Red Shirt Protests: Day 46

When I began photographing the Red Shirt protests, over six weeks ago, it would have been easy to confuse the gathering at Bangkok’s Phan Fa Bridge for the Thai equivalent of a European music festival. You could never make the same mistake now. The sense of revelry that I photographed on Day 2 has been replaced with an air of gloomy foreboding. The Reds are now embedded at their new location at Ratchaprasong in the centre of town, where they have erected rudimentary barricades. After six weeks, everyone seems to be tiring of the stand-off, including the Red Shirts themselves.

Barricades of tyres and sharpened bamboo poles seal the streets around Bangkok’s main shopping district, creating a stranglehold on one of the city’s most vibrant and popular areas. However, numbers inside the camp seem to be relatively low. Certainly there are nothing like the numbers that initially gathered at Phan Fa bridge and many of the people still camping out appeared to be quite elderly.

A defaced image of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit adorns a Red Shirt riot shield and rocks lay waiting to become ammunition behind Red Shirt barricades.

Red Shirt guards receive their orders before being dispatched to the “front line”. In an effort to avoid arrest if they venture outside the confines of the camp at Ratchaprasong, the Red Shirts have been ordered to dress in clothing of other  colours.

Some media outlets have drawn attention to the “Shadowy black shirts“. These ghostly black-shirted guards carry helmets on their way to guard the barricades against attempts by Government forces to clear the camp.

Red Shirt leaders, including Jutaporn Prompan and Dr. Weng Tojirakarn give a press conference from behind the Red Shirt stage at Ratchaprasong.

Despite many countries advising their citizens to avoid all but essential travel to Bangkok, some tourists still see the barricades as an unusual back-drop for their holiday snaps.

Less than 1 kilometre from the barricades, soldiers are gradually taking up position on the main Sukhumvit thoroughfare.

Eerily quiet, the road at Chit Lom is usually packed with shoppers and commuters. A “No Photo” sign at a Red Shirt barricades. Red Shirt guards twisted the sign around for me slightly when they saw me photographing it, so that I could get a better angle.

Local people show their support for the Government forces by bringing drinks to on-duty soldiers.

A soldier guarding a walkway above the busy Sukhumvit Road, just a short distance from the Red Shirt camp.

Traffic builds up on Sukhumvit Road at rush-hour as a soldier stands guard at one of Bangkok’s important BTS “Skytrain” stations.

Diners arrive at a Korean restaurant whilst police and soldiers sit outside, awaiting orders.

“End of Season”? Who can say? As always, the situation remains entirely unpredictable but after 25 people were killed during the army’s earlier attempt to clear a Red Shirt camp, the prospect of a repeat performance is not a pleasant one.

Diners eat inside a Mexican restaurant whilst soldiers armed with rubber bullets stand outside in Times Square, Sukhumvit.

A soldier stands guard outside a Starbucks outlet in central Bangkok.

A soldier sits on top of a water cannon vehicle. Just a kilometre away from the Red Shirt encampment, several water cannons were parked, ready to be deployed. However, with the notorious Bangkok traffic still running along Sukhumvit Road, their progress to the Red Shirt camp might not be ever so swift.

As I write this, the situation remains tense. Prime Minister Abhisit has vowed to clear the camp but, as yet, there have been no attempts to do so. He says that the decision to declare Marital Law rests with the army and, as ever, there seems to be confusion about who will make that decision. There are rumours that the BTS Skytrain, which runs directly over the Red Shirt camp, may be used as a tactical base for the army. Red Shirts have been buying fireworks, claiming they will use them to repel infiltration by helicopter. Today, troops have fired rubber bullets at protesters in another part of the city. Abhisit has repeatedly said that he will resign if he fails to resolve the situation – some people are beginning to ask if this might be a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Meanwhile, the Thai travel industry is once again deflating as thousands of travellers cancel their trips in light of their own Governments’ warnings about Thailand. The damage to the international reputation of the country continues to suffer as viewers around the world see footage of fighting, of closed shops and barricaded streets. I’ve tried to avoid editorialising my photos from these protests but the truth is that it is painful watching such a beautiful country slowly self-destruct. I hope that the situation is quickly and peacefully resolved and that order is swiftly restored. But I was saying that six weeks ago.

Posted on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 at 2:30 pm. Filed under: Blog, Documentary, My work Tags: bangkok, photojournalism, protests, red shirt, thailand RSS 2.0 feed.