Greybeard's week in Bangkok

Saturday the 15th May 2010 was another hot and sticky day in Colombo. Jen and I had decided to walk to the shopping centre to pick up a few things in the morning and were totally unprepared for the phone call that came from Kuala Lumpur and turned the next week or so upside down for both of us.

Michael, the IFRCs Asia Pacific Zone Security Coordinator, had received a request for assistance from the Acting Head of Regional Delegation in Bangkok who was reporting a crisis that was starting to get out of control and become a threat to Federation staff there.

‘Red shirt’ protestors calling for the ousting of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had occupied and barricaded themselves into a block of central Bangkok and were engaged in a standoff with the authorities who up to recent days had taken a fairly lenient approach and simply closed off the block. Unfortunately this was a block that accommodated a lot of embassies which had to close, and had the skytrain and underground running through the middle of it which were also stopped. The protest had started to escalate and already some deaths had occurred. The whole shambles was starting to attract international media attention and some disorder was starting to spill out beyond the protest site with tyres and vehicles being set on fire and gunfire exchanges between the authority’s cordons and the protest site.

Michael had just returned from a short mission to Afghanistan and was preparing for another to Myanmar so was not keen to change flights and visas as it is extraordinarily difficult to obtain the required permission in the first place. “Would I be available to go in his stead?” he asked. Of course the obvious and correct answer was – “Yes” so he signed off to go and clear it with both of our bosses with a promise to let me know one way or the other by Sunday afternoon.

Sunday afternoon came and everyone who needed to had agreed that I should go as soon as possible to Bangkok for a week. Unfortunately ‘as soon as possible’ doesn’t take into account the need for a certain amount of bureaucratic process that allows our organisation to provide jobs for a goodly number of people! Gradually and with much articulated encouragement the ‘machine’ swung into action and I was able to get onto a flight which arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday morning. I had by this time been in regular contact with the ‘Critical Incident Management Team’ (CIMT) in Bangkok and had begun to study the background to the whole affair and get an appreciation of where we were at.

 

As I was driven in from the airport to the Federation office near Sukhumvit, I could see smoke rising from what was obviously the protest site. I was struck with the impression that the area was miniscule in relation to the rest of Bangkok and that as soon as you went a couple of hundred metres away from the checkpoints it was pretty much business as usual. “No, I don’t want a massage thank you.” “No, I don’t want to buy a Rolex thank you.”

 

I met with the team at the office and it quickly became apparent that although they were tired from being in a state of heightened awareness for some time, and were a little thin on the ground (HoRD and the Security Focal Point were both out of the country on leave) things had been managed very well, and the incident was in capable hands. While the team was grateful to see me arrive (I think) I had no wish to take over anything and we quickly formed a good working relationship where I was there for support, reassurance, encouragement, and to share the load. By then the 109 staff and dependants had been accounted for and if necessary relocated out of danger zones. Phase Orange had been declared and all but emergency travel banned, and the office, which was adjacent to and overlooking the protest area was closed. I was equipped with a laptop, cellphone, local cellphone, satellite phone, maps, lists and sufficient cheese crackers and beer to withstand a siege. This meant that I could work from anywhere, and was able to function from my hotel room nearby if necessary. The only flaw became evident the next day when the power and internet went off as someone set fire to a substation. The only tolerable place in the nearly 40 degree heat became the hotels rooftop pool so with its sky view at least the sat’ phone was working.

We settled into a routine for the week where we would attend a morning meeting with ICRC to share information from overnight and set the agenda for the day, then we would walk quietly back to the Federation office via the back streets and deal with any matters arising, check in with various people, update everyone and then finish the day with another ICRC meeting. Our morning walks between offices along Sukhumvit were a great gauge of the general feeling on the street (“No thank you, I don’t want a massage”) and enabled us to achieve a better balanced view of what was going on.

Wednesday morning was when Government forces moved in effectively and quickly with troops and armoured vehicles to disperse the Red Shirts. This was a day that saw widespread outbreaks of anger, violence, and arson in various parts of Bangkok as well as a curfew being imposed for the next week. This was also the day that (coinciding with our usual walk to the office) a clash took place at Asok on Sukhumvit near where the office and my hotel were. Thankfully we were some way off so that when we heard shots in the distance we were able to detour via side streets (“No, I really don’t want a massage thank you.”) and spend the rest of the day in another part of town.

Bizarre as it may seem, with all this going on, tourists were still wandering up and down Sukhumvit, and although the streets were relatively quiet I was able to have a good look around, sample some fantastic Thai street food, and get into tourist mode myself for a bit.

Now, several weeks on with things back to normal, at least outwardly, this crisis is reported to have cost 85 dead and 1402 injured.

Despite the circumstances of my visit, I found Bangkok and its people wonderfully vibrant and its food has to be sampled to be believed. This is a place high on my list to explore further in quieter times.