Bangkok a tinderbox as red shirt protesters keep pressure on
At least 26 people have been killed and nearly 1,000 injured in Thailand’s seven-week stand-off
WEARING black T-shirts and red scarves, the young men picked up sharpened bamboo sticks and ran to the barricade of tyres, bamboo and blue netting that divides the opposition to the government from the soldiers and riot police across the Silom Road junction in downtown Bangkok. The protesters are edgy, defiant and the atmosphere is tense.
“Take this,” said one young protester, his hands heavily tattooed, holding out a club to me. “Take them,” he said, pointing to bags of bolts and piles of rocks in the red shirt encampment.
Under one awning, young men queued up to be given shields, some home-made, some police shields taken during previous confrontations with the security forces. There were no signs of guns or grenade launchers.
All the while, loudspeakers broadcast messages of support, urging the protesters to defend the section of downtown they have held for weeks now, causing the city’s top hotels and shopping malls to close and devastating the tourist industry the country so desperately needs.
