Thousands commemorate first anniversary of Bangkok crackdown

May 19, 2011, 11:31 GMT

Bangkok - Tens of thousands of red-shirt protesters gathered Thursday at the site of last year's army crackdown on their movement in the heart of Bangkok to commemorate the dead.

An estimated 30,000 protesters gathered at Ratchprasong Road Thursday evening to join Buddhist monks in saying prayers for the people killed in last year's violence which culminated on May 19.

A year ago troops were mobilized against hard-core followers of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) who had occupied the Ratchprasong-Ratchdamri intersection, an upmarket Bangkok shopping district, for six weeks in their bid to topple the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. UDD supporters are better known as red shirts for their protest wear.

The UDD demonstration, lasting from March 12 to May 19, led to bloody confrontations between protesters and authorities that left 92 dead, including nine soldiers and police, and 1,885 injured, 542 of them state officials.

Bangkok was under emergency law during much of April to May, providing authorities with a degree of immunity for their acts, but human rights groups and red shirt supporters have condemned the government for not taking responsibility for the worst atrocities committed.

'It's been a year but I still feel the pain,' said Kaew Sophok, 45, a Bangkok street vendor who joined last year's red shirt rallies. 'The people who committed crimes here have not yet been punished,' she said.

On May 19, after the core UDD leaders surrendered to authorities, red shirt followers went on a rampage of arson and looting in the Ratchprasong neighbourhood, where they burned down the Central World Department store, one of South-East Asia's biggest, and about 30 other buildings.

The total damage done last year was estimated at 24 billion baht (800 million dollars).

Government buildings in Mukdahan, Khon Kaen, Ubon Ratchathani and Udon Thani were also set ablaze by UDD supporters.

Some 800 UDD followers were arrested, of whom some 175 remain in jail.

Meanwhile, soldiers accused of firing on and killing six civilians who had sought refuge at the Pratum temple, around the corner from Central World, have not been identified or prosecuted.

Human Rights Watch, in a recent report compiled on the May 19 event, described the killings at Pratum temple as an act of murder.

The UDD was pressing Abhisit to dissolve parliament and call for a general election.

Although Abhisit at one point offered to hold an election in November, the UDD refused, prompting the eventual crackdown.

The chief financial backer behind the red shirt protest was widely believed to be fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a telecommunications-tycoon-turned-politician who lost 1.5 billion dollars in family assets to a court ruling in February last year, shortly before the UDD took to the streets.

A year later the UDD has got what it demanded.

On May 9 Abhisit dissolved parliament and set an election for July 3.

The Pheu Thai opposition party, whose de facto leader is Thaksin, has a good chance of winning the polls.

Thaksin, who has been living abroad since 2008 to avoid a two-year jail term on an abuse-of-power conviction, remains popular among the rural and urban poor thanks to his populist policies implemented during his two-term premiership between 2001 and 2006.

He was ousted on September 19, 2006, by a coup due to the allegations of corruption against him.