Thailand’s Reds return to heartland in disarray focus 05/23/2010

Thailand’s Reds return to heartland in disarray

focus 05/23/2010 CHIANG MAI — After a military offensive that crushed anti-government rallies in Bangkok, angry “Red Shirts” are returning to their northern heartland in disarray, with their leaders in custody or hiding. Hundreds of Reds poured off trains in Thailand’s second-largest city Chiang Mai to a hero’s welcome after staging rolling demonstrations that paralyzed parts of the capital and left 85 dead and 1,900 injured since March. “I lived in Bangkok for two months. My heart still wants to carry on this fight. This pull back for me is just temporary,” said Wirash, a 43-year-old musician. The Red Shirt military strategist, a renegade general known as Seh Daeng, was shot in the head by a sniper days before an overwhelming offensive Wednesday that forced the movement’s top leadership to surrender. “The Red Shirt does not have leaders now. I do not know what to do. The police have caught our leaders,” said Wirash, who gave only his first name. “For now I have no plans to go back to Bangkok.”... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100523com8.html

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