In the line-of-fire reporting from Bangkok

[Cees Binkhorst]

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Free form, no rules.

Groet / Cees

May 13, 2010
Dissident Thai General Shot; Army Moves to Face Protesters
By THOMAS FULLER

BANGKOK — A renegade Thai general was shot in Bangkok on Thursday as the
military prepared to encircle the barricaded encampment of
anti-government protesters.

The general, Khattiya Sawatdiphol, 58, was struck in the head by a
bullet during an interview with this reporter about 6:50 p.m. on the
street in central Bangkok, near a park occupied by his hard-line
followers. This reporter, who was facing the general and about two feet
away, heard a loud bang not unlike a firecracker. The general fell to
the ground, with his eyes wide open, and protesters took his apparently
lifeless body to the hospital, screaming out the name his is commonly
known by.

“Seh Daeng has been shot! Seh Daeng has been shot!” protesters shouted
amid growing panic.

Gunshots were heard in the minutes following, and there were later
reports that 20 people had been injured, though whether from gunfire, a
stampede, or some other cause was unclear. Within hours, protesters were
clashing with security forces in Bangkok’s Lumpini Park.

The general was abhorred by both the government for disloyalty and also
by most of the protest leaders for what they suspected was his role in
fomenting violence. Still, he had assumed control of security for the
protesters, placing his own black-shirted paramilitary fighters at
entrances to the makeshift barriers around their encampment, and he
claimed the loyalty of a small but intense group of protesters.

When the bullet struck him General Khattiya was inside the barricades,
facing a road, overpass and a business district with several tall
buildings. Wearing his trademark camouflage uniform, he was answering a
question about whether the Thai military would be able to penetrate the
area.

The government announced earlier on Thursday that armored personnel
carriers would be used to cordon off the area in what appeared to be the
beginning of an operation to disperse the thousands of protesters who
are camped out outside shopping malls and luxury hotels.

General Khattiya’s last words before being shot were, “The military
cannot get in here.” Those words were spoken in Thai; he sometimes also
spoke in broken English.

The protesters, known as the red shirts, started their mass
demonstration two months ago seeking the dissolution of Parliament. But
the movement has fractured and their ultimate aims have become less
clear. In talks, the government recently agreed to allow early
elections, but the breakthrough faltered as some protesters dug in,
demanding that someone be held responsible for violence on April 10,
when some 25 people were killed.

The general had been called a terrorist by the prime minister, who named
him as the chief obstacle to the compromise plan.

Commanding his own paramilitary force of former rangers, General
Khattiya was suspended without pay from the armed forces. A special
committee was considering whether to strip him of his rank. His
involvement with the protest movement underlines fractures within the
military and more broadly in Thai society after four years of political
turmoil.

In an interview on Sunday, he denied being responsible for any violence.
“I deny!” he cried in English, with a laugh, when asked about the dozens
of bombings that have set Bangkok on edge and about the mysterious
black-shirted killers who escalated the violence on April 10 that killed
25 soldiers and civilians. “No one ever saw me.”

A tentative deal had been reached between the protesters and the
government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, only to fall apart this
week.

A half-hour before he was shot, the General Khattiya was addressing a
scrum of reporters at sundown at the barricades. Most peeled away,
leaving the general in a conversation with this reporter.

The general commented on his uniform, saying it was the one he had worn
when fighting communists three decades ago. He spoke about his role
working with the protesters and how this task was different from his
previous military missions.

He described himself as leading a “people’s army” that was bracing for a
crackdown by the military.

This clash would be “free-form,” he said. “There are no rules.”

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