This is a guest post by Giles Ungpakorn, Thai academic and social activist, formerly Associate Professor at Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University. He fled to the UK after facing lese-majeste charges in Thailand for his book A Coup for the Rich.

More images of Thai military crackdown on unarmed pro-democracy protesters

Abhisit’s Democrat Party, the Military and the Bureaucratic Elites, can only cling to power through violence and lies. As they use armed troops and tanks against pro-democracy demonstrators in Bangkok for the 5th time in forty years, the tyrants hope that a blanket of censorship throughout Thailand will allow them to do their dirty work in secret. But their censorship is not working and the assembled masses of pro-democracy Red Shirts are resisting. On the 10th April 2010 the army shot dead 17 unarmed Red Shirt protesters and a Japanese camera man in Bangkok in an attempt to crush a peaceful demonstration. Yet Abhisit Vejjajiva continues to lie. He claims that soldiers “only shot into the air” when they were threatened. Many reports from foreign journalists, and the deaths of 18 people, indicate that the soldiers fired live ammunition directly into the crowd.

The Democrat Party took over the Government after:

· Continuously criticising the Taksin Government for using state funds for the poor

· Refusing to take part in the elections of 2006 because they knew they would lose

· A military coup in September 2006

· A military Constitution was introduced in 2007 which decreased the democratic space

· They lost the December 2007 election

· They supported the PAD violent demonstrations which seized Government House and closed down the international airports

· The Royalist Courts were used twice to dissolve Red Shirt parties which won majorities

· Corrupt politicians were bullied and bribed by the army to change sides and support the Democrat Party

The Red Shirts want Democracy and want immediate elections, but Democracy and elections are the last things that the tyrants want. They have lorded it over the people for years. They have never won an election and they have never been happy with respecting election results. Abhisit is only Prime Minister because he was placed there by the army. The tyrants are supported in their bloody work by the fascist Yellow Shirted PAD, most middle-class academics and the self-appointed NGO leaders. Together they are contemptuous and fearful of ordinary working people, the poor, the farmers, the citizens.

Since late March the Red Shirts have been holding peaceful and disciplined protests in Bangkok. They have not destroyed anything or held weapons of any kind. Their demands are for the dissolution of parliament. Any weapons that the Red Shirts have taken off the soldiers have never been used and have been safely stored.

The Red Shirt protests are in stark contrast to the Yellow Shirt PAD demonstrators in 2008. The PAD used violence and carried weapons. They occupied and wrecked Government House and seized and shut down the international airports. No one has been punished for these criminal acts. The PAD and their “New Politics Party” demand that the democratic space be reduced because they believe that the majority of the people do not deserve the vote. The Democrat Party has worked hand in hand with the PAD.

The people have risen up against the tyrants. The “refined” mask of Eton and Oxford educated Abhisit Vejjajiva has slipped off to reveal just another tin pot dictator. It is time to clear away all the gangsters and parasites who have held sway over Thai society for too long.

No more killing! No to another coup! Down with the Military! Down with the Dictatorship! Power to the people!