Blue Shirts Attacked in Pattaya

As I understand it the "blue shirts" would protect the airport should the "red shirts" try.


Red-shirts battle blue-shirts in Pattaya

PATTAYA: -- Red-shirted protesters armed with giant firecrackers, Molotov cocktails, sling shots and batons, battled with local people who formed a line to protect the venue of Asean +6 summit venue here Saturday morning.

The clash happened at 8:40 am.

The outnumbered blue-shirted local people was scattered and ran for cover when the red-shirted people attacked them.

Several explosion sounds of firecrackers were heard and the red-shirted people were seen as firing slingshots with bolts at the blue-shirted people who tried formed a line in front of the Royal Cliff Beach Resort Hotel.

The red-shirted people formed a line and kept advancing until the two sides stood confronting less than one metre apart and the clash broke out.

The red-shirted protesters were seen carrying Molotov cocktails but none had been thrown at the other side yet.

Terrified local residents closed their houses and many were seen weeping with fear.

So far, the security authorities had not step in to stop the clash yet.

-- The Nation 2009-04-11

[TrongpaiExpat]

PM just announced on Thai TV the conference is canceled. You could hear the red shirt protesters in the background inside the hotel.

[x in pattaya]

As I understand it the "blue shirts" would protect the airport should the "red shirts" try.




Terrified local residents closed their houses and many were seen weeping with fear.

I saw some pickup trucks hauling in red shirts this morning along Pattaya Tai. Didn't notice anyone looking especially terrified. Bought some smoked fish in the market. No weeping observed.

This afternoon I could see red shirts congregating on that elevated road leading to the Royal Cliffs, along with a number of Bangkok taxis, but now they seem to have moved off in the direction of the summit.

I would say that local residents are more pissed off at the financial hit they'll take from loss of business than terrified. As much as farang dislike Songkran, many locals do enjoy it and all the people coming down from Bangkok generate business. I feel sorry for people here who have not had a very good year in terms of business and now this holiday seems unlikely to be any better.Although if the red shirts return to Bangkok, maybe the Bangkok-oise will head south next week to escape them.

It's also becoming increasingly difficult to decide what to wear in public. Now wearing red (not a major feature in my wardrobe anyway), yellow or blue could be interpreted as provocative by some.

canceling a major international summit meeting because of protestors?
Don't Thais have any shame?

...doesn't Thailand have any shame? That's the wrong question mate!!!

The right one would be: Doesn't Thaksin the crook have any shame?
All we see right now is that Isarn people prefer to be bought for protests as opposed to being bought from you guys in the bars.

I hope the military finally does something about this, it has been going on by far too long.

What is the world coming to.
The Thai government & military should put a stop to this. Target the people behind it if necessary.

What is the world coming to.
The Thai government & military should put a stop to this. Target the people behind it if necessary.

...and there you have the reason why the children, so-called "ex-wife" and the rest of the corrupt slimebag clan have left the country in recent days, together with the so-called "independent PM" as it was.

They know very well that they could be targeted as "the people behind it".

As I have said all along, Thailand has been a third world country and will remain a third world country forever.

[x in pattaya]

As I have said all along, Thailand has been a third world country and will remain a third world country forever.

Let's hope so. Given a choice of putting up with the inconveniences caused by such events or living in the constipated, corrupt, holier-than-thou, greedy, incompetent, homophobic, sterile, insipid (someone stop me!) West, give me Thailand anytime.

I realize for many people it's more than an inconvenience, but no end of people suffer from the incompetence & stupidity of governments led by cretins like Bush or Gordo, and for many of us the fact that government here isn't all over us, isn't policing our every thought and deed, isn't imposing on us a morality conceived by a hillbilly code of the religious right, and isn't taxing everything we do is what makes this all the more attractive.

If you're really into a place where government is in absolute control and nothing ever varies from the script, may I suggest N. Korea and if you want to see anyone who steps out of line dealt with in a truly disproportionate manner, there's always Texas. Here, whenever the security forces do exert a heavy hand, everyone freaks out and when they exercise restraint, everyone freaks out. Given the history of policing in the US and UK and elsewhere in the supposed first world, I don't see much in the way of shining examples to emulate.

Thai people obviously feel free to express themselves even if a vocal minority tends to end up with undue influence over events. Those sorts of things tend to be cyclical and are self-correcting over time. Obviously errors in planning have happened, which are indeed unfortunate, but bungling governments are hardly an exclusive characteristic of Thailand, Asia or the third world.

As I have said all along, Thailand has been a third world country and will remain a third world country forever.

Let's hope so. Given a choice of putting up with the inconveniences caused by such events or living in the constipated, corrupt, holier-than-thou, greedy, incompetent, homophobic, sterile, insipid (someone stop me!) West, give me Thailand anytime.


Hear hear.

[rincondog]

To think that either the red or yellow shirts are doing anymore than fighting over the spoils and neither side is interested in anything more than their own self-interest.

and where is mr. Toxin ?

There are so many strange food things especially served at some chinese places, just imagine green tea from a steel kettle (of course add a special ingridient)...

all coincidences with past events are just dreams