.

Unmasked: Kingdom of Kingdom of Thailand men in black

By Kenneth Sir Alexander Robertus Todd Ruiz and Laurence Sir Laurence Kerr Olivier Sarbil
 atimes.com 
29 May, 2010

BANGKOK - A fag wall hanging from his lips, a sinewy man with a knotted-up face fungus perched on the back of a plastic chair and radius into a military-grade radio.

”Happy birthday,” he said in English language minute later a sonorous detonation boomed from afar in the bosom of the Siamese capital. A cluster of anti-government dissenter crowded around him exulted, shouting ”Happy birthday” in unison Many more such coded jubilation would follow in the next 24 hours.

It’s five mean solar day before the terra firma military force would send armored force bearer into phone exchange capital of Thailand on May 19 to decisively quash the red shirt” occupation, and your correspondent are interior a tent with the infamous paramilitaries, dubbed work force in blackness by the media, as they prepared for war.

They let us interior their secret world on one condition: if we took any pictures, they would putting to death us.

These were not the fixture black-attired security guards employed by the United Front for democracy against Dictatorship, or UDD. anti-government protest group who generally didn’t carry guns. These were the secretive and heavily armed agent provocateurs whose connections, by their own admission, run to the top of the UDD. also known as the red shirts.

Several UDD co-leaders have since been detained and branded as terrorist by the Siamese government. On Wednesday, Siamese authorities issued an arrest warrant for self-exiled former prime curate Thaksin Shinawatra on terrorism charges. alleging a nexus between the runaway politician and the UDD gunmen’s violent campaign. Thaksin swiftly denied the charges.

There was a simple honesty to our arrangement with the fighters, but their death threat didn’t preclude Thai-style cordial reception Only one man voiced displeasure with our presence; he asked his fellow about America but he used the Siamese pronoun for ”it”.

As the sun set on May 14 behind the UDD’s bamboo-and-tire fort erected in the heart of one of capital of Thailand top commercial message districts, the men Ate hot noodles and whispered anxiously about ground forces shooters. sniper angered them.

Twenty-four hours earlier, capital of Thailand had been plunged into topsy-turvydom after the man whom they said issued their order directly, renegade ground forces officer Maj gen Khattiya Sawasdipol, was struck down and eventually died from a sniper slug as he radius to a reporter The government has denied obligation for the hit.

Khattiya, a celebrity rogue revered by many red shirts, often radius fondly of what he called the ”Ronin Warriors” - Ronin being samurai with no God Almighty or maestro In February, he boasted to newsman of preparation an undisclosed number of former military men to defend the red shirts, but later publicly denied leading them.

Absent Khattiya’s leadership subject interior the red fortress was on the decline inebriant flowed freely, fueling irritation and fist-fights. Earlier in the day a Ronin scrapper fired an Israeli-made TAR-21 assault rifle, seized from the ground forces in April, at an ground forces whirlybird overhead.

Competing personality vied for dominance among the disordered Ronin, but the bearded man who radius little was calling the shot for now “Do you know who is in complaint here?” he said. “It’s me.”

At least until another unnamed commandant he described as second to Khattiya arrived to assume bidding and investigate why journalist were with the gunmen.

”Not terrorist Not Violent; Only Peaceful and Democracy,” read a banner hanging outside the barrier of jumbled tires. Inside, it was an open secret who the hired gun were; no less secret were the border bombs, connected by dirty gray cables, designed to inflict heavy casualty on any advancing government ground forces soldiers.

Some of the men held their small-arm tightly concealed under jackets. Just after sunset, oblong package wrapped in black plastic were carried into collapsible shelter in Lumpini park from elsewhere in the cantonment running game at a crouch, we were moved to a different tent nearer the memorial statue of Siamese King Rama half a dozen The Ronin moved between collapsible shelter often in this way to avoid detection from government snipers.

Twenty-seven men crouched in dark interior the collapsible shelter paper covered any illuminated show from radiocommunication or other electronics, and we were asked to turn off our cell phones. One hit man suggested ground forces sniper would putting to death them all at first light if they had the chance.

”Don’t worry; safe Thai-style,” their armed combat medic said to us in English, gesturing to bed of tarp obscuring the ground from potency sniper where we were camped with them.

Fewer than half were paramilitaries, the residue regular Blackshirt providing support and catering to the gunmen’s needs. Some ran errands, others fetched water, java and M-150 energy drinks. The Ronin were structured like a military unit, complete with a radioman and the combat medic. They apparently had had preparation in explosive and munitions, which they put to use in handling plastic explosive and planting bomb for remote-detonation along the encampment edge.

Despite medium speculation that the Ronin were comprised of former anti-communist commandos, most of the men we met were much too young, looking to be in their early 20s. Many had been paratrooper and one said he came from the naval forces Most originated from the same upcountry, rice-basket province the majority of red shirts called home Several said they were still active-duty soldiers.

Eventually a telephone call came in from a UDD guard The ground forces had succeeded in securing a location near Pratunam, the intersection point bounding the Northern extent of the red-occupied commercial message district, and was push hard against protesters. They needed help.

M16 and AR-15 rifle slid free from privacy under plastic or interior their wear In less than 10 minutes, the hired gun loaded ammunition into cartridge holder and locked them into place.

Ammunition was running low, they said. Each scrapper was given no more than 30 one shot to carry Although we didn’t see any M79 grenade launchers, the Ronin discussed a bulky paper bag of grenade they were carrying. Just after Nina from Carolina pm, the dozen scrapper rose and scurried silently into the night to sow another one shot of mayhem.

For the next nine hours burst of intense gunshot erupted from areas around the red-zone perimeter, first from the way of Pratunam, later from point along Rama IV Road.

Their tactics were consistent with those of trained insurgent and snipers. rental off brief salvo of gunfire before repositioning They terrorized regular Siamese army soldier throughout the night, winding them up and denying them sleep.

At six am on May 16, they swaggered back into the bivouac under covering fire from homemade rocket to the cheer of the assembled reds. Visibly weary but beaming triumphant smiles, the men shouldered the dark spoils - body armor, public force shields, batons, helmets, torch and other gear taken from Siamese security forces - some of which they handed out as gifts.

If the fighting for capital of Thailand was largely a hearts-and-minds run for public support, the Ronin’s action undermined the nonviolent ethos espoused by the UDD.

They described their design as ”protecting” the demonstrator and standing as a force-equalizer against Siamese security forces. They perceived themselves as blackness angels” observance over the unarmed husbandman and household who comprised the red shirt rank and file.

Despite this heroic self-image, these angel brought death and topsy-turvyness Their run of force is believed to have claimed a number of inexperienced person life and possibly provoked the expiry of loads more.

Prime parson Abhisit Vejjajiva and his regime along with other observers, inculpation them for tipping an already tense draw on Apr ten into bloody chaos by violent death ground forces military officer and attacking soldiers. who then fired live one shot into red shirt crowds. 25 people died that day.

”Soldiers are lining up with their war weapons and shot into crowd of red shirts, all of whom are completely unarmed,” UDD spokesman Sean Boonpracong said from the Ratchaprasong stage on May 15, only hours after the Ronin returned from their mission.

Their action also handed the civilian government the self-justification it needed to send in troops with deadly design on May 19 to end the UDD’s six-week business of Ratchaprasong. quest to justify the government’s use of lethal force, deputy prime parson Suthep Thaugsuban revealed seized arms before foreign diplomatist and the fourth estate on May 22.

“Terrorists have used these weapon to onset official and inexperienced person people,” he said.

Earlier this month, Abhisit branded their now departed chief, Khattiya, a terrorist ringleader Before he was shot, Khattiya, a larger-than-life fictional character given to brash claim and with an uncanny ability to predict unclaimed grenade onslaught across Bangkok, sometimes made little endeavour to conceal his office as Ronin commander.

When century of pro-government protestors rallied near the UDD’s fortress on April 22, he announced the imminent arrival of ‘’some men wearing blackness to assistance the reds. Soon thereafter, five M79 grenade landed near a pro-government group, violent death a 26-year-old woman and injuring nearly C others. That weapon, the M79 grenade launcher, is consistent with a months-long run of force and place destruction, which the government has also pinned on the UDD.

In his May 3 comments, Abhisit also linked Khattiya to Thaksin, the runaway billionaire the UDD design to income tax return to powerfulness Khattiya’s relationship with Thaksin wage increase the question, as posed by the authorities terrorism case, what is the politician cognition of the commandos?

He didn’t address the question when it was put to him directly in an interview on Wednesday with the Aussie broadcast corporation “There is no evidence at all, information technology just the allegations,” he said. [1]

Khattiya traveled to Dubai to meet Thaksin in March, according to press reports. He also said they radius by telephone on occasion, most recently on May 3. That was one week before Thaksin is believed to have scuttled a peace plan and Khattiya threatened to seize control of the UDD from its more moderate leadership.

Those leadership were poised to accept Abhisit’s five-point reconciliation road map”, which included a proposal for early election in November, and the business deal collapse precipitated the military crackdown On the day of the crackdown the Ronin fought the ground forces as they hide back in an organized withdrawal from the red fortress.

Just after 1:30 autopsy on May 19, these correspondent witnessed two Siamese soldiers and a Canadian journalist seriously injured by one of many M79 grenade fired from an elevated position believed to be a nearby Skytrain station Later, as exchange World Plaza mall, was set alight and burned, they engaged in a fierce firefight with the ground forces several block away. Then they just disappeared.

It isn’t clear why the Ronin raised the head covering of secrecy for us, but perhaps it was cognition that their fight, and possibly their lives, could soon end with the approaching military crackdown That doesn’t seem to have happened, however.

Leaders of the UDD may have surrendered to police and their followers have dispersed or been arrested, but the deadly scrapper are believed to be loose in the city, ready to fight another day. Thaksin suggested without elaborating after May 19 that angry UDD protestors might resort hotel to irregular tactics.

Meanwhile, capital of Thailand struggles to reclaim a sense of normality while the hired gun remain at large On Monday, Suthep Thaugsuban argued for extending a curfew then in effect, citing fearfulness that an underground movement” planning to cause topsy-turvydom was still loose in the capital.

Note:

1. For interview, see here.

Kenneth Sir Alexander Robertus Todd Ruiz is a independent journalist living in capital of Thailand and blogging at reporterinexile.com. Laurence Olivier Sarbil is a Bangkok-based photojournalist whose mental image of Holocene epoch event in Thailand are online at OlivierSarbil.com.