By Howard Monath
Via Facebook
NY Times Headline, May 15, 8;13 A.M.:Thai Army Cites ‘Live Fire Zone’ as Clashes Continue
Lead: BANGKOK — The Thai military declared a neighborhood of Bangkok a “live-fire zone” on Saturday and said it was calling in reinforcements as fighting spread to several areas in the city and the death toll in a three-day offensive against anti-government protesters rose to 17. Full NYT story here.
Howard Monath I’m alive…yeah snipers were shooting at us, crawling around on the ground not knowing from what building the bullets are coming from..and then realizing that I’m wearing an ORANGE HAT, AND I’M HALF A FOOT TALLER THAN THE PEOPLE AROUND ME!…it’s terrifying. I’m bailing for a while, it’s complete chaos, no street lights….tear gas; this is civil war
9 hours ago
Howard Monath I was talking to a Red Shirt who spoke english at the Lumpini barricades, who was concerned about me being there; he said “why are Thais killing other Thais? I can see the army shooting people who aren’t Thai, but not us”
All of a sudden my blood ran cold, I looked around and saw that I was the only foreigner near by, I crawled off into the shadows and left…At least one foreign journalist, a Canadian working for France24 has been shot ( three times ) and at least 3 foreigners have been shot to death The prime minister has not said a word since this started on wednesday. The Red Shirts have pleaded for the King to intervene , but he has said nothing.
8 hours ago
Howard Monath This must be a perfect example of being in the middle of the “action” but then having to watch CNN to find out what’s happening. The ‘fog of war’ is a real thing. So why am I here?
8 hours ago
Howard Monath The Thais kept coming over to me and asking “no fear? no fear?” I said no not really, what are they going to do kill all of us?, kill the Monks and the children here? this was before I started to get shot at… I asked people if they were afraid and many said yes; this was more than they had bargained for. Many Red Shirts are leaving; The remaining ‘hard core’ armed group makes the situation even more dangerous
8 hours ago
Howard Monath Yesterday, I found a brave taxi driver who drove as close to the Red Shirt barricades as he dared, then from there I snuck back in. The rest of Bangkok looked like one of those post nuclear war films; completely deserted, and completely surreal; this is usually one of the busiest, craziest cities in the world.There was a huge traffic jam of cars trying to leave the city; the road in was totally empty.
7 hours ago
Howard Monath Yeah, the Red Shirts a few days ago had given me a slingshot; it is a beautifully carved thing, and in the right hands a very lethal weapon…..I left it home.
7 hours ago
Howard Monath Crowd panic is an amazing and terrifying ( if you’re in the crowd ) thing to witness. It starts with one person hearing or seeing something and then spreads like the fissioning of U-235. When the subsequent collective ‘flight instinct’ (panic) kicks in, if you’re caught flat footed, you’re in trouble..
7 hours ago
Howard Monath The army has supposedly given its soldiers permission to shoot only to protect themselves; but what threat are the snipers on the top of 50 floor buildings under? However this turns out, we are seeing the death throes of this Thai government; they have lost credibility in the eyes of the ENTIRE Thai population.
6 hours ago
Howard Monath The ‘journalist’ McDonalds next to the main Red Shirt camp was closed for the first time time yesterday; this was a bad omen. Even the Seven-11 closed early.
6 hours ago
Howard Monath Thailand is acting and looking a lot more like a South American dictatorship than the constitutional monarchy it is supposed to be.
6 hours ago
Howard Monath How can a country with some of the best shopping malls in the world go so wrong?
Howard Monath or is that 7-eleven
5 hours ago
Tags: Bangkok crisis, Howard Monath, red shirts, thai crisis