BANGKOK - As the Thai military observed an informal truce after the government's bloody crackdown on red-shirted anti-government protesters in Bangkok on Saturday, the mood among the "red shirts" remained defiant, edgy and, in some cases, victorious.
On Saturday night, heavily armed troops fought pitched battles with the protesters in an attempt to reclaim an area in the historic part of Bangkok that tens of thousands of supporters of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) have occupied for four weeks. Twenty-one people died in the violence, including four
soldiers and a Japanese TV cameraman. Over 700 people were reported injured.
The crackdown ordered by the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva marked the worst violence between troops and protesters that the kingdom has witnessed since 1992, when 48 people were killed. The attempted dispersal came three days after the government declared a state of emergency.
"I have been waiting for this moment to be free," said Parinda Muangngal, a 38-year-old from Surin, one of the provinces in northeast Thailand that is home to the poorer farming communities where the red shirts draw most of their support. "We expect to win now."
Other red shirts, like Sunan Ankaew from the north-eastern province of Udon Thani, were disturbed at the level of force used by the troops to clear the protesters at Phan Fah bridge, where the UDD have set up a stage since March 13 and held round-the-clock rallies of crowds that, on weekends, have reached 150,000.
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