Reporter in Exile

Sarbil

Update: Olivier is in Paris receiving medical care and will be fine. He received several serious wounds that will need further surgeries to mitigate. Although the world would benefit from an Olivier cyborg, it would seem he's managed to not lose any body parts.

Getting questions regarding my friend Olivier Sarbil, who's been working independently in Libya for several weekends with his partner Kate Parkinson. Heard from Kate this morning as AFP was reporting Olivier "seriously injured" during fighting around Sirte. She said that Olivier was in surgery and expected to survive after being wounded by shrapnel she said likely came from an RPG shell. His family is trying to arrange a medical airlift for him. For now, I'll continue planning to join up with them soon, because I know Olivier is too tough and far too stubborn to relax long in bed.

UBL's terminal surprises

Nearly a decade ago I was sleeping in an icy goat shed outside Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in the shadow of the "White Mountain" of Tora Bora. This was supposed to be the "end game" maneuver to kill Osama bin Laden, who was believed (and later confirmed) to be hiding in one of the cave complexes from which he once made a name for himself repelling a Soviet siege.

He was within the reach -- but not the will -- of American forces at that time nine years ago.

We even heard a voice believed to be his on the radio.

But the U.S. army didn't send in the infantry, and its unreliable mujahideen proxy force let him slip out the back door.

Today's special ops raid to kill the man designated "UBL" by the U.S. government contains a number of surprises. First of which, the fact that it wasn't an expensive UAV supertoy, but a helicopter loaded with armed men who assassinated bin Laden.

Secondly, that his body, according the POTUS, is in the 'custody' of American forces. Likely to stave off the inevitable 'Osama Lives!' memes that will begin percolating ... now.

But most interestingly -- or not -- is where he was reportedly holed up. For the past decade, we've been told the 9-11 architect and spiritual leader of pan-Islamist militancy was most likely hiding on the Pakistan side of the border in the lawless Northwest Frontier Province -- a place outside the control of Pakistan's government and, from my experience, is little changed from the 12th Century.

Reports indicate he was in a "mansion" north of Islamabad (Pakistan's political capital) and Rawalpindi (the true, military capital). Not inside the NWFP. Despite Obama's unconvincing assurances Pakistan "helped" in the effort, it certainly lends the appearance of state patronage.

 

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Fingers will point at duplicitous, rogue elements within Pakistan's intelligence service, but would that distinction be applied to CIA activities?

And of course, Fox News has already hedlined "Obama Bin Laden" dead, and not for the first time.

For a good read on Tora Bora, check out what Peter Bergen wrote for The New Republic in 2009.

Socking the Burma vote

TOP: Members of the Free Burma Coalition, Burma Refugee Council and other groups protested near the Burmese embassy in Bangkok on Sunday. RIGHT: Costumed "soldiers" intimidate voters trying to cast a ballot in a mock election held outside the Burmese embassy Sunday in Bangkok, Thailand.

BANGKOK -- Pro-democracy activists in Bangkok joined in demonstrations worldwide Sunday to denounce neighboring Burma's first election in 20 years as a "sham."

Reporters and Thai police outnumbered about three dozen Burmese refugees and activists, who gathered across from the Burmese Embassy to condemn both the military-led government and an election they believe is a rigged.

"We fervently hope that the vast majority of Burmese people with the right to vote ... will exercise their right not to vote," a spokesman for the Free Burma Coalition said, reading from an open letter drafted in response to the election.

Thai police stopped the protesters from approaching the embassy with a letter and burning Burmese flags.

Instead, demonstrators stomped their feet upon the flags and engaged in sidewalk theater. Two protesters dressed as Burmese soldiers intimidated and "beat" voters trying to cast a ballot for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Protesters also repeated calls for the release of Suu Kyi, who has been under arrest for most of the past 20 years since winning the country's last open election in 1990.

International observers and foreign media have been barred from entering Burma, which the military-led government renamed Myanmar after toppling civilian authority nearly 50 years ago.

Suu Kyi, along with thousands of other political prisoners, could not participate under rules determined by the ruling junta.

Instead the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party is all but certain to win handily, despite its lack of popular support.

Burmese officials describe the election as a significant step toward restoring representative democracy. Critics say it's a naked bid to legitimize their unpopular rule.

 

 

 

 

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The Bangkok journalism scene's buzz for the past couple months has been about who succeeded in securing visas to Burma to cover the election. I know or am aware of several people able to acquire tourism visas, a not-uncommon practice the authorities clearly anticipated. The SPDC nabbed a Japanese photog today in Myawaddy, a town just across the border from Thailand, according to Irrawaddy.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand is offering feeds of what information is available from its clubhouse in the Maneeya building at Chidlom.

FCCT panel debate re: foreign media coverage of Thailand recap

Wednesday evening panel as described by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand:

"Thailand has been through some tumultuous months with scenes that have both horrified and bemused many. The world has drunk a heady cocktail of ramwongs, snipers, firebugs, rogue generals, blood-pouring rituals, live firing, burning tyres, APCs, black militia/magic/smoke, terrorism warrants, VIP prisons, dead journalists, travel advisories, Kevlar, empty streets, failed compromises, broken deadlines, government statements, razor wire, outraged letters to the editor, burnt-out buildings and disputed body counts."

...

The FCCT is pleased to welcome an expert Thai panel to offer some insights into their land and how they feel it has recently been presented:

- Dr Sumet Jumsai – Architect, artist and social commentator

- Kraisak Choonhavan – Deputy Chairman of the Democrat Party, former senator and expert in foreign relations

- Pana Janviroj – Chief Operating Officer of the Nation Group

- Somtow Sucharitkul – Composer, author and social commentator

My abbreviated Twitter coverage:

• Opening with montage of video coverage
• Moooore video coverage recap
• Good recap of coverage, let's get to the debate!
• Somtow, who I don't recall seeing in the field - journalists didn't get the full picture
• Dr Samet - journos intellectually bankrupt ... Great damage done to this country. BBC was great in past, but not now
• Dr Samet-people shot were shot by reds
• I don't recall seeing these guys anywhere during the conflict...no elaboration on their evidence
• Sumet-journos worse than nazis. Reds were barbarians.
• Kraisak-of Citizen Juling fame-who previously objected to military coup-now indignant of the assertion govt installed by military
• Kristina [Kraisek per 'spellcheck']the stage they were not addressing the true class struggle, reds never addressed true injustices of Thailand
• raisek-nobody admits seh daeng part of red shirts. (Must have not read MiB story) He represented violence and Thai "impunity"
• Kraisek done. Pana janviroj of the Nation up. Trashin BBC for saying Abhisit not elected. Say what?
• In related news, Sarbil is officially drunk
• Pana endorsing Economist coverage. Whooduhthought?
• Pana-our photog was shot, and he believed by the military, but he's not angry.
• Q from Swedish embassy re freedom of speech-Sumet:sweden is land of free sex
• I'm behind the anti-cnn letter author to ask a question
• Got my q in; despite the critique of foreign media, what of Thai media, who I saw showing red positions and black bombs to army...
• A: Thai media infiltrated by partisan forces
• UDDs Sean Boonpracong: when can we be heard? A: derision and scorn 

Bangkok's "Men in Black" unmasked

Those who've followed this blog have likely wondered just what was the back-story to certain updates from the field regarding two days spent among the much-speculated upon "Men in Black." I'm pleased to share the story of who they are, what they did, and whom they took orders from in my exclusive at Asia Times, excerpted below:

Unmasked: Thailand's men in black

By Kenneth Todd Ruiz and Olivier Sarbil

BANGKOK - A cigarette hanging from his lips, a sinewy man with a knotted-up beard perched on the back of a plastic chair and spoke into a military-grade radio.

''Happy birthday," he said in English. Moments later a sonorous detonation boomed from afar in the heart of the Thai capital. A cluster of anti-government protesters crowded around him exulted, shouting ''Happy birthday'' in unison. Many more such coded celebrations would follow in the next 24 hours.

It's five days before the army would send armored personnel carriers into central Bangkok on May 19 to decisively quash the "red shirt occupation," and your correspondents are inside a tent with the infamous paramilitaries, dubbed ''men in black'' by the media, as they prepared for war.

They let us inside their secret world on one condition: if we took any pictures, they would kill us.

You can read the full story online at Asia Times.

From another night under Bangkok curfew; my inevitable social networking post

While crouched behind a tree inside Lumpini Park came the realization I'd advanced past the soldiers and was now between them and the back gate to the Red Fortress. While each rifleman had lines of fire clear of me, I'd gotten the impression in recent weeks that Thai Army gunfire can be downright friendly.

At that moment I caught sight of the Chinese-American photojourn I'd met up with while chasing the APCs up Sathorn Road. I crouch-ran over to his location and found him fiddling with his phone.

"What's up, are you good?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm just reading your Tweets!" he replied.

Covering this story brought an end to my Twitter ambivalence. Although I won't be updating the world with snappy Haiku describing the tartness of my som tam lunch, it won me over as an effective reporting tool.

Not just by allowing me to report while reporting, via updates to an audience in real-time from the battlefield, but as a newsgathering tool.

I probably would have slept through the crackdown had I not caught UDDThailand's 4:01 a.m. update after a long night of editing, writing, posting and, well, Tweeting.

"Highest Alert! 30 APCs left Gierguy 20 minutes ago got in Expressway and will land in at Silom and unknown numbers... http://bit.ly/9X5BG," read the message from the Reds' United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, or UDD. That strange bit at the end is a link to another website, abbreviated to accommodate Twitter's immutable 140-character limit. More than ever, brevity remains the soul of wit.

But at 4 a.m. I was not about to race off on another wild-goose chase by yet another shrill UDD wolf-cry.

Liveblogging Monday in Bangkok from the field

• Heading in, got a route to make it to Sukhumvit/Phaya Thai (Where MBK mall is at the west end of the red zone). Will feed updates to the blog and twitter as able. (12:45)
• In red camp at Silom.  Mostly abandoned.  RPG damage in Dusit Hotel and Chula Hospital.  Heading to Din Daeng. (14:51)
• Inside red zone. 3PM Deadline is now. (15:02)
• We are at Bon Kai across from Lumpini Tower.  Reds trying to extend tire barricade under fire.  Black shirts just got here to help.  (15:48)
• With red shirts and black shirts at Bon Kai.  They're firing homemade rockets at army up the next soi. (15:56)
• No gunshots at the moment, just small IEDs and ping pong bombs from red shirts. (16:01)
• Black shirts reportedly will stage revenge attack on army tonight for killing Seh Daeng. (16:04)
• On North side of Rama4 with red shirts, another group on South side advancing West towards army.  (16:24)
• They're keeping pressure on the army with bombs.  Army firing this way, snipers on buildings.  (16:34)
• Picture circling around of Thaksin shopping at Louis Vuitton on May 15th.
• Sounds like WW3 down here at Bom Kai.  Mostly ping-pong bombs and fireworks.  (17:27)
• Some sniper incoming to red shirts but they are mostly safe behind tires. (17:29) 
• Red shirt shot at Bon Kai.  Fireworks vs. M16s. (18:01)
• Reds got too comfortable behind tires.  One shot looked to be head.  (18:05)
• Soldier side has withdrawn from their tires.  (18:06)
• Apart from the fireworks, none of the #redshirts I've seen are armed.  (18:30)
• Gunshot victim at Lumpini tower seriously wounded but still alive. (18:43)
• Pretty quiet now, no reports of anything too heavy going on.  Plumes of tire smoke coming up all over Bangkok.  (19:15)

Red camp at Silom rigged to blow, picture of one of the bombs

Many of the most hardcore hardcore reds are camped behind those Mad Max-style barricades at the southwest corner of Lumpini Park. I'd spent much time there during the weeks preceding this orgy of violence, and camped there both Thursday and Friday night. By Saturday morning, most of the women and all of the children were evacuated, just leaving behind mostly the men ready to fight. Several women remained to fight or provide support as well.

The place is wired for doomsday. In this picture below, a gray det cable snakes from the center of camp to a Very Large Bomb placed inside those two tires lying horizontally.

 

Warning to foreign journalists

Whatever the basis, this recent SMS is representative of what's going around:

"Just to ask you to warn foreign journalists to take care.  Someone I know who still talks to the military said this time its for real.  Since they can control Thai media they now focus on foreign journos.  They won't aim to kill but put them out of work at least for awhile.  Please consider warning your friends."

View from north of Silom

With about 500+ red shirts gathered across from Silom, I don't think they had the numbers to pull off an incursion into the business district. Sunday they announced a big Tuesday rally, so I'll be in position tomorrow for any developments. Let's take a tour of the other side of Rama IV Road, shall we?

"Read More" for the tour. Can I stop typing this reminder now?

South side perspective of the Silom standoff

Read the previous post for the newswriter treatment.  The scene on Silom was not only tense, but surreal. Soldiers fortified positions in public areas while office workers, shoppers and tourists streamed around them. Getting aboard the Skytrain (BTS) meant tiptoeing around slumbering riflemen and stepping over their weapons. Tactically, the BTS station is an excellent and obvious location to deploy because it is highly defensible with good visibility and elevation. Of course shutting it down for their operation would have defeated the purpose of keeping the business district wheelin' and dealin'.

Click "Read More" below for the full photo-narrative.

My first stop this morning was in New Thaksinville, which now stretches from just east of Rajprasak intersection all the way west past Siam Square to the MBK mall. Siam Paragon, Fun Center and most other businesses along that half-mile-or-so stretch were closed:

Thai soldiers secure financial district from protesters

TOP: A soldier aims his rifle toward antigovernment protesters gathering nearby as the Thai military mobilized Monday to defend Bangkok's financial district.  RIGHT: "Red shirt" demonstrators massed opposite the soldiers at the southwestern corner of Bangkok's sprawling Lumpini Park, across the street from the entrance to the Silom Road financial district. (Photos: Kenneth Todd Ruiz)

By Kenneth Todd Ruiz

BANGKOK -- Thai soldiers rushed into position this afternoon with shotguns and M16 rifles to defend the Thai capital's financial district from being overrun by hundreds of antigovernment protesters wielding sharpened bamboo staves.

Stretching concertina wire along the sidewalks and setting up firing positions along an elevated walkway in the heart of Bangkok, the army stared down demonstrators massing at an encampment across the street in a tense standoff that continued into the evening. Neither side initiated any confrontation as of 10 p.m. 

"We would like them to come to us," said a demonstrator identifying himself only as Po. "They have guns and will kill us. Maybe we will kill them. We have guns too. But they have many more."

Dressed in their signature color, the "red shirts" -- who would see fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned to power -- have already succeeded in shutting down the nearby commercial district and recently signaled their intent to take over Silom Road, home to Bangkok's business and financial institutions.

Their target, specifically, is the headquarters of Bangkok Bank, which protesters say is closely tied to the embattled government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiv. Several grenades have been fired at the bank since red shirt protests began mid-March.

Tensions are running high in the Thai capital eight days after 23 people -- civilians, soldiers and a Japanese journalist -- were killed in a poorly executed attempt to dislodge the demonstrators on April 10.

At least 10,000 red shirts have occupied a half-mile stretch of Sukhumvit Road, home to Bangkok's posh shopping malls. The Thai Chamber of Commerce estimates the massive sit-in could cost Thailand up to $2 billion.

Speaking from their stage erected in the commercial district, a red shirt speaker claimed Monday evening to have received leaked military plans to employ force and censorship to bring an end to the urban uprising within seven days. His claim could not be confirmed.

The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, or UDD, is organizing the protests with money widely believed to be coming from Thaksin's large coffers. UDD leaders are demanding the government dissolve and hold new elections immediately, and that Abhisit leave the country.

They recently rejected an offer by Abhisit to call new elections early in six months.

Most of the demonstrators hail from the disadvantaged and increasingly restive northeastern provinces of Thailand and saw Thaksin as a champion of the poor. The military deposed him in a coup four years ago. He was later convicted of fraud and corruption, and in 2008, Abhisit's government was installed after yellow-shirted middle class protesters seized Bangkok's vital airports.

Songkran in Bangkok

After an eternity spent watching my nails grow, I finally gave up on YouTube and managed to upload to Vimeo. I'm so done with YouTube.

Arrived home to Bangkok from Khon Kaen in northeastern Thailand early Thursday morning and spent the afternoon/evening touring the city. Bangkok has transformed. Little traffic on the streets usually choking with the stuff, and fewer of the infamous 'Thai smiles' to be seen. Things are tense and everyone seems braced for the next calamity.

Bangkok aftermath on Songkran from reporterinexile on Vimeo.

Todd's Tip of the Day: Heed those warnings about 'razor thieves' who gently cut into your bag and slide the goodies out. Tracy's recently replaced camera requires re-replacement after we waded through the human morasse on Khao Sarn Road.

Bloodsport

So yesterday's sensational announcement by Red Shirt organizers they would collect nearly 300 gallons of blood from 100,000 demonstrators -- a logistical impossibility from the same people claiming they've got more than 500,000 supporters here -- hasn't been received kindly, several outlets report, including The Nation, Thailand's other English language daily.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council is threatening to punish nurses who agree to collect blood from red-shirt protesters for the plan to pour blood around Government House today.

What's wrong with splashing around some blood? For one, hepatitis is endemic in Thailand. Conditions are likely to be less than sanitary, and losing blood before another grueling day under this fierce sun could prove unwise. Also, for any participating medical professionals, there's that whole Hippocratic Oath thing.

It also reinforces the perception of rural-poor-as-cannon-fodder for Thaksin. UDD organizers have said their goal is to convince the government to dissolve or undermine Abhisit's hold on power by provoking "suppression" by the government, which is an aloof way of promoting martyrdom.

And we all know what happens to Red Shirts:

Worth noting Kirk and the bridge officers are Yellow Shirts? Or is that straining the gag?

Day Two: Ides of a March

More than 100,000 "Red Shirt" demonstrators  flooded Phahon Yothin on Monday on a 12.5 mile trek through Bangkok to protest at the Army's 11th Regiment headquarters.

Antigovernment demonstrators surged into northern Bangkok this morning to show their strength, mobility and ability to impact daily life in the Thai capital.

While crowd estimates are difficult and subjective, what looked to be more than 100,000 supporters of the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship, or UDD, launched a crimson caravan of capacity-busting motorcycles, vans, buses, songthaews and feet from their epicenter at the Phan Fa Bridge just east of the Democracy Monument on Thanon Rajdamnoen. (For those of you in the States who've toured the Land of Smiles, this is quite close to the backpacker's paradise/slum of Khao Sarn Road.)

They streamed 12.5 miles (20 km) into the northern portion of sprawling Bangkok to essentially surround the Army's 11th Regiment Headquarters. Soldiers maintained defensive positions but showed no signs of provocation.

High noon brought the expiration of the UDD's 24-hour ultimatum that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva relinquish power and dissolve the government. Abhisit formally rejected Red Shirts demands earlier.

Despite the skepticism they'll be able to mount the pressure needed to win the week, month or capital, today was another energetic demonstration by the predominately impoverished farmers from surrounding provinces who seek to return fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to power.

The massive red march choked Thanon Phahon Yothai, and hundreds of protesters quit the fierce heat to make camp along the side of the road.

The meticulous planning emphasized by Red Shirt organizers in the run-up to this "Million Man March" was evident. Official Red Shirt traffic cops controlled access onto the upper-level road leading toward the army building, waving through red shirt vehicles, foreign media and VIPs.

Their ultimatum rejected, UDD leadership has promised to literally spill blood on Tuesday. Red Shirts will donate their blood to be poured on the ground around - literally.

At 8 a.m. tomorrow, UDD will literally suck the blood out of it's base, according to the Post, and pour it around Prime Minister Abhisit's seat of power.

          ...

United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) core leader Natthawut Saikua has announced that he will take one thousand litres of blood donated by protesters and spill it around Government House on Tuesday, in retaliation for the government's decision not to dissolve the House.

...

A total of one million cubic centimetres (cc) would be taken from 100,000 volunteers, including protest leaders. This would be a symbolic action. Cabinet ministers would have to walk over the protesters' blood when they enter Government House to work, he said.

It's an emotional act that will appeal to the UDD's base, but is unlikely to sway the average member of the silent majority. But the sentiment reflects the underdog psychology of the embittered residents. Those who see themselves as starving while the Bangkok elite gorge on the sweat from their necks. At least that's the view from their select-cut of reality. And according to one Thai observer, it plays uncomfortably on the pre-Buddhist traditions of superstition and blood ritual that still linger in rural provinces.

Monday was not without violence, the Bangkok Post reports:

(...) six M79 grenade rounds were fired into the First Infantry Regiment camp on Vibhavadi-Rangsit Road, wounding two soldiers, according to Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd, spokesman of the peace-keeping operation centre.

The work of the violent fringers that pose a challenge to the UDD's pledge of nonviolence?

It makes no sense for the UDD or the government to instigate violence at this point. They are locked in a staring game because whichever side loses their cool first is likely to lose public support.

Both sides are trying to win the sympathy vote from the Silent Majority and allied powers. Acts of violence are counterproductive to that aim. As Red Shirt spokesman Sean Boonpracong said two weeks ago at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, "Our image really took a beating" after world leaders were airlifted from Pattaya to escape the Red Shirts during last April's ASEAN summit.

As posted on the excellent blog that is Bangkok Pundit, the U.S. State Department carefully balanced the scales to weigh in on the situation several days back:

Thailand is a close friend and ally of the United States.

And as a long-time friend, we are closely watching the current situation in Thailand.  The United States believes that differences should be addressed through Thailand’s democratic institutions and not through violence.

Peaceful demonstrations are a hallmark of a democratic society.  We call on protesters and their leaders to forswear the use of violence and to exercise their right to assemble and protest peacefully, in accordance with the law.  We also encourage the Royal Thai Government to exercise appropriate restraint.

A nod there to democracy -- one of the Reds' most resonant beefs is that their (legally elected) guy was given the Gong Show treatment when the Yellow Shirts plucked him from power four years ago by occupying the airports and crippling Thailand's influx of tourism revenue.