A medieval battle in Bangkok - Thailand

A medieval battle in Bangkok - Thailand

Thailand Correspondent Nirmal Ghosh was one of only two foreign newsmen present when clashes broke out at Government House early yesterday morning. He blogged about it on www.straitstimes.com. For readers who missed the blog, these are excerpts of his eyewitness account, posted on The Straits Times website at 8.01am yesterday.

Pro-government protesters wielding a slingshot and a sword in their violent confrontation with anti-government demosntrators near Government House in Bangkok early yesterday morning. The bloody overnight clashes left at least one person dead and dozens injured. — PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

AT ABOUT midnight, I got a call from a photographer friend who was at Sanam Luang keeping an eye on the pro-government crowd. ‘Come now, right now,’ he said. ‘They are marching up Rajdamnoen.’

The moment he said that, I knew something bad was going to happen. Going up Rajdamnoen could only mean one thing - they were going to challenge the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD).

I got there a half-hour later, and walked first through the PAD camp and lines. The mood was serious and businesslike. All the men at the barrier wore helmets and carried baseball bats. Some had slingshots. Many had improvised new riot shields. They were waiting.

From a distance, the sound of the pro-government crowd could be heard as they approached. I hurried to leave the PAD lines before I was caught in the middle.

I soon came across the vanguard, approaching on the other side of a thin double line of police with only riot shields and no weapons. There were around 5,000 of them; they had been arriving since the previous day, trickling into Bangkok from across the north and north-east.

The pro-government crowd marched quickly towards the Makkawan bridge and was met by a double row of police in full riot protection gear but without batons. In less than five minutes the police allowed the crowd through.

Minutes later the police simply walked away and watched from a distance as the almost medieval battle erupted.

Some in the crowd, armed with rods and slingshots, began to run towards the PAD’s sparsely guarded outer perimeter.

The PAD guards manning the perimeter fled and the crowd chased them, throwing aside metal barriers.

But as the few dozen young men in the vanguard of the pro-government crowd neared the PAD just after 1am, the ranks of the PAD suddenly roared and came running out in a full charge, ploughing into the pro-government crowd who were totally outnumbered and ill-equipped to defend themselves.

Simultaneously a volley of gunfire erupted from the PAD, and at least one pro-government protester fell immediately, eyewitnesses from the pro-government group said. But Thai media reported that a PAD member had been killed.

Many at the rear of the pro-government crowd were running helter-skelter as they realised the PAD had the upper hand and heard the gunshots.

Bullets zinged into the trees above me and another journalist from Bloomberg; we were the only foreign journalists there. There were several moments of panic, as I searched for a way to get out of what most of us thought was a rampaging PAD descending on us.

But the situation calmed momentarily then. Ambulances appeared with sirens howling and raced to the site of the riot, taking some of the injured to hospitals.

The street was strewn with rubble from the battle. Broken glass and flower pots crunched under my boots.

The pro-government crowd appeared stunned at being shot at by the PAD. ‘We brought sticks and knives to a gunfight,’ one man said. Several women sat on the sidewalk with their heads in their hands.

The PAD has advanced several metres and now massed in the street in a show of strength.

At 1.30am, a second wave of a few dozen pro-government supporters armed with swords and other assorted weapons appeared. This time, the police intervened, forming a line across the road between the two warring sides.

‘Tomorrow we will bring many more people,’ one pro-government protester said.

At around 2.45am, over 100 soldiers arrived with riot control gear and no weapons. The men in camouflage fatigues and holding riot shields fell in to support the police.

By 3.30am, the chance of another clash appeared to have diminished, but the mood remained dangerously volatile.

Source : Straits Times - 03 Sept 2008

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