Red Shirt Leaders Surrender

This morning the army stopped messing around. For the last few days it's been involved in clashes with protesters outside the Red Shirts' occupied zone. Today it burst through the barricades on the corner of Silom/Lumphini Park, with tanks and hundreds of soldiers (followed by scores of the world's press). We watched it all live on Aljazeera, still from the confines of our hotel room. By early afternoon the Red Shirt leaders had surrendered and were being led away. But many protesters, bitter in defeat, carried on the violence and arson in various places around central Bangkok. Central World, the biggest shopping mall in SE Asia, has been set ablaze [see photo] and "may collapse". Echoes of World Trade Centre. Siam Square has apparently been looted, though not much to steal in our office other than English textbooks...

There is a sense of relief on the one hand, but continued foreboding on the other. For a start, there's the likelihood that disgruntled hardliners will continue a kind of guerilla war against the government, army, perhaps even against normal civilians. And then there's the much bigger issue of trying to actually tackle the issues that are behind all this: the haves & have-nots. And of course there's still Thaksin, looming large from abroad (a Hermes shop in Paris to be precise).

There's a curfew tonight. Not that we're thinking of going anywhere - our hotel's in the middle of an industrial estate. Guests aren't even allowed to go to the airport. For the first time the restaurant was heaving and we had to wait an hour for a table. So, our third night here. What chance of a return home tomorrow? Unlikely, given continued skirmishes and the fact that Serenity Park apparently has no electricity. Still, we can't complain.