Thai protesters donate blood to curse government

[scandal 951]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8569483.stm

Thai protesters donate blood to curse government

A Thai anti-government demonstrator shows his blood after making a blood donation 16 March

The red shirts have set a target of collecting 1,000 litres of blood

Thailand's red-shirted protesters have begun donating blood to throw at government offices in a ritual curse of a leadership they say is illegitimate.

The protests enter a third day in a still jovial but determined mood.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Monday rejected a demand from protesters to quit and call elections.

The standoff is the latest in a deep political schism in the country which pre-dates the 2006 military coup which deposed Thaksin Shinawatra.

Red Shirt leader Veera Musikapong was the first to donate.

"This blood is a sacrificial offering. To show our love for the nation, to show our sincerity," he said.

He and other leaders said their blood would be spilled at the entrance to Government House in Bangkok's historic quarter at 1800 (1100 GMT) if Mr Abhisit continued to refuse their demands to dissolve parliament.

"If Abhisit is still stubborn, even though he does not have blood on his hands, his feet will be bloodied with our curses," another leader Nattawut Saikur said.

Health officials, the Red Cross and even the protesters' figurehead, Mr Thaksin, have expressed concern about how hygienic the mass blood donation is.

But the protesters brushed off the concerns.

"We have three tents for blood donations. All people who conduct the blood drawing will be doctors, nurses or other qualified people who came here voluntarily," said senior red shirt leader, Dr Weng Tojilakarn, who normally runs his own medical practice.

The red shirts have set a target of collecting 1,000 litres of blood, and say they will guard against any protester getting weak or dizzy in the heat.

For its part, the government remains quiet on the sidelines as the whereabouts of Prime Minister Abhisit remains unclear.

He has spent most of the past three days in an army base, with the 11th Infantry battalion.

Protesters visited him there yesterday for three hours, after he told local TV he would not dissolve parliament at this time. He went off in a helicopter but is believed to have returned later in the day.

A cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday appears to have been cancelled, and calls from members of his coalition for a parliamentary hearing have been ignored.

The rally, led by red-shirted supporters of Mr Thaksin has been one of the largest in recent years, although the BBC's Rachel Harvey, at the scene, says the numbers appear to be dwindling.

The protesters say the present government was installed illegally after Mr Thaksin was ousted in a military coup in 2006, and two subsequent allied governments were deposed by court action.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Sounds like a waste of good blood.

[scandal 951]

Sounds like a waste of good blood.

Yup. This is completely ridiculous.

[Calypso 464]

Sounds like a waste of good blood.

It's all right. Those who are joining have HIV and syphilis anyway.

[Scott & Lai 12]

"Donate" seems a rather odd word to use in this context.

[Amby 490]

to throw at government buildings? how are they going to do that...fill balloons and launch them?

[anya-D 8]

Did you see they were also doing a voodoo cursing 'ALL' Thai people?

Explain to me how this government is illegal but the two before this was not, when they are all from the same group of people? yea, coz the first was Thaksin's puppet and the second is Thaksin's brother in law. The third is illegal coz he wont bring Thaksin back that's why it's the illegal govt.

[thongd4me 69]

Did you see they were also doing a voodoo cursing 'ALL' Thai people?

Explain to me how this government is illegal but the two before this was not, when they are all from the same group of people? yea, coz the first was Thaksin's puppet and the second is Thaksin's brother in law. The third is illegal coz he wont bring Thaksin back that's why it's the illegal govt.

From what I saw in the media, I think it was a Hindu priest giving the curse on the government.

I forwarded the blood collection issue to my friend who is a professor (research) in a medical school.

Should be an interesting ethics discussion for his students.

The health professionals' group was right to condemn it, whether they were acting at the behest of

the government or not.

The biohazard issue should overrule the political drama.

[scandal 951]

Bizarre. Now they want to fling poo as well.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703734504575125263805678560.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_World

Red-shirt activists say they will start to use their "biological weapons," or feces, if riot police try to break up the protests.

"It's the only thing we have to repel them with if they choose to attack," says Narong Na Phattalung, a red-shirt protester from the northern city of Chiang Mai.

Nattawut Saikeua, a key strategist behind the red-shirt movement, says the threat to bombard police with bags of excrement is a significant deterrent. "It seems to be working so far," he says.

Around the periphery of the protest, small numbers of people can be seen piling up what appears to be the foul ammunition.On Monday, one speaker at the multiday rally yelled into the crowd to ask if they had their materiel ready. The answer: a resounding "Yes!"

...

Thanet Aphornsuvan, dean of the Faculty of Arts at Bangkok's Thammasat University and head of its Southeast Asia Studies program, said the practice reflects the growing anger of rural voters who feel disenfranchised by the 2006 coup. "Human waste is purely the common people's weapon, the enemy of the weak," Mr. Thanet says. "You don't have to hire anybody or spend any money. It's very convenient—you're effectively carrying it with you all the time—and if you throw it about you can attract a lot of publicity."

These kind of dirty protests sometimes happen in other countries—albeit rarely. U.S. police accused protesters of hurling urine and feces during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., in 2008. Further back, Scythian archers began dipping their arrows in excrement around 400 BC to help cause infections. Using blood also is unusual, although protesters in South Korea sometimes cut off their fingertips to paint bloody slogans.

In Thailand, the practice of lobbing such bombs is gaining pace. In the past month, two men were detained for throwing feces at Mr. Abhisit's house, and another was caught throwing excrement at the headquarters of the prime minister's political party.

Government leaders have urged protesters not throw excrement, warning it could breed infections and trigger epidemics such as cholera. Sanitation workers in biohazard dress were quick to clean up the blood poured on the ground.