Roodshirt riots 2010: Five 'men in black' arrested
It was not an invention of the then Abhisit government, but they really existed and they have been running free since 2010. Yesterday, the police announced that they had arrested five 'men in black' on Tuesday. Dressed in black jacket and black headscarf, as they may have looked at the time, four of the five were presented to the press (the fifth is a woman).
The five are suspected of being part of a group of heavily armed men who operated during the red shirt riots four years ago. They have confessed to being involved in the fighting on April 10 at the Khok Wua intersection. Five soldiers were killed, including army officer Romklao Thwatham, who was posthumously promoted to general.
His wife thanks on Facebook the NCPO (junta) and the police for their efforts to arrest the suspects who killed her husband. She writes that she hopes that the investigation will restore public confidence in the legal system.
The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD, red shirts) insists that the 'men in black' never existed. According to spokesperson Thanawut Wichaidit, the red shirts were never guilty of violence at the time. Police need to do more to prove they existed, he says.
Somchai Sawaengkarn, a member of the NLA (emergency parliament), sees the arrest of the five as proof that the black brigade existed. Until the current government took office, none of those in power ever accepted its existence or even investigated it, he says.
In his previous position as senator, Somchai chaired a Senate committee that investigated the red shirt disturbances.
Meanwhile, the police investigation continues. An arrest warrant has been issued for two more people. It is suspected that the five were directed by a (third) man, against whom an arrest warrant from the court martial is pending. Somchai hopes that the current detention will eventually lead to the arrest of those who unleashed the violence in 2010.
Police say they previously raided a home owned by red shirt activist Kritsuda Khunase. That is the woman who, after being detained by the junta, has claimed to have been tortured. She would now like to apply for political asylum in Europe. In the house, the police found evidence of payments of large sums of money to the five suspects. The amount involved, the police would not say.
(Source: Bangkok Post, Sept. 12, 2014)
Sometimes I laugh in this country. Likewise today.
Many people in Thailand, including a considerable number of my students, believe in ghosts and can even prove it with photos on their own Facebook page. In fact, a few days ago, a FB friend posted a photo with a clearly visible (dressed in white, of course) ghost on the roof of a house.
In 2010, all viewers of the daily news broadcasts of the CRES regularly saw the armed 'men in black' walking around the red shirt-occupied area in Ratchaprasong. Then everyone who may or appears to be involved denies that the black brigade actually existed.
Or could it have been - for the first time in the history of magic - black ghosts? Isn't it also called black and not white magic?
Abhisit quotes a Thai proverb in his 2010 book. It reads:
The lie has been around the world several times before the truth has its pants on.
It took some time for those pants to get on, but apparently not too late to catch up with the lie. I myself remember April 10 very well, partly because I called my wife to watch TV. I then shouted: “K. come see the reds shoot their own people.”
These people and their clients directly and indirectly caused the deaths of more than 90 people in 2010.