22:00pm NYT:

In a day of street battles that left more than 100 people wounded, anti-government protesters surrounded Parliament on Tuesday, trapping hundreds of lawmakers inside throughout the afternoon.

Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat escaped over a back fence in the morning after delivering a policy address. But other members were unable to leave for more than five hours, when the police dispersed the massed protesters with volleys of tear gas and cleared the way for them.

The Thai military announced that it would deploy unarmed troops to help the police keep peace in the days to come.
...
The assault and street battles appeared to have been well planned and well supplied. Protesters distributed food, water and masks to protect against tear gas.

They made barricades of tires and razor wire and secured the entrance to the Parliament building. Groups of reinforcements arrived during the afternoon, some carrying banners.

The police attacked repeatedly, firing tear gas cannisters and chasing protesters down alleyways.

The protesters, some wearing motorcycle helmets and masks, some armed with metal rods, machetes and slingshots, threw back tear gas cannisters and used rocks and firecrackers as missiles.

A hospital spokesman quoted by The Associated Press said 118 people had been hurt, 24 of them seriously, including two who lost parts of their legs. A police spokesman said several police officers were also wounded, including one who had been stabbed in the abdomen with a metal pole. The Nation newspaper reported on its Web site that two police officers were shot.

Queen Sirikit, the wife of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, donated 100,000 baht, about $2,900, to Vachira Hospital to help treat the wounded, said the hospitals director, Wanchai Chareonchoktawee. Both sides in the political standoff have claimed allegiance to the monarchy.

"Together we win or lose, we will know it today, we won't give up,' said Anchalee Paireerak, a leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy, the anti-government group that had held street protests since May and continued to occupy the grounds of the prime minister's office.
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During the day of violence, protesters also set fire to parked cars and trucks and smashed the windows of police vans.

A photographer for Reuters said that a protester fired around a dozen shots from a handgun at a line of riot police. It was unclear if any were hit.
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"I'm here to chase out the government," said Piyanuch Klangrach, 19, a computer science student who was wearing a Mickey Mouse hat.

But a three-wheel "tuk tuk" taxi driver voiced the feelings of many other Thais who had become weary of the protests and the economic damage they had caused. "I'm bored with this," said the driver, Supit Nakham, 42. "The economy is bad. Fewer tourists are coming to Thailand," he said. "There are traffic jams all over the place. I can't work. They should talk this out and the demonstration should stop

BP: I wonder how many people feel like that tuk-tuk driver.

20:30pm Giles in Asia Sentinel:

Since late in the evening of October 6, the ultra right-wing mob that calls itself the People’s Alliance for Democracy has laid plans to lay siege to the Thai parliament.

They came prepared with iron bars and crash helmets.

Their plan, as always, was to create chaos in the hope that the military would stage a coup or that the ruling party would once again be dissolved by the courts. Their claim is that the present government led by the Peoples Power Party or PPP -- ex-Premier Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai Rak Thai in another name-- is illegitimate.

The PPP and the previous Thai Rak Thai have consistently won large majorities in elections, proving that they are popular with the poor, who make up the majority of the population. This support from the poor is not surprising, since the party was the first elite party in 30 years to offer a universal health care scheme and public funds to develop the rural economy.

The PAD's claim that the government is somehow "illegitimate" is based on the belief that the poor do not deserve the right to vote because they are too stupid. This belief is shared by the opposition Democrat Party, which supported the 2006 military coup and is now supporting the actions of the PAD by boycotting parliament. Previously the Democrats boycotted the 2006 elections because they knew that the poor would not vote for their monetarist and neo-liberal policies. The Democrats when in office set police dogs on peaceful protestors from the Assembly of the Poor. That protest was nothing like the PAD riots of the past few weeks. The Democrats also used public funds to bail out the banks in the 1997 crisis. The poor were told to fend for themselves.

The PAD is calling for the defense of the military constitution of 2007, which has already restricted the electorate's right to vote for the Senate. They want to bring about a Suharto-style "New Order", in which only half of the parliament will be elected and the Prime Minister need not be an elected MP.

On the morning of the 7th October, the police cleared one side of parliament using tear gas. This was to allow MPs to enter the building. The police made it clear that the PAD would continue to be allowed to protest outside the other entrance to parliament. However, the PAD responded by attacking the police with sharpened flag poles, homemade guns and their own tear gas grenades. In any other parliamentary democracy, the PAD leaders and their rioting supporters would have been arrested. They have been illegally occupying Government House for over a month. Yet the police have been told to "lay off the protestors" by people in high places.

Every public institution and organization in Thailand is now compromised by this inter-elite conflict and the losers, as usual, are the poor: workers and small farmers. The monarchy has failed to defuse the situation. The queen has openly sided with the PAD mob. The courts are practicing double standards, attacking Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai/People’s Power Party corruption while ignoring illegal coups, mob violence and corruption by opposition politicians and the military.

The military as always is on the side of the conservative royalists. The police are unable to act and the government lurches from crisis to crisis. The majority of academia is hopelessly compromised by its support for the coup and their support for decreasing the democratic space. Democratic principles have been thrown out the window by professors who teach "democratization" and the need for "the rule of law."

Even the People’s Movement has shown itself not to be up to the job. Instead of building an independent political position at the side of the poor and oppressed, sections of the NGO movement supported the coup, the military constitution and the PAD. Rosana Tositrakul, the so-called NGO Senator, elected from Bangkok, has joined into ultranationalist fanaticism, especially over the ancient Khmer temple on the border with Cambodia that was almost conflated into a border skirmish.

These people must bear responsibility for the recent injuries of both Thai and Cambodian troops in a needless border dispute. Rosana also disrupted parliament today, working with military-appointed senators. She believes that the poor are too stupid to be allowed to vote. Yet all these people bang on about the need for "good governance" and "accountability". Who are they themselves accountable to?

The Thai economy is facing the full force of the global economic meltdown. It needs measures to protect the poor, income redistribution and a welfare state and peace for the three southern provinces. Thaksin and his top military men should have been clapped into prison long ago over human rights abuses in the south and the so-called War on Drugs, in which hundreds of people, many of them innocent, were killed.

Yet this is never mentioned and Thaksin and his wife are seeking asylum in Britain while poor people from all over the world are sent home to die by the British government.

We need to reform society to bring about progressive changes. This means expanding democracy, not allowing Thailand to slide back into the dark ages of dictatorship. But the task will only take place by forces in the Peoples' Movement – the left, the NGO networks, social movements and trade unions coming together to outline our own reform strategy. We cannot rely on the corrupt human-rights abusers in the government, nor the fascists of the PAD and their allies to achieve these aims.

BP: Speaking of Thaksin, I wonder how his asylum application is looking now. One would assume better than yesterday.

Giles pulls no punches.

19:40pm Opposition Whip Sathit on Nation Channel, only one side was armed and that was the police.

BP: Really? When asked about what PAD should do, he refuses to say anything and just criticises the government. He compares the situation to Black May.

19:40pm Video of Somchai's presser earlier today is available here.

BP: Talking head intellectuals on Channel 3 said that Somchai wasn't showing enough reaction to the situation and acted as if nothing had happened. So Samak is too angry and aggressive, but now Somchai is too calm?

19:10pm Kom Chad Luek reports paraphrasing the Assistant Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police that the police are preparing to charge some of the protesters with attempted murder of police officers.

BP: I should note, in case it wasn't clear, that there needs to be an investigation on what transpired this morning. There were cameras everywhere, but I have seen no pictures from The Manager showing any explosive devices coming from the government side - forensic doctor Pornthip and a hospital director have said it was not just tear gas - so what transpired? I am slightly amused on a military spokesman saying:

Army chief General Anupong Paochinda is gravely concerned about the volatile situation and has voiced regrets at injuries inflicted by police during the crowd dispersal in front of Parliament, his spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnoed said.

Anupong was quoted as saying that an investigation should be launched to determine how and why high casualties happened when police claimed to have fired tear gas, Sansern said.

BP: I do wonder whether he would be saying the same thing if the army were responsible (you know when large number of people have been killed).

Police clearly need more training on crowd control measures (they don't appear to know how to fire tear gas guns), but PAD aren't peaceful protesters (what are they doing with all those iron bars etc) and perturbs me the claim of they being "unarmed" and "peaceful" protesters.

19:05pm On ThaiPBS, more tear gas fired. Report is that a senior police officer went to negotiate with the protesters and was bashed with an iron bar (the PAD started throwing things) so they police responded with tear gas.

BP: The Nation has photos of earlier battles with batons between the police and the PAD protesters - see here, here, and here (you can see more photos below).

19:00pm Abhisit on TV, Somchai must resign or dissolve parliament to take responsibility.

BP: Ok, we have new elections, PPP win again. They win again and are in office two weeks and PAD start protesting again, should the new PM resign again?

The Nation on the non-violent PAD protesters:

Anti-government protesters drive a pickup and ran over dozens of police at U-Thong Nai intersection in Dusit district on Tuesday.

Some 10 police were injured and were rushed to a hospital nearby. Most injured police suffered broken legs.

Pol Sgt Naruepon Kaewkla, who was also injured, said that a group of police were stationing at the intersection when a group of the protesters drove a pick up and ran towards them.

The sergeant said the hit knocked down many police.

BP: I will be waiting for Rosana and Co. to be outraged.

Should we take bets at what time the PAD will seize parliament? 9pm? Or will they wait until the wee hours.

18:45pm The Nation:

Two police officers sustained gun shot wounds but medical workers have yet to gain access to bring them to hospital.

BP: As we have been told the protesters are unarmed, who shot them? Friendly fire?


TOC:

PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul took the PAD stage at Government House this afternoon and stated that the government only has hours left of their term in office.

Sondhi said the result of the PAD's struggle will be known by 6 p.m. this evening. He's called on police officers and high ranking police commanders to call off their forces. He added that senior police officers will be held responsible for using the tear gas against the PAD protesters.

He's called the PAD protesters soldiers of HM the King and HM the Queen.

He's promised the PAD protesters that their long battle is about to come to its final chapter.

BP: No comment.

Gen. Panlop, a fellow classmate of Chamlong (and part of the so-called PAD second generation), is quoted in Matichon as saying in regards to the police dispersal of the protesters through the use of tear gas and injuries caused was Chamlong's plan. Chamlong planned for the PAD to seize parliament and tried to create a situation like that of Black May [May 1992]

BP: He also talks about Chavalit resigning as he was unhappy on his limited role, only on the floods, and he had heard from an aide of Chavalit [classmate of Panlop and who was negotiating with Chamlong] as he was unhappy. Having read the Crispin article below, I wonder if there is Chavalit-Anupong conflict. Matichon had an article the other day over the battle between Chavalit and Anupong on who will handle the violence in the Deep South. Anupong seems to be winning again.

Is Panlop on Chamlong's side????

18:15pm On ThaiPBS, State labour unions meet tomorrow on what they will do. The Railways labour union head says he disagrees with the violence by the government against unarmed protesters.

Crispin on what Chavalit's resignation means:

Chavalit, a former military intelligence chief in the 1980s and known for his army contacts, was a vocal opponent of the 2006 military coup that ousted Thaksin. His appointment aimed at neutralizing the influence of army commander General Anupong Paochinda, who was instrumental in the military putsch that ousted Thaksin.

Anupong broke ranks with the PPP-led civilian leadership last month when he refused to implement a state of emergency. He has declined to comment on Chavalit's appointment. Diplomats who had recently visited Chavalit's personal residence in Nonthaburi liken it to a communications nerve center, with the former premier tending to at least 10 different mobile telephones.

Since his appointment he had been in regular telephone contact with the exiled and fugitive from justice Thaksin, according to press reports. According to one foreign observer familiar with the situation, Chavalit had given himself 60 days to reach a rapprochement with the PAD and achieve a ceasefire with the Muslim Malay insurgents who since 2004 have waged a campaign of violence against state targets.

BP: Were either of those goals really achievable in 60 days?

Crispin continues:

Chavalit took full responsibility for Tuesday's assault, but it is unclear whether Somchai or even Thaksin gave the final order for the assault. A government insider said that the decision to use force was taken "collectively" during an emergency cabinet meeting held on Monday night. "We had to take a stand ... We had to disperse the crowds to keep the democratic system going," he said.

The violence followed the recent arrests of two PAD co-leaders, Chaiwat Sinsuwong and Chamlong Srimuang, who were detained on treason charges for their roles in the anti-government group's late August raids on government buildings. The PAD's siege of parliament was an apparent counter-attack for their arrests.

The government's tough response, one analyst notes, is consistent with the "iron fist in a velvet glove" approach Chavalit had deployed as a senior army official while in the 1980s when he helped to negotiate a final peace deal with Communist Party of Thailand insurgents, who were allowed to reintegrate into society without punishment.

True to that form, Chavalit insisted after the arrests of Chaiwat and Chamlong that he would maintain negotiation channels with the PAD's remaining leaders. After Tuesday's violent events and Chavalit's resignation, those talks are dead in the water as the PAD moves to capitalize politically on Somchai's use of force and resume its recently dwindled protests.

BP: Chavalit has also called it the "drain the sea to get the fish" strategy of separating the "insurgents" from their social base,

The article continues on possible UDD/DAAD revivement:

There could be more violence on the horizon. The government insider said the Prime Minister's Office "war room" was monitoring the movement of some 20,000 PAD supporters apparently on the move towards Bangkok from southern Thailand. He also warned that the group of pro-government demonstrators which violently clashed with the PAD in early September was set to reconstitute itself at Bangkok's Sanam Luang royal park.

BP: It is just a matter of time if the PAD protests continue.

On PAD and the Democrats:

The new PPP-led government can also expect spirited resistance from the opposition Democrats, who boycotted parliament in protest against Tuesday's violent melee. PAD co-leader Somkiat Pongpaiboon also serves as a Democrat parliamentarian, and after weeks of distancing the party from his protest persona, more recently party leaders have openly aligned the Democrats with the PAD's agenda.

That was seen in the arrest last week of PAD co-leader Chaiwat Sinsuwong, who was picked up after a private meeting with Democrat deputy leader Kraisak Choonhavan at his personal residence. Kasit Piromya, currently a Democrat party shadow cabinet minister, acted as a de facto PAD spokesman at a foreign press event on September 30. He was joined on the panel by Democrat deputy party leader Korn Chatikavanij, who expressed his personal support for the PAD and its call for political reforms, including a move towards more appointed representatives.

BP: Korn was a bit schizophrenic at the FCCT while agreeing with the PAD and then also stating there can be no abandonment of "one man, one vote".

On support for the government:

One Prime Minister's office official contends that the majority of Thais are still on the PPP-led government's side, contrary to statements by PAD protestors who frequently claim to represent the Thai people's will. He points, for instance, to popular web boards such as Pantip and Prachathai where he claims 80%-90% of the postings are in favor of the PPP over the PAD - a reversal of sentiment which favored the PAD in the run-up to Thaksin's ouster.

BP: I am not so sure whether one can say Panthip and Prachathai are representative of the whole country, but there are many opposed to the PAD. I am sure PAD supporters will point to The Manager and its webboard.

Crispin continues:

Public sentiment could shift again depending on how Thais interpret and react to Tuesday's violent events. In an unprecedented public display of royal sympathy for the PAD, Her Majesty Queen Sirikit was quoted in the local press saying that she was very worried about the police's use of tear gas against protesters.

The Royal Household, the reports said, offered to pay the medical expenses of the 70 or so injured in the assault. Her comments follow on King Bhumibol Adulyadej's earlier calls on Samak to refrain from using force against demonstrators. Thai royalty is by law above Thai politics, but Bhumibol has intervened at crucial junctures in the country's history.

BP: I wonder what words are being spoken in private.

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