Situation Update 5/16/2010

From a Red Shirt friend in Thailand

...

dear friends:

i am glad chicago reds from thailand were so supportive of the red
struggle at rajprasong.
bangkok is in war situation , it has been for 3 days now.
the military makes two circles  trying to block people from going into
rajprasong area.
so people outside and in the cirlcle cannot get into the areas they
wanted.  so clashes have occurred for the past 3 days basically the
deaths take place when soldiers shoot from afar to get rid of any
demonstrator.  now at least 27 bodies have been found, all except seh
daeng, are civilians.  two thirds are killed by snipers.  at least 190
injured.
while govt spokesman and abhisit came out to insist on circling around
the rajprasong area, claiming terrorists are there and demonstrators
have somany weapons and start the shooting, this is why the war goes
on both day and night.
and because people cannot get into rajprasong area.  and people
outside want to help.  that is how the first demonstration site
outside rajprasong began at 6 pm saturday April 15.  the crowd quickly
grew as more and more people learned about it and reached 10,000 by
midnight.
The crowd at dindaeng quckly followed since they could not get into
rajprasong and it was also around 10,000 at midnight on saturday
night.
then about 1000 gathered at victory monument.   100 gathered at
Democracy Momunent
some thousands gathered at Samrong, Paaknum, samutprakarn.   also at
Patumthani, several thousands gathered.
these are gatherings which became inevitable since all the roads to
rajprasong were blocked.
they are combinations of local residents of bangkok and people from NE
and North who want to join rajprasong, but they couldnot enter so in
these next 3-4 days there would be more and more gatherings at
surrounding areas.
outside in north and northeast, people gather in front of salaklang
everynight watch red TV and listen to local speeches.  they do 3
things at least now 1. gathering  2. organizing trips to rajprasong,
and 3. start blocking the police and soldiers to come to bangkok.

we need the world to know what is going on in thailand, it is war in
which the military kills unarmed civilians