I believe antithaksin. com, when talking about the police not issuing warnings, meant the early morning assault. I do remember having heard the police warning protesters, and announcing the attack. A colleague of mine who was at the time with PAD said he heard nothing. Regardless, PAD did clearly expect the attack. What nobody knew, police on the ground, nor protesters, was that the teargas canisters were that lethal.

You are spot on about what happened at night, the moments before Ankhana (”Nong Bow”) died. Police was in a defensive position against approaching protesters closing in on police lines at Metropolitan Police Headquarters. The fourth last image of my report does actually show Ankhana, which at the time of writing my article i did not know yet. I thought the picture was of an injured protester, and could only confirm much later that it was in fact Ankhana. The other still photographers at the scene photographed two of the protesters who have had heavy leg injures (one of them lost his leg), most likely from teargas canisters. I have missed those scenes as i was too close to the frontlines of the police, and there was no other footage of Ankhana i could find at the time to compare my photos with.
There were two or three cameramen around me when i photographed Ankhana, one of them must have shot the tape you saw.

And, by the way, yes, i do speak Thai.

http://www.antithaksin.com’s doubt about the warning:

“1. The warnings with loudspeakers remain disputable from PAD side. Moreover, the police did not negotiate first. Unlike dealing with Cambodian. Perhaps we do not speak the same language!!!
However, the police constituted of three events, early morning, afternoon and the evening one. The reporter was not present at all sites, at all times. He was present at 6:00 am first raid.
Obviously, the police did not warn for the shooting in the evening when protesters were marching back to the government house and Miss Angkana was killed.

2. Does Nick Nostitz speak Thai? If he does certainly he may understand what he wrote about the police’s warning.”

I can only say that one Thai TV station has the footage of the whole event with the head of the police begging politely through a loudspeaker in the evening asking the PAD not to approach any further. But that policeman was attacked by a flag pole landed right in the middle of his forehead. And you can see a bunch of police getting hurt first by those “unarmed” protesters. Everything was capture on video. And you know what, from the very same tape, the PAD only edited the part when the police was kicking the head of the PAD protester who was kneeling next to Nong Bow’s body and posted it on YouTube.

So I don’t think the http://www.antithaksin.com knows what he’s talking about. The tape is still at the station’s library. The footage was not aired. The person who filmed the footage was asked not to cover any protest again. This is the reward for a Thai reporter who risked his life covering the event. I saw the whole tape and I bet the PAD who manipulated this very tape on YouTube has the evidence of this police begging and warning the crowds before. Seeing people spread lies on the websites makes me upset. We all are victims of politics. Don’t make it any worse.

I am also curious to know how the former Police Lt Col met his untimely end, although I recognize that this may never be revealed. But even if he did blow himself, which is quite possible, that would not somehow make the police less culpable of killing Angkhana or their pathetic allegations that she was carrying plastic explosives any more credible.

I think the analysis by Dr. Pornthip soon after October 7 suggests that the tear gas grenades used were not designed for civilian use. They used RDX, a powerful high explosive, as the bursting charge (which breaks open the metal case and disperses the chemical agent). This suggests to me that they were designed to be used in military assault operations rather than for crowd control. My suspicion at the time was that the officer who had control of the contract to procure crowd control agents bought the cheapest stuff available to be able line his own pocket. It presumably never occurred to him that these things might actually be used! The police were never trained in crowd control techniques. That was obvious from the videos on TV that day. The officers firing the tear gas grenades appeared to be deliberately aiming at people. I’m surprised there was only one fatality.

The fascinating question of what actually caused the death of that Police Lt. Col. who seems to have been blown up by his own explosives will probably never be answered. I believe Dr. Pornthip did conduct an autopsy, but the report has never been released to the public, nor has any other investigative material. It has surely been deposited in the memory hole to protect the populace from being contaminated.

I’m no expert on riot control agent agents, but I have never heard of tear gas weapons designed to deliberately maim and kill.

Can you point us to a reference on that? I’m sure many readers would like to know what sort of company would manufacture such a noxious weapon. Perhaps you can lead the campaign to sanction such an anti-social enterprise.

Oh, and while you are at at, can you tell us what your expert to end all arguments, Dr. Pornthip, had to say about the guy who got blown up in the jeep? Surely his death was of concern to her (and you)? I would really like to know.

There was no “clear intent to maim and kill”. This line of argumentation is lacking logic, and is not supported by fact. If police that day would have intended to kill protesters, why use teargas, and not guns? Fact is that police that day has not fired a gun, not one PAD protester was injured by gunfire. It is though proven beyond doubt that some PAD protesters had a clear intent to maim and kill – three police officers were shot, one stabbed through the chest, and several run down by a purposely aimed pick up truck.
That PAD protesters have been maimed by teargas (and maybe killed, if the initial investigation is correct) has been a massive screw up by police, resulting from lack of training and experience, but especially resulting from weapons procurement problems and budgeting. But this does not equal intent.

What also has to be pointed out, that police has asked Democrat led BMA for water throwers, a request that was refused on the grounds of that the water was not clean enough and could have led to health problems under the protesters.

One of the two PAD protesters killed that day was indeed a “hardcore” PAD guard – a former Police officer who has led the Buriram guards. And what led to his death is rather clear beyond reasonable doubt – he was killed by his own explosives.

“Adoring Farang Thaksinistas” – Absolute rubbish. People you accuse of this, such as me, have been running around during the terrible first two months in the drug war, capturing images, and trying to raise awareness of the killings. Unfortunately at the time the world was so interested in the beginning Iraq war that there was hardly any space in the international media for Thailand’s drug war killings. Which frustrated me endlessly. For more than 6 months after the drug war i stopped taking photos, because nothing i tried to do then made any difference whatsoever. At the time there was unfortunately not the option to present alternative views through New Mandala, and i was not aware of any similar website where i could have done that.

May i remind you that many of us journalists did not suddenly start working when Thailand’s political problems began in 2005. We have also done critical reporting before, and during the Thaksin administration.

What many do forget here is that there was hardly any public protest against the killings, and PAD’s main leaders – Sondhi Limthongkul and Chamlong Srimuang – have at the time still been staunch Thaksin supporters. The drug war killings were clearly not an incentive for the formation of the PAD.

It appears to me, that many Farang supporters of the PAD confuse the issues. The drug war killings were then, and Oct. the 7th was a completely different scenario. Each has to be looked at separately, and factually.

It is sad that the adoring farang Thaksinistas are reduced to supporting the credibility of Thai police. Perhaps the nine year old boy killed in Thaksin’s brave war against drugs shot himself too.

and a few weeks back someone said that their was a particular police officer who emerged from the ranks, fired the rogue tear gas then slipped back under cover several times… the police officer was named as a highly regarded special forces guy of some sort…. seems to me highly probable he was setup to frame the police perhaps by our old privy council mate who appears in public with a big smile when his military mates win

Not sure what you mean by “official.” However, a few months ago, Matichon had a half-page article on the crime page quoting from the police’ investigation report. According to this report, the guy died while trying to remove a number of bombs from the jeep. Both hands were apparently evaporated by the explosion; one leg was still in the car, while the rest of the body was thrown on the pavement (quoting from my memory). PAD still considers him a “hero.”