Somyos Says Supporters Will Seek Abhisit’s Sodding Off

One could say it’s almost Pavlovian. No sooner had Thailand’s PM Abhisit called off the State of Emergency that has covered Bangkok and most surrounding regions since 12 April, than UDD leader Somyos Pruksakasem announced that thousands of doggedly determined Red Shirts would rally Saturday at Sanam Luang to reiterate their demands for Abhisit to stand down and the House to be dissolved. Oh, and they also would like very much, please, the return of “their” satellite-based television broadcaster, D-Station, which was shut down by the authorities under the State of Emergency.

It has been less than two weeks since the trouble kicked off in Bangkok on 13 April. That day was quite warm but it was not the kind of sweltering heat in which Bangkok has soaked over the last few days. Saturday is likely to be considerably more hot and humid than two weeks ago. In addition, in the days before the UDD blocked key intersections and clashed with both security forces and locals in Bangkok during Songkran, many people had already left the city to celebrate the annual festival. Bangkok will be much busier tomorrow.

There is a number of other reasons one should be wary of developments on Saturday. Authorities have been cracking down on community radio stations alleged to be supporting violent behaviour by the UDD. A number of UDD leaders have been arrested. Remaining UDD leaders, as well as former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, are being pursued (across international borders, in some cases). Former Thaksin deputy Jakrapob Penkair continues to call for the use of violent guerilla tactics (resulting in some signs of cracks in the UDD leadership).

And if that was not enough, there has been a litany of other apparent security lapses. In Pattaya, on 7 April,  UDD supporters attacked the PM’s vehicle for the first time. On 11 April, foreign leaders were dramatically evacuated by helicopter following the cancellation of a beseiged ASEAN summit. The next day in Bangkok, UDD supporters again attacked the PM’s vehicle, this time seriously injuring a number of the PM’s staff. 

Finally, the car carrying PAD co-founder Sondhi Limthongkul was attacked in Bangkok last Friday in dramatic fashion by gunmen who fired some eighty rounds from automatic weapons as well as a 40mm grenade (which, thankfully, failed to go off after landing in a bus). Despite the State of Emergency being in place and troops being posted to most key intersections, a pickup truck carrying at least three men had managed to ambush Sondhi’s car, fire dozens of rounds from automatic weapons (at least one of which used rounds supplied to the Thai Army) and a grenade, and then got away. CCTV cameras were apparently not functioning. There were no soldiers or police in the vicinity. The weapons appear to be connected to the Army.

With that in mind, it will probably be a good idea to steer clear of Sanam Luang on Saturday. Khao San Road is only about 300 meters from Sanam Luang. In fact, if this rally is at all well-attended, traffic in the area is likely to be far from ideal, so you might plan to avoid this part of Bangok on Saturday night. Even if nothing happens, traffic will still be a bummer.

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You can download the Google Earth placemark for Sanam Luang or the full list of relevant Google Earth placemarks is in one of our earlier posts.