STUDENT, 21, SHOT AS STUDENTS CLASH WITH RED SHIRTS IN BANGKOK

Posted on by Andrew Drummond

A 21-year-old student was reported shot dead as university students clashed with pro-government red shirts in Bangkok tonight.

 Five others are reported to have been injured and were rushed to hospital.

The gunman appears to have been caught on video by Channel 7 news in Bangkok.

Bangkok’s Ramkhamhaeng University is only a few hundred yards from Rajamangala Sports stadium where over 100,000 red shirted supporters of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra were meeting to rally before tomorrow’s counter protest.

Many of the red-shirts have been bussed in from Northern Thailand to counter protests this week which have seen the take-over and occupation of several government ministries and provincial government buildings in the south of Thailand by anti-government protesters who want an end to the Shinawatras.

Six shots fired at 1:04 Towards the end – martial music as in 1930’s Europe

Alleged man  from gunmen group. Red shirts and police
claim incidents including attempted arson involve anti
government factions.

=======================================
Earlier Report
The stadium is packed. Thousands more Red-Shirts are on the outside. This is the force which is ready to hit the streets of Bangkok tomorrow (Sunday) to counter the anti-government protests.

Today anti-government protesters marched on the Department of Special Investigations – Thailand’s FBI, to protest outside the agency claiming it is being used as a political tool to blow thousands of whistles.
The agency declared the blowing of whistles a criminal offence.
Earlier in the week they variously occupied the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and the Government Public Relations Department among others.  The protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, former Democratic Party Deputy leader, has refused to enter in negotiations with the government.
An arrest warrant has been issued for him and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has invoked the Internal Security Act, which technically makes this gathering illegal – although it is believed that the hire of buses to bring supporters in from Thailand’s north east and the hire of the stadium , came out of government funds or from the Shinawatra’s.  

Yingluck’s elder brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, claim anti-government supporters, is still running the goverment from exile. He moved to Dubai after being convicted of offences of corruption.

Thailand is at a deadlock. The Bank of Thailand has been forced to reduce interest rates. A forecast  5 per cent GDP growth has all but been forgotten and the protests have spread to Thailand’s holiday beach areas –  the homelands of the Democrats.

The anti-government demonstrators however no longer want democracy Thai style. They want an committee of ‘good people’ to run the country. Who gets to choose them – they have not stipulated.

Anti-government protesters would march tomorrow on the Ministries for the Interior, Labor, Education and Commerce

UDD (United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship  chairwoman Tida Thawornseth said on Saturday evening that if the government could not protect public buildings, it would be up to the red shirts to show what ‘people power’ really was. 

Pictures: Michael Fox

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