

Made with Slideshow Embed Tool. Anti-war rally at Victory Monument, Bangkok, on February 7,2011. The more or less spontaneous protest was held between 5pm and 7pm.

By Giles Ji Ungpakorn

February 7, 2011 -- Fascist "People's Alliance for Democracy" (PAD) supporters, frothing at the mouth, cheered and clapped as a villager and a number of soldiers were killed in idiotic border clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers. Thai troops damaged the ancient Preah Vihear temple that the extreme Thai nationalists claim was “stolen” from Thailand. The PAD has been trying to start a war with Cambodia for months, using the pathetic excuse that an ancient Khmer temple "belonged to Thailand".

The temple is clearly Cambodian. This is all a displacement activity by manic right-wing royalists who are afraid that they are beginning to become irrelevant. No doubt some PAD idiots want another military coup in Thailand and a war with Cambodia. They will not be on the border facing the bullets themselves, however. It will be the poor conscripts and villagers who will pay the price. Recently a joint PAD-Democrat Party team deliberately intruded into Cambodian territory in order to cause an international incident. They were promptly arrested and PAD nutter Wira Somkwamkit is still in a Cambodian prison.

Prime Minister Abhisit, fresh from murdering 90 unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators in May 2010, has said that he is not afraid of war with Cambodia. He wouldn't be. He won't be dying, nor will any of his rich relatives. His foreign minister Kasit Pirom is a well-known PAD member and has been itching for other people to die in a pointless war with Cambodia for years.

Colonel Sansern Keawkamnurd, former spokesperson for the military security centre who coordinated the bloodbath last May, said that "the Thai army could give as good as it got". General Prayut Junocha, army chief, was also jumping up and down with glee. This is what the Thai army is really about: killing democracy demonstrators and starting shooting matches with neighbouring countries in order to get people to forget the army's crimes. All Thai military officers obviously have their brains transplanted between their legs and their mouths stuffed up their bums in officer training school.

[Giles Ji Ungpakorn is a political commentator and dissident. In February 2009 he had to leave Thailand for exile in Britain because he was charged with lèse majesté for writing a book criticising the 2006 military coup. He is a member of Left Turn Thailand, a socialist organisation. His latest book, Thailand’s Crisis and the Fight for Democracy, will be of interest to activists, academics and journalists who have an interest in Thai politics, democratisation and NGOs.]