Red-shirts vow to hit back harder
The red-shirts were told Tuesday morning to halt their protests and return home. Meanwhile three of the top red-shirt leaders turned themselves in to the government and are now under interrogation.
So you would think its over, but its clearly not. New red-shirt leaders are claiming they will hit back even harder when the state of emergency is lifted later this week:
“Red-shirt leaders such as Jatuporn Promphan, Jakrapob Penkair had earlier announced they were ready to stage an underground movement. Informants claim the new round of rallies were intended to be more dramatic than those that took place in recent days.”
More dramatic? I worry what can be more dramatic than lighting buses on fire, capturing gas-tankers to use as bombs, torching apartment buildings, holding Din Daeng intersection hostage and shutting down the entire city?
The thing that makes me (and a number of my other friends with an understanding of Isan) most concerned is the timing and numbers of the protest during Songkran. Somehow the red-shirts were able to hold rallies with more than 100,000 people and shut down the entire city during Songkran, a time when Bangkok is essentially empty as working class Thais return home to their villages to celebrate the year’s most important festival. If the red-shirts can muster up that many supporters at a moment when the vast majority of their supporters are gone, what happens when Songkran is over and everyone returns?
