Sondhi Limthongkul, a leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), speaks to reporters at the Royal Thai Police Sports Club in Bangkok on March 30, 2009
A protest leader whose followers commandeered Bangkok's international airport for eight days last December was shot early Friday morning in Bangkok in an apparent assassination attempt, shattering hopes for calm and political reconciliation following the dispersal of violent anti-government demonstrations earlier this week that paralyzed the Thai capital, brought the army on to the streets, and forced the cancellation of a summit of regional leaders.
By late Friday morning, doctors were operating on Sondhi Limthongkul, the media magnate and leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy who sustained a bullet wound to his head, according to Dr. Chaiwan Charoenchoketawee, spokesman for Vajira Medical College in Bangkok. "His condition is serious. He has a brain hemorrhage, but he is expected to survive," Chaiwan said. Sondhi was wounded, along with his driver and bodyguard, when his car stopped at a gas station about 5AM, according to a PAD member. News reports quoted police as saying Sondhi's car was sprayed with bullets from gunmen in another vehicle. (See pictures of the Bangkok protests.)
Sondhi's "yellow shirts," as PAD members are known because of the color of their attire, are a movement of royalists, big businessmen and urban middle class Thais who are opposed to the return of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup, convicted of conflict of interest charges by Thai courts last year and is now living in self-imposed exile. Sondhi's firebrand speeches full of demagoguery rallied crowds of supporters in prolonged, occasionally violent, protests last year against Thaksin, but he has been accused by critics of stoking hatred against rural people, who form Thaksin's support base, and of being antidemocratic for advocating appointed, as opposed to elected, representatives. (See pictures of the 2008 protests in Bangkok.)
PAD's adversaries, the "red shirts" whose pro-Thaksin antigovernment demonstrations brought Bangkok to a halt last weekend, have a long list of grievances: They are calling for the current government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to resign and for new elections. They are also demanding an end to what they see as interference in politics by the military, courts and the king's Privy Council, an amnesty for Thaksin, and his return as Prime Minister.
The red shirts staged a mass rally in Bangkok on April 8, during which Thaksin, addressing the crowd by video phone, urged them to rise up in a "people's revolution." The red shirts subsequently stormed a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Pattaya, forcing its cancellation and the evacuation of regional leaders, attempted to physically attack Prime Minister Abhisit on two occasions, and launched a sometimes violent an chaotic protest in the capital, during which they burned buses, set off small bombs, threatened to blow up a gas tanker, blocked traffic on major roads, and shot and killed two local non-protestors who objected to their invasion of a neighborhood market.
The military dispersed the protest on Monday and Tuesday, but 123 people, including many soldiers, were injured. The Red Shirts are still claiming casualties, though no independent source has confirmed this. Prime Minister Abhisit said no red-shirt protesters were killed the military in breaking up their demonstration. He has refused to resign, called for a political reform process and invited the opposition to participate.
The government, meanwhile, announced on Thursday that it had revoked Thaksin's passport a day after the ASEAN summit debacle. Thaksin is believed to be living in Dubai, but the English-language daily The Nation reported on Thursday that a Dubai newspaper wrote he had flown to Africa. The government of Nicaragua also issued a statement that it had granted Thaksin a passport earlier this year to serve as a "special envoy" to seek investment for that country.
A lawyer for the PAD said his group would not respond to the assassination attempt with violence. "We want the way of peace, not payback. We will only use violence to defend ourselves, as is permissible under the law. But this is bad. It means a civil war is starting, and Thailand could end up like Rwanda," said Puchong Tirawatana. Puchong blamed the Red Shirts for the assassination attempt on Sondhi, and said there were police and military men who were red shirt members or sympathizers. Red Shirt leadership and the police have yet to comment.