Red-shirt followers commemorate Bloody May 19th in Bangkok

Red-shirt followers rallied at Ratchaprasong intersection this afternoon, to mark the 14th anniversary of the May 2010 violence in Bangkok, which followed protests organised by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) to demand that then Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve parliament and hold fresh elections.

Protests escalated into prolonged and violent confrontations between protesters and the military. More than 80 civilians and six soldiers were killed and over 2,100 injured by the time the military quashed the protests on May 19th. Several buildings in Bangkok and provincial halls in some provinces were torched by protesters.

Wearing red, the followers started to gather at the Ratchaprasong intersection earlier this afternoon. A stage was erected in front of Central World shopping mall. A huge poster, commemorating the violent event and in memory of those killed, was hung from the pedestrian overpass. Several red flags were hoisted in the area.

A religious ceremony is scheduled for 5.30pm, followed by a speech by Associate Professor Anusorn Unno, of the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology at Thammasat University.

Payao Akhard, the mother Kamonkate, a volunteer nurse who was shot dead, along with several other people, in the compound of Pathum Wanaram Temple near the intersection, said that she will “bare all the truths” about her daughter’s killing tonight, which she has kept in her heart for 14 years.