2010 Protests
Abhisit's government expected major UDD-led unrest immediately following the announcement of the Supreme Court's verdict on Thaksin Shinawatra's asset seizure case, despite the UDD's announcement that they would not protest the verdict. Major protest suppression measures were enacted, and security was increased throughout the nation. Despite the government's warnings, the UDD did not protest the verdict but instead announced that they would hold a large-scale protest in Bangkok on 14 March calling for elections.
Abhisit increased security measures to suppress the 14 March protests. In the days prior to the protest, more checkpoints were set up to inspect protester caravans entering Bangkok, especially those coming from UDD strongholds in the North and Northeast, with orders to detain any protesters with weapons. A government/military situation room for monitoring the protest, officially called the Peace-keeping Operations Command, was established at the 11th Infantry Regiment in Bangkhen. Pro-government elements in the Northeast issued threats to deter people from leaving for the capital.
Abhisit claimed to have received intelligence that there was a terrorist threat of sabotage taking place on 14 March. The UDD denied Abhisit's allegations and dared him to reveal any evidence backing his claims. Suthep claimed that the UDD protesters planned to "besiege government offices and residences of important figures, like Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda."
On 9 March, Abhisit imposed the Internal Security Act from 11–23 March. A 50,000-strong security force was deployed on Bangkok.
As of Friday 12 March, police and military checkpoints set up along all main routes leading to Bangkok to inspect UDD protesters for weapons being carried into the capital. The police issued a warning that bus operators transporting people to Bangkok without official permission could have their concessions revoked. Five bombs exploded in Surat Thani, a Democrat Party stronghold, in the early morning of 12 March. Nobody was injured or killed. It was not clear who was behind the bombings. No arrests were made.
The protests on Sunday 14 March were the largest in Thai history, and were peaceful. However, Thailand's free-to-air TV channels, all controlled by the government or military, claimed that there were only 25,000 protesters in the main protest site at Phan Fah Bridge. On Tuesday, UDD protesters announced that they would be collecting 10 milliliters of blood from volunteer protesters and pouring the blood in a symbolic sacrifice at Government House and other sites in Bangkok. These public blood rituals were a highly effective publicity stunt and drew widespread attention to the protests. However, critics have said that the UDD's association with blood tarnished the movement's efforts to keep its campaign ‘clean’ and may have discouraged potential supporters, in addition to the associated cost and the health risk for cleanup crew due to HIV and Hepatitis infected blood being part of the ceremony.
Negotiations between the protesters and the government failed to result in a resolution of the situation (these negotiations took place into May 2012, see http://links.org.au/node/1664)even though the demonstrators conditions were met an alleged last minute phone call from Thaksin said no to making an agreement). On 27 March, protesters marched to seven locations in Bangkok where Army troops had been stationed in preparation for a crackdown and convinced them to withdraw. There were dozens of bombings in Bangkok during the weeks of the protest, with nobody claiming responsibility and no arrests made. A Porsche was rammed into protester motorcycles at Rajprasong intersection, injuring several. In a separate incident, a woman rammed her car into a crowd of protesters, but drove away before she could be arrested.
Abhisit declared a state of emergency on the evening of 8 April. Troops barricaded the uplink station for the Thaicom satellite to prevent it from airing People Channel, a popular TV station sympathetic to the UDD. Protesters surrounded the station in the afternoon of 9 April. Tear gas was fired into the crowd, prompting the protesters to storm the station. The troops withdrew to avoid blood shed as the protesters stole over 20 M-16 rifles from the supply depot of the stationed units.
On 10 April, the protests turned violent, when government troops approached the red shirt encampment and fired live ammunition at some protesters. Twenty-five people were killed in the confrontation, with more than 800 people injured. Tensions continued to grow, as pro-government rallies started to appear alongside anti-government rallies. On 22 April, a series of explosions in Bangkok killed at least one person and injured more than 85 others, including four foreigners. At least some of the explosions were caused by grenades, which the government claimed were fired from the Red Shirt encampment. On 28 April, Thai security forces and anti-government protesters clashed on the outskirts of Bangkok, with troops firing both over and then directly into a crowd of Red Shirts to keep them from expanding their demonstrations. At least 16 protesters were wounded and one soldier was killed. Note: This soldier was found to have been shot in the back by another Thai soldier in a case of "friendly fire".
Jatuporn Prompan, Nattawut Saikua and other Red-Shirt leaders, surrendered themselves to police to prevent further bloodshed during the violent military crackdown on 19 May 2010. In the aftermath of this attack 27 buildings were set ablaze in Thailand's capital, Bangkok. The Thai military largely quashed the protesters there, but pockets of resistance still remained as of Thursday 20 May.
Read more about this topic: United Front For Democracy Against Dictatorship