In mid-May, long-simmering political tension in Thailand between the Bangkok elite establishment and urban lower classes as well as those in northern Thailand who feel ignored by the center erupted in the worst political violence in decades. Tentative US efforts to mediate were rejected by the Thai government, though the opposition appeared to welcome a US role.
A tense calm has been restored, but the prospect for renewed violence is palpable. The US is also concerned that Burma may be clandestinely importing materials from North Korea for a nascent nuclear weapons program. Two months of anti-government demonstrations in Bangkok led to the worst bloodshed and property damage in Thailand since the early s with at least 88 deaths and 1, wounded. On May 19, the army raided the opposition Red Shirt encampment in the commercial center of Bangkok dispersing its followers.
Subsequently, hundreds of opposition members have been arrested and held without trial, the assets of scores of people accused of funding the recent protests frozen, while a state of emergency declared during the violence remains in force in much of the country.
Though the Abhisit government speaks of a national reconciliation program, the opposition does not seem to buy it. The army and police β charged with restoring order β are themselves split with senior officers for the most part lining up with the government while enlisted personnel tend to sympathize with the opposition. Most of the police support the Red Shirts, partly due to the fact that exiled billionaire and former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra began his career as a high-ranking police officer and also because most police personnel come from the lower classes.
The Yellow Shirts β created, funded, and protected by the military, the aristocracy, bureaucracy, and urban professional and commercial classes β support the current government and represent the status quo.
