Despite the repeated demands of the leaders of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) to negotiate a truce, the Abhivit Vejjajiva government deployed military tanks “to clean” the Rachaprasong district and gave the order to the army to shoot the Redshirts who have been occupying a part of Bangkok. Repression has thus further escalated.
Already these past days, the snipers and the military were responsible for dozens of deaths.
The Redshirts have been demanding for new elections and for the resignation of the Prime Minister, put in place in December 2008 owing to a reversal of the Parliament alliance organised by the military. The government thus chose to crush all democratic protests against the elite in power.
To avoid more bloodshed and deaths, leaders of the Redshirts decided to stop fighting and to surrender.
The NPA (France), in solidarity with the Thai toiling masses, condemns the repression that is now going on and demands the stop of military intervention against the Redshirts.
The instauration of the curfew upon thai society will, like a lead weight, stifle democratic freedoms.
The assassination of demonstrators claiming for justice and the respect of democracy is in no way a solution to this political conflict.
We call for international solidarity in defense of the Redshirts and their leaders to protect them from State vengeance which could put their lives in danger.
New Anticapitalist Party
Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA), France
19 May 2010
Bangkok : Stop immediately the army’s intervention !
Repression in Thailand has taken a dramatic turn. Since four days now, the army has been attacking the Redshirts who have occupied the business district of Bangkok, demanding for social justice and democracy. Though impossible to know the exact number of victims, at least fifty demonstrators have already been killed. Snipers even went into action as shown by the fate of Sae Deng, Security Chief of the Redshirts, who received a shot in the head while being interviewed by a journalist.
With the centre of Bangkok in a state of siege, the Thai crisis reached today a point of no return. While signs appear of the Royal Palace’s crisis of succession and with the present regime’s total loss of legitimacy, it is to be feared that the government of Abhisit Vejjajiva, the military, the bureaucratic elite and the Monarchy will do anything to take back the control over the situation. A bloodbath can no longer be excluded.
The New Anticapitalist Party [Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA), France] is keen in affirming its solidarity with the workers, peasants, and the urban poor, who form the bulk of the Redshirts’ demonstrators. It salutes the determination that they have shown. It calls on all progressive forces in France to demand together an immediate stop of the army’s intervention, the end of all censure of information, the respect of the right to organize, to strike and to demonstrate. Facing this emergency, international solidarity should be reaffirmed without delay.
New Anticapitalist Party
Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA), France
Le 17 mai 2010