to be “get the %&%*$ out of there or else!”
A man next to me pulled back his shoulders, raised his chin and, squaring off all of his mighty 165cms to the army barricade, barked back through clenched teeth an angry “Arai?!?!” (WHAT???!!!, huh?!!) as the other men quickly dispersed around corners and out of sight. One of them gently tapped me on the shoulder and and warned me I should leave, that it was not safe. His friendly admonition was redundant, however. I am not ashamed to admit that as he finished his words to me, I was already running around the corner back into Rajavithi Road, anxiously hugging the side of the street in a bid to eliminate the line of sight on me from the army perimeter.
Molotov cocktails stand unused next to iced drinks in front of a traffic police box gutted by arson at the Sam Liam Din Daeng intersection.
I don’t publicly delve into the politics. Unlike a rather worrying number of journalists, I certainly don’t take sides here, and I don’t condone violent behaviour by anybody but I must admit I found this an amazing experience. I would not be surprised if some of these men were the same protesters (or “terrorists” as the government apparently calls them) who had been involved in the destruction I was seeing all around me. And yet, despite their having been shot at by identifiable troops and unidentifiable snipers, seen their brothers-in-arms shot in the head, perhaps even taken part in the horrifying beating and killing of at least one soldier at this very spot, today they were warm, friendly and caring towards interlopers like this silly white tourist. It is a seemingly Thai paradox that a ‘rioting mob’ can provide such tender care for someone who probably doesn’t belong in their midst.
Having legged it around the corner into Rajavithi Road, I headed back towards Victory Monument and turned south into Payathai Road to see if Century the Movie Plaza had been torched. I found yet another security checkpoint defended by multiple layers of razor wire, sandbag emplacements and armed soldiers. One soldier on the ground was yelling back and forth with a commanding officer with a radio on the walkway above. Some local women were seeking access to their homes, located on the inside of one of the most heavily defended (and deadly) zones in the area.
Several rolls of razor wire stretch across the northern end of Payahai Road at a security cordon supported by bunkers made from sandbags near Victory Monument.
Troops seemed happy for me to take some photographs and continue towards Century the Movie Plaza. I passed a group of police sitting in the shade about 10 meters beyond the checkpoint and found this shopping center had been spared looting and destruction. A chatted briefly with a very friendly army officer who spoke excellent English. He was eager to know what part of London I was from as he had also lived there. He told me now the area was now very safe (“not like yesterday”) and we split up after a warm handshake. I headed into Soi Rangnam. He mounted a motorbike and headed off south down Payathai Road.
Soi Rangnam was almost deserted. I had never seen it like this. Apart from the very occasional taxi motorbike, there was no traffic. It is always a surreal experience to find any part of Bangkok free from the usual cacaphony of grating road noise, amplified announcements, and loud pedestrians. There were few food carts at the end closest to Payathai Road. It was actually quite blissful – a wonderful warm sun, and a nice cooling breeze, with only the acrid stench from mounds of uncollected garbage to ruin the mood…
The western end of Soi Rangnam is almost totally deserted less than 24 hours after days of intense violence at the far end of the road.
The far end of Soi Rangnam, at Rajprarop Road (about 200m south of where the army had admonished us) was blocked by several layers of razor wire, beyond which lay tyre barricades and a sandbag bunker guarded by armed troops.
At the eastern and of Soi Rangnam, where it meets Rajprarop Road, many rolls of razor wire, tyre barricades and sangbag bunkers manned by armed soldiers prevent easy access to the area, which remains a 'live fire zone'.
From Soi Rangnam, I headed north up a soi that approaches the back of the Center One shopping center, now a smouldering wreckage.
A firefighters heads for one of the rear entrances to Center One, a retail mall gutted by arson during rioting.
Shop owners recover remaining goods from Center One, a retail mall gutted by arson during rioting.
Firefighters who attended the scene of massive arson attacks perpetrated during rioting at Rajavithi Road.
As I headed back to Victory Monument, a Canadian friend called. She had recently managed to evacuate from her apartment in Rajavithi Soi 6 after several days of combat uncomfortably close to her home. She was eager to gather her things before finding a flight out of the country but was unsure of the situation. I said I would call back after checking her soi and the mood in the area. As I headed back towards Sam Liam Ding Daeng to reach her soi, I could already taste a worsened atmosphere. As I reached the soi 6, black smoke was again billowing from the same place at Sam Liam Din Daeng where I had been taking photographs less than an hour before.
Black smoke billows from burning tyres in freshly set fires at the Sam Liam Din Daeng intersection.
The language barrier between me and some locals sitting on the corner of the soi prevented me from confirming what was happening. Luckily, another couple with cameras emerged from the direction of Din Daeng. They told me five red shirts had set tyres ablaze again. My friend’s soi seemed perfectly okay but the afternoon was drawing to a close and the mood was definitely darkening. Back at Victory Monument, there was no doubt whatsoever that tension levels had gone up yet further. Where locals had been gathered almost exclusively to gawp at firefighters damping down the fire in Center One shopping center, hundreds of men now stood about ranged across several clumps. They animatedly discussed developments. Some appeared intoxicated. All were clearly unhappy. Up on the skywalk over Paholyothin Road, I spoke to another, less obviously angry group. They were undramatic about it but said they were very angry with the Prime Minister.
People describing themselves as 'democracy supporters' gather on the overhead walkway at Victory Monument to observe the results of days of political violence and rioting, and discuss the recent events.
I started walking north on Phaholyothin Road. I came across sporadic evidence of rioting for several hundred meters to the north. Phone boxes were burned out or smashed. Glass on advertising signs was smashed. Phone boxes were vandalised.
Telephone booths gutted by arson on Paholyothin Road, north of Victory Monument.
After walking for ten minutes, I checked Twitter. Several hundred protesters had reportedly surrounded police at Victory Monument.
With hindsight, it perhaps seems obvious that one should not venture into such areas. The problem is that nobody really knows where and if these areas exist. One can all-too-easily get the impression from the news that it’s perfectly safe to go out in the daytime and do some much-needed shopping. And in fact, in large areas of Bangkok, that may well be true. Many people caught short by the curfew and empty 7-Eleven shelves close to home will no doubt have headed farther afield to stock up. Some might even have headed into work. The problem is that with limited public transport running during the day, rerouted buses and a curfew, it can be difficult to negotiate the areas that are still blocked or perhaps open but unsafe.
This morning brought reports of sporadic gunfire in some areas around the former Rajprasong rally site last night and today security forces continued to unearth small numbers of armed protesters who have been hiding in various locations around Rajprasong, Rajdamri and Lumpini Park. There have even been some reports of more attacks with M-79 grenades, though these are hard to verify.
Troops (including army snipers using silenced M-16 rifles) swept through the Sam Liam Din Daeng intersection today, securing the area to allow clearance of the debris and wrecked vehicles. From the photographs I’ve seen, it’s clear that they at least expected some armed opposition. I have not seen any reports to confirm if they met any.
According to news reports, authorities have been finding and neutralizing explosives of various types and in different locations in central Bangkok, mostly in the abandoned cars of UDD guards. The government has set up a telephone hotline to report any attempts at arson. Anyone who spots a suspicious vehicle or suspected arson attacks should call 191. Apparently, this will bring police fast-response teams on high-powered motorcycles.
Let’s hope Saturday brings some true relief from the pressure and horrors of recent weeks.
The images contained in this post are a selection from a total of 81 photographs, all of which can be seen in this gallery. (WARNING: there is one graphic image of old blood in the collection.)
