Thousands of Thai opposition supporters mourn renegade general slain during demonstrations

Thousands mourn Thai general slain during protests

BANGKOK — Thousands of opposition supporters who once occupied central Bangkok in a bid to bring down the Thai government paid final respects Tuesday to a renegade general assassinated at the height of the Red Shirt demonstrations.

Amid heightened security, the mourners filed through a Buddhist temple in Bangkok to attend the cremation of Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdiphol, who was shot in the head by a sniper May 13 while giving interviews to foreign journalists.

It was the largest gathering of Red Shirts — who traded their signature attire for black and white clothes of mourning — since the army’s crackdown on their sprawling protest in the Thai capital on May 19.

“The funeral is a time for mourning, but it’s also a time to show solidarity,” said Pongsak Phusitsakul, a provincial protest leader who attended with other Red Shirts from his province.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Vichai Sangparpai said that 800 policemen — including bomb squads, riot police and undercover officers — were being deployed in and around the temple, which was a few blocks from the area where the Red Shirt protest started.

The Red Shirts staged 10 weeks of protests during which nearly 90 people were killed — most of them protesters shot by soldiers — and more than 1,400 injured before security forces drove them from the enclave in downtown Bangkok they had occupied.

The protesters were demanding that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve Parliament and call early elections. They see Abhisit as illegitimate because his Democratic party did not win the last general elections in 2007. His government was elected by parliamentary vote last year after two previous administrations loyal to ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra were invalidated by court rulings.

Khattiya, better known as “Seh Daeng,” was singled out by the government as the leader of a militant wing of the Red Shirts and a key organizer of rudimentary bamboo-and-tire defenses around the area they occupied.

His slaying enraged the protesters, triggering rioting and violence that led to a final showdown with army troops six days later.

A police investigation into Khittiya’s death has so far produced no suspects, Prompong Nopparit, spokesman for opposition Puea Thai Party, said at the funeral.

The government claimed that the use of force was necessary to combat so-called “men in black,” armed Red Shirts security believed to be trained by Khattiya.

Many of the Red Shirts, who are mostly rural poor, are supporters of Thaksin, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and is now in self-imposed exile. The government says Thaksin was a key instigator and financier of the protests.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban told Thai PBS television channel that he was not worried about a large group of Red Shirt supporters turning up at the funeral.

“I’ve got total confidence in the police,” said Suthep.

Emergency decrees are still in place forbidding any political gathering of more than five people. Under the decrees, anyone can be taken into custody for a week without being charged.

Pongsak Phusitsakul, the provincial Red Shirt leader, said he had arranged transport for about 70 supporters from his province. Many more planned to join him in the one-day trip to Bangkok in their own vehicles, he said.

Pongsak said that many provinces were organizing similar trips. “This is natural for a mass movement. Seh Daeng is just a symbol,” he said. “We are here to make our voices heard again.”