<p>As thousands and thousands more soldiers, police and war weapons flow into Bangkok, the public wonders when the bloody crackdown on tens of thousands of red-shirt protesters will take place.</p>

<p>In December 2008 the UDD leader Natthawut Saikua made a beautiful speech to the crowd of redshirts in front of parliament. Invoking powerfully elemental imagery, this speech (excerpt translated below) portrays the redshirts in the figurative form of the sons and daughters of the land who know full well that a vast distance separates them from the sky.</p>

<p>Police visited the red-shirt FM97.25 MHz community radio station in Samut Prakan province's Samrong area yesterday afternoon to warn the 300 red shirts protecting the station they were breaking the emergency decree and could face up to two years in prison as well as Bt40,000 in fines.</p>

<p>Insisting that red-shirt protesters abide by the principles of non-violence may not be enough to prevent them from &quot;being crushed by the Army&quot;, Thammasat University historian Thanet Aphornsuvan warned yesterday.</p>

<p>On-line political writer Wattana Sukwat, one of the many writers having their content blocked or deleted by the ICT Ministry under emegency rule said the removal of his 200 or so articles is not just undemocratic but akin to deleting his on-line identity.</p> <p>&quot;I am a like matrix removed [in the Hollywood movie 'The Matrix'] and no longer exists [in cycber space] ,&quot; he said yesterday (Thursday).</p>

<p>On Monday evening, this writer ran into a fellow journalist from a major newspaper at the red-shirt rally site and we shared our views about the protest. Here are some excerpts of the conversation:</p> <p>She: Most protesters are from the provinces and likely paid if not &quot;organised&quot; into coming to Bangkok.</p> <p>Me: Yes, there are many rural poor people, but there is no proof as to whether they've been paid. They mostly forged an alliance by relying on politicians to advance their political cause. It's not that different from the yellow-shirt middle class, who depended on the discourses of the old elite, the army and royalist ideology to advance their political agenda. Both groups forged alliances, period.</p>

<p>All sides in Thailand&rsquo;s widening political conflict should immediately commit to ending human rights abuses, Amnesty International said today. &nbsp; Amnesty International welcomes the Thai government's pledge to investigate promptly, effectively, and impartially the recent violence, and urges it to provide accountability for any violations by security forces as well as abuses by violent protesters.</p>

<p>Leader warns any lethal crackdown on protesters will lead to full-scale civil war.</p> <p>Army tanks would roll down the streets of Bangkok to defend the protesters rallying at Rajprasong intersection if the government decided to use lethal means to dislodge them, a red-shirt leader warned on Friday evening.</p> <p>&quot;Soldiers would deal with one another. Tanks would fire at one another. And even if [the government] won, it would be on the rubble of ruins for everyone, &quot; Jaran Dittha-apichai told The Nation in an exclusive interview.</p>

<p>A new red-shirt radio station went on air yesterday in the Rajprasong intersection protest-site area, in a move to counter the continued shutting down of red-shirt media by the government under emergency rule.</p> <p>&quot;They should allow us to criticise [the government], but instead they shut our ears and eyes,&quot; Chinawat Haboonpak, a red-shirt leader told the crowd at the intersection yesterday morning. &quot;We ask for just one television channel, but they have taken it away from us and shut our ears and eyes again.&quot;</p>

<p>According to all the suggestions proposed for a peaceful negotiations for the 3rd round of meeting between Government and the Red Shirt to end the political deadlock at this moment, ANFREL would like to propose a Road Map for Free and Fair Election in order to create a free and fair democratic atmosphere for the up-coming Parliamentary Election. The Road map for Free and Fair Election could provide room for all parties and supporters fairly and build up the necessary political confidence and trust for Thai peoples in general and ending the deadlock by non-violence means. </p>

<p>Thailand is now in such a precarious situation that people must try to handle the crisis in a mature manner in order not to lose what little democracy and liberty we have gained over the decades.</p>

<p>Some red-shirt radio stations have continued broadcasting despite orders nearly a week ago to censor and shut them down, thanks to loyal listeners, sympathisers and supportive communities coming to their defence. </p>