Riots in Bangkok

[ndw76]

As many of you know I am an Australian who lives in Thailand. I have come to love this country and it is heart breaking to watch Thailand tear itself apart. For about the past two months the Red Shirts have been illegally occupying the main business center of Bangkok.

At the moment there are a number of terrorist Red Shirts who are fighting against government forces, trying to overthrow the current government. Through their actions it can be seen that the Red Shirts are not interested in democracy at all, but want a dictatorship with the criminal Thaksin as the dictator.

The current government, which came to power in a legitimate parliamentary vote (the same process that has seen the current English government come to power) had offered to hold elections ahead of schedule. But they stopped short of offering amnesty to the Red Shirt leaders who have engaged in terrorist acts. The Red Shirt leaders have called for the destruction of public and private property. All of the deaths so far can be attributed to the Red Shirts failure to obey the law.

Since the Red Shirts have refused to accept a road map for peace, which would have seen elections happen over a year and a half ahead of schedule, it has become obvious that the militant Red Shirts are really fighting for dictatorship. They say they want elections to be held now, not in a number of months time. However they will not allow the current government to campaign in peace. They say they want democracy but will not allow democratic elections to take place.

The Red Shirts have given the government no option but to use force to disperse the Red Shirts. They have failed to heed months of warnings and now they are paying for that failure with their lives.

The most sad thing about this situation is that the people who are being shot are not the rich greedy morally corrupt leaders of the Red Shirts, but poor and unintelligent people who are stupid enough to believe the propaganda of the Red Shirts.

So for the time being both my wife and I are staying inside watching the news to keep up with developments. For the time being we are both safe in this part of the city. If the situation were to deteriorate to the extent of civil war I would not think about leaving without my wife.