After getting some food I decided to head to Redshirt HQ to see what was going on there seeing as there were no reports of current clashes coming in. I was at the same location in the morning and the night before (sorry no pics of my time there on the 12th – I forgot to put a memory card in my camera)and while there were still a good number of people at the location there were a LOT less than there were the night before or in the morning. Areas that were packed 24 hours before now just had a few small stalls selling various items and a smattering of people.
On my way in I noticed a number of burned out buses blocking the roads.
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Once I got closer to the stage I passed a minor Redshirt roadblock. Behind this roadblock is where I found the Redshirts who were still there. I stayed there a few hours talking to the people (and getting a kick ass foot massage).
I must admit the people there were REALLY scared. Upon seeing a white dude with a camera a lot of them would beg me to stay the night because they were convinced that the government was going to come in that night with guns blazing and massacre them. There were rumors everywhere about government soldiers killing Redshirts with one man even claiming that about 100 Redshirts were killed earlier at Din Daeng.
While I can't say for sure what happened at Din Daeng based on what I saw earlier throughout the day I doubt these reports were true. All of the Thai soldiers I saw were VERY professional and I doubt many western police departments (LAPD for example) could have ended protests of this type in such a restrained and professional manner. Furthermore I had heard claims of Redshirt deaths before at Victory Monument and Uruphong – both of which I know are not true. I believe that the hard core protestors simply were getting all of their information from other Redshirts (ALL government claims were taken as total lies) and this was creating an atmosphere where wild rumors quickly became accepted as undeniable fact as they spread.
Besides the rumors and conversations the only other thing of interest was sounds of gunfire and some small explosions around 9:45 pm. One of the Redshirts told me that it was coming from around Orothai (sp?) bridge. The sounds died down pretty quickly and I decided not to head in that direction as I figured whatever was going on would be over by the time I got there.
I left the area around midnight convinced that the area was quiet and not much would be happening there anytime soon.
Some more pics of the people and area:
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