Breaking in Bangkok: military moves in to protest site, "much gunfire."

THAILAND: Jodi Ettenberg, a Canadian attorney (and longtime Boing Boing reader) who has been live-tweeting the crisis in Bangkok, just now DM'd me: "The military has moved in [to the protest site] and armored personnel carriers are firing rounds. I think this is the big crackdown."

Mark MacKinnon, another Canadian who also happens to be there, echoes the same: "Soldiers, armoured personnel carriers seen advancing towards main Red Shirt protest in Bangkok. Much gunfire."

Others live-tweeting what's unfolding now from the streets in Thailand, where it is 830am local time as I type: @Newley, @BangkokBill, and @vaitor, and Agnes Dherbeys (a freelance photojournalist from France who is on-site now).

Bangkok Pundit has a liveblog post here, and Reuters has a good liveblog going here.

[IMAGES: Live-tweeted photos from Florian Witulski aka @vaitor. Left, Saladaeng intersection with "soldiers in total control." Right, "several buildings in Dindaeng set on fire."]

• [Anonymous]

  @wobindian #7.
  Please, check your facts. The army did not use Tanks neither machine guns. They used two Armored Personal Carrier to crumble down redshirts barricade.
  The redshirst are armed with more than slingshots. During today’s crackdown, soldiers and journalists were shot at, dozens of grenades were thrown…

  Now, red leaders have surrendered and asked their supporters to go home and continue the fight in the ballot box… but their 2 month of propaganda and hateful speeches (calling daily for murder on their demonstration stage) cannot be erased so easily: small groups of irreductibles are now roaming Bangkok. Torching Buildings and administrations, looting ATM, shooting at fire rescue teams and bombing.

  They just dropped some kind of bomb and fired shots less than a 100m from my place.
  Peaceful protesters? Gimme a break.

  Understand me: The whole country is a disgrace. The government is inefficient and its use of force very questionable, but in no way the red shirts represent a good alternative. They use the word Democracy only for PR but many of their rants against elites sound like Khmer Rouge.
  This is not poor against rich. This is one elite using people to take the seats of the current elite.

  • [Anonymous]

    Correction, this government has little option but to use the military because nearly all the police force was so corrupt and sympathisers to the Red Shirts. I reckon there will be a big shake up in the police force after all these are over.

    Also, the Red Shirts leaders did not surrendered, they were brought under control. The rampant arson activities around Bangkok were urged and set in motion by the Red Shirts leaders by their command to burn everything down.

    I agree with you that these Red Shirts were behaving more like the Khmer Rouge. It is no longer a political movement, but more akin to an uncontrollable criminal activities.

• [Church]

  Any Americans die?

• [Von Haus]

  Just heard on the radio the red shirt leaders have surrendered after the military breached their defences. Not sure how accurate this is but thought I’d say.

• [JIMWICh]

  Hey, I was surprised to see bOING bOING’s new look, too. But I think the Thai military moving to protest the site’s new graphic design is a bit of an overreaction.

• [Anonymous]

  I hope that your reporting of the situation is balanced and shows the true context.

  Whilst the roots of the red shirt problem are a national issue, the present event is not only a Bangkok event but a Bangkok event basically in one small area.

  I am not in Bangkok, I am outside in a “red shirt stronghold” area. This is where the reds live. There is nothing at all here other than peace, quiet and business as usual.

  And when the red shirts go……. then what? The core issues that caused this problem are still present. So what is next on the agenda, from either side and how many sides are there?

• [Anonymous]

  Have retweeted and otherwise vectored this info — thanks for posting.

• [Anonymous]

  #8 – yes, they surrendered this afternoon, around 4pm local time. More info here: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE64I25G20100519 or you can check the live Reuters blog above.
  -legal nomads

• [Anonymous]

  @legalnomads here again. Update outside of Bangkok: the Udonthani city hall has been surrounded and is currently on fire. In addition, 3 journalists have been shot, with one (an Italian journalist) dying en route to the hospital (this has been confirmed by the director of the hospital). Another great person to add is @terryfrd as he consistently and objectively translates both CRES (emergency gov’t) announcements and red shirt pressers from Thai to English.

  Xeni, thanks for the mention. Incidentally, still nothing from the Canadian consulate/embassy through ALL of this, despite having registered with them. In comparaison, my American friends have had emails and town-hall meetings with the American embassy. Disappointing.

  -Jodi

• [Eark_the_Bunny]

  The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

• [wobinidan]

  The Thai government is really disgracing itself here. Once you move in with tanks and machine guns against people armed with catapults and fireworks, you’ve already lost the moral battle.

  On the other hand, I don’t know how annoying the Thai population finds these red-shirts. Considering how often I read praise for the police in the west when they beat up a bunch of unarmed hippies, perhaps there is national support for the attack.

  So, to sum up, I have no idea.

  • [Anonymous]

    There is little choice for the Thai Government but to employ the soldiers because the majority of the police force in Thailand are Red Shirts themselves or sympathisers. I thought that the Thai military is well disciplined throughout this incident. If their aim is to kill, is there a need to mention how many rounds of bullets an M16 machine gun can fire. If Thailand were another country where government had no hesitation in cracking down rebels or dissidents, it would be over in a matter of hours, instead of dragging on for months