Protest leader shot as Thai violence flares

Maj Gen Khattya Sawasdipol, flanked by security guards, gives an interview in the
protestors’ encampment hours before being shot

The Thai authorities’ latest attempt to bring an end to eight weeks of anti-government demonstrations turned bloody on Thursday night when one of the protest leaders was shot and severely wounded in unclear circumstances.

Maj-Gen Khattya Sawasdipol, a renegade army officer whose views are regarded as extreme even by his political allies, was shot shortly after the beginning of a security operation designed to surround the sprawling, barricaded protest site in central Bangkok in an attempt to prevent support and supplies reaching the demonstrators.

Maj-Gen Khattya was one of a number of casualties reported by hospital officals in Bangkok following an explosion and reports of gunfire earlier in the evening.

As darkness fell small groups of soldiers were gathered at key points beyond the stockades made of tyres and sharpened bamboo staves that mark the outer fringes of the protest zone, but there was little sign of the armoured vehicles and troop concentrations that were supposed to throw a cordon around the demonstration.

Protest supporters, galvanised by both the threat of the crackdown and later reports of the injuries to Maj-Gen Khattya, flocked to the main protest site, where leaders broadcast defiant statements from the stage that lies at the heart of the protest site.

Maj-Gen Khattya, who is better known by the nom-de-guerre “Seh Daeng” – Commander Red -- is one of the most controversial figures in the anti-government movement. He was recently described as the biggest barrier to the peace process by the prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva.

He is close to Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister who is the godfather of the protest movement, but he was initially rejected by the mainstream leaders of the demonstration because his confrontational views clashed with their desire for peaceful protest.

However, he has become more influential as the main protest leadership has fractured. He was suspected of playing a key role in the violence on April 10 which led to the deaths of 25 people, including 19 protesters, five soldiers and a television cameraman. He denies the allegations, but he has revelled in controversy and the commander of the armed forces is currently trying to have him cashiered.

“I am a soldier outside the law,” he told the Financial Times during a lunch late last year. Volume 5 of his self-published autobiography shows a picture of him dressed as Rambo.

The attack on Maj-Gen Khattya is another bloody punctuation mark in the increasingly confrontational relations between the demonstrators and the government.

Mr Abhisit has withdrawn the offer of early elections he made last week as a compromise on the protesters’ demand for his immediate resignation.

The offer had been the central plank in his plan to end the demonstrations, and the protest leaders, who say that Mr Abhisit’s administration lacks legitimacy, initially gave it a cautious welcome, but then qualified their acceptance with a series of demands designed to ensure they would not be locked up as soon as the protests ended.

The shifting demands exhausted Mr Abhisit’s patience. “I have cancelled the election date... because protesters refuse to disperse,” he said on Thursday. “I have told security officials to restore normality as soon as possible.”

The authorities are considering cutting off water and power supplies to the demonstration area, but are hesitant in part because of the presence of two hospitals in the immediate vicinity.

Analysts say turning off the fire hydrants that supply most of the water to the protesters could have a devastating effect.

But Mr Abhisit is also running out of options. The police are widely believed to share many of the concerns of the protesters, and the army seems willing to carry out containment operations but has shown little appetite for the sort of bloody confrontation which would be necessary to clear the demonstrators from their stronghold.