ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK

Seh Daeng - "Red Commander" - is a controversial public figure, even within the protest movement, Fuller said. Some Thai opposition leaders see him as an impediment to a peaceful resolution to the political stalemate that has gripped Thai politics, Fuller said.

"He's a renegade in all sense," Fuller said. "He's a renegade from the army, a hardliner within the protest movement. He told me today he thought they (other opposition leaders) were being cowardly and he wanted to carry on."


Scenario: You're interviewing a Thai general officer who is operating as some sort of political rogue in the middle of a civil uprising in a wild-ass city that's out of control on a daily basis - and right now the madness is amped up to FREAK FACTOR FIVE THOUSAND - when suddenly the Red Blossom of Death appears on the general's forehead . . .






. . . excuse me for thinking that the story is no longer the political bullsh*t that led up to the circumstances; the story has just become the circumstances themselves . . .


CNN - A journalist who was interviewing a key political protest leader in Bangkok said the sniper bullet that struck the man came so close that it "felt like it grazed my head."

Describing a chaotic scene on the streets of the Thai capital Thursday night, Thomas Fuller of the International Herald Tribune described to CNN how Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdipol was shot in the head as he was interviewing the opposition figure.

"I was facing him, he was answering my questions, looking at me and the bullet hit him in the forehead, from what I could tell," Fuller told CNN's Michael Holmes. "It looks like the bullet came over my head and struck him. I don't have any way of confirming this beyond what I remember from the scene but it felt like it grazed my head."





VOICE OF AMERICA — May 13, 2010 — General Khattiya Sawasdiphol, better known as Seh Daeng (Commander Red), was shot in the head while being interviewed by journalists.

While it was unknown whether Thailand's military or government was behind the shooting, the government has previously made it clear it would shoot at what it called armed terrorists. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

ผู้สื่อ ข่าว VOA เผยนาทีชีวิตที่อยุ่ในที่เกิดเหตุและเตรียมสัมภาษณ์ เสธ.แดง หรือ พล.ต.ขัตติยะ สวัสดิผล ก่อนถูกยิง


A protester fires a homemade rocket toward Thai security forces from behind barricades Thursday night in Bangkok.



Anti-government 'red shirt' supporters assist Nelson Rand, a Canadian-born journalist working for France's TF1 network, to safety after he was shot while covering clashes with army soldiers near Bangkok's Lumpini Park on May 14, 2010. Photo: REUTERS/Adrees Latif

Nelson Rand, a Canadian working for broadcaster France 24, a local journalist working for Thai newspaper Matichon and a cameraman working for Thai broadcaster Voice TV, were injured in separate outbreaks of violence in the Thai capital today, according to media reports. Rand was reportedly shot thrice, in the leg, abdomen and wrist, and is reported to be in “serious condition.”


I lived in Thailand for ten years; I know and love the Thai people very well. I have experienced the political violence that breaks loose there; these reports are as bad or worse than anything I witnessed during my time in Bangkok. My prayers go out for the Thai people during this terrible strife.
- Sean Linnane



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