Bangkok Breaking News – January 19, 2014 (+ video)
On this page we will keep you informed about Bangkok Shutdown. The posts are in reverse chronological order. The latest news is therefore at the top. Times in bold are Dutch time. In Thailand it is 6 hours later.
Common abbreviations
UDD: United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (red shirts)
Capo: Center for the Administration of Peace and Order (the body responsible for security policy)
ISA: Internal Security Act (emergency law that gives the police certain powers; applies throughout Bangkok; less strict than the Emergency Decree)
PDRC: People's Democratic Reform Committee (headed by Suthep Thaugsuban, ex-opposition Democrat MP)
NSPRT: Network of Students and People for Reform of Thailand (radical protest group)
Pefot: People's Force to Overthrow Thaksinism (ditto)
Foreign Affairs travel advice
Travelers are advised to avoid central Bangkok as much as possible, to exercise vigilance, to stay away from gatherings and demonstrations, and to monitor local media coverage daily of where demonstrations are taking place.
Video: protesters speak
A tent camp has been erected in Lumpini Park. Two protesters speak in this video. Watch the video here.
17: 38 Action leader Suthep Thaugsuban has announced the plans for this week. Supporters in the fourteen southern provinces must close off all government buildings, the homes of Prime Minister Yingluck and her cabinet ministers will be surrounded and electricity and water will be shut off. Furthermore, all government buildings in Bangkok must close.
After the South, the Central Plains, the North and the Northeast will follow, provided that a sufficient number of PDRC supporters can be mobilized locally.
17:18 The driver of the pickup truck linked to Friday's grenade attack on Bang Thong Road has denied any involvement on the stage in Phatumwan tonight. The man can be seen on a video, which has been distributed by the police.
Sayan Saenoun said he followed the demonstrators with his car when the grenade exploded. He said he could never have activated the grenade with one hand while steering with his other hand. Moreover, he himself would have been killed if he had thrown the grenade next to his car.
The video shows two men who, according to the police, behave suspiciously. One man drops something and runs off to hide behind a phone box (not a pole, as mentioned earlier). After the explosion, the driver runs from his car to the telephone box. Picking up fragments of the grenade, the two men leave without regard for the casualties.
The driver works for a former Democratic MP. He says his hearing was damaged by the blast. Tomorrow he will consult a doctor about it again.
15:24 Between Dec. 26 and Jan. 18, the PDRC anti-government protest killed four people and injured 238, according to Health Department figures. 22 injured are still being treated.
15:13 The police have clear video images of the suspect who carried out a grenade attack on demonstrators at the Victory Monument on Sunday afternoon (see photo on the homepage). 28 people were injured. According to the police, the man wanted to throw the grenade into a tent behind the stage, but it missed the target. The grenade hit the roof of a nearby coffee shop and exploded. The man fled on a motosai. The police already know where he got off it.
15:01 The hand grenade, which exploded on Bunthat Thong Rd on Friday, cannot have been thrown from a building on the side because trees and power lines prevent it. The grenade was thrown by two men who were among the demonstrators. This has been stated by Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul, head of the Capo. The conclusion is based on video images, witness interviews and research in the vacant building, which was mentioned earlier. 36 people were injured in the attack. That night one of them died.
10:03 Bangkok's 146 municipal schools, which closed on Monday due to the Bangkok Shutdown, will reopen on Monday. One school near the Ratchaprasong intersection remains closed. Depending on the situation, school principals are free to decide whether to close the school again, for up to three days, and district heads have the authority to go for up to seven days.
09:25 Not four but 28 people were injured in the bomb explosion at the Victory Monument. PDRC leader Thaworn Senneam has seen a man at the press center behind the rally stage throw an explosive device and run away.
He was chased by guards and protesters, whom he pelted with another bomb. As the pursuers continued, he fired a shot. He then fled on a motorcycle driven by someone else.
Thaworn thinks the man was after him. It is suspected that there were six men who had evil intentions. They were behind the stage.
08:15 Four people were injured in a bomb explosion at the Victory Monument this afternoon at half past one. One of the two injured women is a reporter from PostToday, the Thai language version of Bangkok Post. Further details are still missing.
07:29 The National Security Council (NSC) expects protests to become more violent next week, which could prompt a state of emergency. Secretary-General Paradorn Pattanatabut says this in response to the PDRC's intention to close all government buildings in the South and ask supporters in other regions to do the same. The PDRC also plans to disrupt the January 26 primaries.
The NSC has noticed that pro-election groups have been agitating more recently candle lights ceremonies.
07:20 Police removed two of the three companies from Government House at the request of the NSPRT. The demonstrators viewed the change of police force as a means of putting pressure on them rather than a normal activity to protect people.
06:15 At 10 a.m. (Thai time), a group of protesters led by action leader Suthep Thaugsuban started a march on Phahon Yothin Road from the Lat Phrao intersection. They are on their way to Kasetsart University, Ratchayothin intersection and Ratchadaphisek road.
Suthep will attend the funeral this afternoon of the protester who was killed in Friday's grenade attack on Banthat Thong road.
06:07 A PDRC guard was shot in the back at the Lat Phrao protest site shortly before midnight. He has been hospitalized and is in stable condition. A witness saw the suspected perpetrator under a pedestrian flyover. He took off on a motorcycle.
At a police post on Phahon Yothin road, police detained two PDRC guards who were carrying three large pieces of firecrackers, a fake rifle, a bullet and a knife.
05:52 Red shirts in the Northeast should prepare for a counter rally in Bangkok. That order is given by Anuwat Thinnarat, leader of the UDD in twenty northeastern provinces. He says they can be in the capital in six hours. The counter-protest will be peaceful, he says. The message does not mention what would be the reason for such a counter-protest.
03:15 Bangkok Post reports it today in large letters on the front page 'Democrat “aide” sought after blast'. Police are looking for two men, one of whom is a subordinate of Democratic MP Kowit Tharana. They can be seen in a video clip of the grenade explosion on Friday, presumably footage from a surveillance camera, which was distributed by the police.
In the clip, one of the men drops something and then runs to a pole for cover and the other man comes out of a pickup truck after the explosion, joins the man, after which they pick up something from the ground and walk away. Those would be indications that the first man dropped and activated the grenade and that they picked up the pin of the grenade after the explosion.
A specialist from the EOD is also given the floor in the article. He considers it unlikely that the grenade was thrown in this way. A grenade causes casualties within a circle of 6 meters and the perpetrator would then have been killed himself.
The grenade attack cost one life, that of Prakong Chujan (pictured), owner of a sewing workshop in Phuket. He died in hospital on Friday night. Another 35 people were injured. Prakong leaves behind a wife and three children.
The reports published so far assume that the grenade was thrown from an empty building. Disassembled weapons were found in the building. According to the police, they are air guns (BB guns).
Hi Dick,
Thank you for all your work in providing us with information.
Do you have any idea how many people actually participate in the demonstrations, I can't see that.
For me it remains unreal that a small amount of the Thai and then only in Bangkok can turn the country upside down.
Sincerely, Ad from a very peaceful Khon Kaen.
@ Ad Lately I have not come across any figures in the newspaper about the number of demonstrators. However, recently a message about a poll showed that 80 percent of the residents of Bangkok do not go to the rallies. For what it's worth.
Dick,
I love that you keep us updated. Thank you.
Above that I see "red shirts" in the abbreviations after UDD. That is obvious. Why not behind PDRC 'yellow shirts'? That provides even more clarity.
Kind regards from the Netherlands,
Jan
The yellow shirts are the PAD (People's Alliance for Democracy) and not the PDRC.
In my humble opinion, the PDRC is a bunch of crazy people… As a yellow shirt, I would stay away from people like Suthep Thaugsuban (don't trust him and can't call him democratic) and Seri Wongmontha (racist jerk). The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend… that the corrupt gang Phua Thai should go away in favor of reforms for a real democracy (open elections, percentage representation, no more antique stagecoach system with representatives per district, breaking down corrupt family and friends interests etc.) seems obvious to me, but I would not support the PDRC (don't think I would support the PAD or the Democratic Party, by the way). But people make their own choices and so there is some overlap between supporters for the Democrats, PAD and PDRC.
@ Jan Not only former yellow shirts have gathered under the PDRC banner. The movement consists of a collection of people who have had enough of the government for various reasons. Formally, the yellow shirt movement no longer exists, because the leaders have withdrawn.
will the field be moved from Bangkok to the province?? I've heard such a thing
@ Anneke See the relevant message in this Breaking News.
At the moment there is also a protest demonstration in The Hague, my wife is also there.
Good evening.
We are currently on Phuket and the intention is that we will go to Bangkok in 4 days because of our return flight, we have booked a hotel at Sukhumvit or something, but is this safe and accessible??
Greetings Hans
@ Hans Sukhumvit is a very long way. It is difficult to answer your question without further details. In any case, the BTS operates over the Sukhumvit line, so if you have a hotel near a station, you're fine.
And so it goes further and further downhill with Thailand. Aren't there enough problems in that country already!!!
TH has many problems, more than enough, there are many more to come, eg the farmers who have been promised payment of their rice, and eg the threat of overheated state balance sheets due to ill-considered government plans. You wouldn't want (grand)children of ordinary Thais to get all those extra problems on their already small plate. So it is only too good that today's Thai learn to deal with their problems, and no longer slavishly and uncritically follow a great leader. Many of the Thai people now know, and that is a great gain, what the consequences are of greedy government policies. We all learn by trial and error. The Thai has every right to present their bill to their government in their own way.
Still, despite current problems whose solutions are far ahead, TH's going downhill is going to be a long way off. In the past 10 years alone, TH has experienced 2 major natural disasters, and multiple periods of political and social unrest. Some with many casualties. Yet TH has always rebounded, and TH has not come to a standstill economically. Internationally, TH is praised for its resilience. Standstill is not expected for now either. TH is going to be hit, eg tourism, but so far there are no signs of a decline in investors.
As I said: the past 10 years have not been quiet politically, socially and economically. Corruption abounded, (!) Education and health care left much to be desired, and 70 to 80 people were killed in traffic every day. More and more trains ran off the rails, and many Thais went into debt galore. In addition, it was still the farang that was taken by the nose by farm girls. While their parents initially counted themselves rich with strange subsidy flows.
In short, and now serious again: not an easy time for Thai, full of problems and false promises, and now those demonstrations on top of it. So I wonder how it is that in those same 10 years the flows of pensionadas to TH have only increased, and how it is possible that they are enriched with beer (see, for example, recently the message about the British influx and the way how they deal with their presence, express themselves so anxiously about their stay and arrival?
No, I don't think TH is going downhill. For example, in 2010, however frighteningly paradoxical, this was not the case either. Nor before or after, in fact the whole of history makes no mention of it. Even after the Asian crisis of 1997, TH came out amazingly well.
What I do fear is that the inclination and willingness of farang TH to approach it unbiased and unbiased, that it will go downhill, precisely in and because of these turbulent times, and that because of own possessions. But TH itself? No, not TH. Is not in the nature of people!
Dear Soi, I am not so convinced of Thai resilience
Example: At the time of the flood disaster in 1953, in which huge areas in Zeeland and South Holland were flooded, the Netherlands had an annual economic growth of 9% in 1953 and 8% in 1954. With the alleged resilience of the Thai people, I therefore think it's all okay.
It is likely that some rich people “fell” during the Asia Crisis. Many of the extremely wealthy have had to take a break. And the poor and middle groups, on whom everything is always passed on, have been able to find support from their families.
It is almost impossible to solve the problems with the current corruption and feudal infrastructure in the future. Thailand is at a dead end and they can break this up ugly. The foundation of society is currently completely rotten.
Despite all this, economic growth in Thailand will be higher than in the Netherlands. As a result, you will probably no longer be able to get by in Thailand with an AOW benefit in a few years.
This growth is at the expense of the environment, the destruction of nature for agriculture and the impoverishment of agricultural land. Sooner or later the wallet has to be drawn for this.
The Thai also earned a lot from the millions of guest workers, who were severely underpaid.
Thailand is aging and the guest workers will soon return en masse to their own country. Furthermore, the competition in the Region will increase enormously.