Clashes with red shirt protesters create 'war zone' in downtown Bangkok
Red shirt protesters clashed with Bangkok police after a renegade general who supported the opposition was shot Thursday. Two months of violence have now killed 34 people.
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Analysts say it may be some time before calm returns to what was once one of the most stable nations in the region. “Whenever the next election comes, things will get really chaotic,” Paul Chambers, a professor at Germany's Heidelberg University and an expert on Thailand's armed forces, told The Wall Street Journal. “There could be pandemonium on a much wider scale.”
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Red shirts dwindling
As the government increases pressure and boosts security forces surrounding the main red shirt camp in Bangkok’s business district, the number of protesters has fallen from 10,000 to about 5,000, according to Al Jazeera, though it is difficult to calculate exact numbers. Army officials say they do not plan to raid the camp, but they will stop supplies and people from entering it.
“Information very sketchy as the fighting is going on all around not just in the protest area,” said Al Jazeera's on-scene reporter Aela Callan. She added that the fighting was spreading outside the red shirt camps as the demonstrators tried to get reinforcements.
Along with injury of a Canadian television cameraman from the France 24 news channel, Thai journalists from Matichon newspaper and Voice-TV cable television station were also shot, according to Agence France-Presse. A Japanese cameraman was among 25 killed when clashes broke out between the red shirts and police on April 10, which was until today the worst episode of violence.
As the fighting continues, Bangkok has curtailed public transportation, reports the Daily Telegraph. Many of the city’s residents are also opting to stay at home to avoid the clashes.
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