First part of my interview with Michael Yon, an independent war correspondent. We walked around Rachprasong on 10th June 2010, the main protest area of the red-shirts, around three weeks after the riot had ended on 19th May, 2010.
Q: This is the first time to see riot places after it has ended, what is your first assessment? M
A: One thing that I ‘ve been am looking for is the evidence of the fighting. During the fighting the army was very controlled of their fires, they used much disciplines, and you can see from the signs from the building not bullet holes in many places, very few, so it means they controlled how they aim.
Q: What would happen to mirror of the department store, if they don’t follow the operation closely?
A: Another thing about troops that are not well-trained, they will shoot high because they don’t know what they are doing, that’s normal, what human will do they will shoot high. From what I have been looking up high there are no bullet marks up high , except when I saw the red shirts used slingshot to hit the windows, but I don’t see bullet holes in the window. They simply were not hitting the building, the firework hit the buildings, I was watching the red shirts shoot firework, in fact I was in the Dusit Thani hotel talking on the telephone when the grenades hit the hotel, they hit between two of the rooms it was quite serious, luckily nobody was hurt.
Q: How many days you were on the street of Bangkok during the protest and the riot?
A: Good question, may be, I should try to count that up, may be 7 to ten days..yeah about a week.
Q: So you have been here all along and did you see any men in black from the accusation, from the question raised.
A: Yes, I was this close, I photographed them. They had fire bombs and I photographed them. They are not men in black who were the guards, I saw them too, but these were the men in black and they were like soldiers. They were not normal soldiers. To me, you know I spent a lot of time with soldiers in the war and the “Men in Black” that I saw seem like special forces people, very confident, they knew what they were doing and they are not afraid of gunshots that were coming very close to us, they were moving very close toward the gunshot and these were not normal guys, very dangerous individuals.
Q: Did you talk to them, which side they were on?
A: No, because they were busy, I mean when I was with them the fighting started and they would come out so the fighting was really going on so I did not have a chance to talk to them. And then when the fighting was in they disappeared.
Q: Have you talked to any military or any soldiers during the operation?
A: Mostly I just watched them. I watched them very closely for hours at a time, how they treated people because this is very important in the war if the soldiers and the police mistreat the people they will be hurt, the people will fight back, so I was watching them very closely and the Thai military using discipline and they treated people with respect, yes they were in every case. They never stopped me from photographing as an example, never saw them mistreat any Thai people or any foreigners or any journalists. If they stopped anybody from photographing I did not see it, they did not stop, the red shirts did not stop me either. So the police, the army the red-shirts, everybody let me go everywhere nobody stops me from seeing anything.
Q: Where were your spots while observing, behind the military or behind the red shirts?
A: Both..not always behind either, sometimes, between. For instance, I was here which was the main red shirt area and I was here many times.
Q: Did you walk around freely?
A: Oh yes, yes…walked around and people were here, they were sleeping in the middle over there, they were some children who were unaccounted for.
Q: Don’t you have any fear?
A: Well they treated me well, but it is dangerous, but it is Thai people. Seriously, they are not going to kill somebody like in Afghanistan
Q: You are a war correspondent and you are quite used to Iraq and Afghanistan, what’s the difference between Thailand and those countries.
A: Well, Thailand is more resistant to fighting. In Afghanistan, fighting is like guerrilla warfare, fighting is like soccer to them, just like a sport. I am serious, I mean it is a kind of funny, but it is actually serious. They take guerrilla warfare like a sport. Thailand is not like that, Thailand is more resistant to fighting so there is a great hope that this war can be stopped before it started and that is important now because at this moment the government is stronger than it will ever be so if the war starts it will become weaker and weaker so now is the chance to make sure that it does not start so that’s what important to me now because I love Thailand.
The second part to be continued.
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