[Note: CPT-Philippines authorized CPTer Rey Lopez to travel to Thailand as a peace observer and document how the historic Red Shirts nonviolent movement is playing out in Bangkok.  The letters have been edited for length and clarity.]

April 4, 2010

I am not alone as a farang (foreigner) walking with the Red Shirts.  There are a lot of tourists joining in …There are also a lot of Thais residing in the States joining the demonstration.  A Thai Red Shirt in the California diaspora was interviewed this morning on the central stage.

Today I was part of a flying column that was sent in the morning to distribute flyers in a residential area of Bangkok near the Kachuchak market, and in the afternoon, we assembled at an intersection in the financial district…

This army of non-violence in  Bangkok is becoming a city complete with kitchen, toilets, medical; facilities, showers, information center, lost and found section, etc.

The Thai Red Shirts are ordinary people from the rural areas who are now demanding in a nonviolent way to take part in the Thai banquet table of economic prosperity.  They are not a…  “red mob” as the mainline Thai papers called them but a well-disciplined non-violent army demanding no less than real Thai democracy, including having their fair share of the Thai prosperity.  More important is the spirit of nonviolence, which seems to be taking firm hold of the Red Shirts’ mass membership. 

…  A spirit of hope is in the air.  And their message is loud and clear. They want change, a real Thai democracy this time.  And they are not leaving Bangkok until their demands are met: dissolution of the parliament and the calling of a new election whose result will be respected by the Army and the court.

Shalom, 

Reynaldo C. Lopez

April 6

Dear Friends of Peace, 

 This is my first e-mail in three days.  The Thai authorities tried to disperse the Prachachong (Red Shirt people) but an alarmed was sounded and the Bankokians this time came to the financial center, which is the equivalent of the magnificent mile …in Chicago and Wall Street in New York.  They came in motorbikes, cars, tuktuks, and wagons with open back, flying the red banners of the Red Shirts and those wagons with open backs really fill up the place.  Realizing that they are surrounded, the Thai military retreated.  The whole financial and commercial areas of Bangkok is now a sea of red banners, young, old, middle class and yes, the white farangs who are increasingly becoming Red Shirt tourists too.  

…With all the tensions two nights ago, I thought violence would breakout but peace and non-violence held out, thanks be to God.  The Thai …Prachachongs are like the flow of water that will cleanse Thai society of its feudalism.  Once the government blocks in one section, they just move to another sector of the city in a peaceful way until the uneven Thai society will have an even playing field….  There is obviously a tension between the Thai police and the Thai military, who are very loyal to the chairman of the privy council, retired General Prem Tsintsulaso.

I am now back in the financial district as part of the Red Shirt supply system carrying food and water and ice cubes to the Red Shirts in the financial district.  The Red Shirt Prachachongs have established three bases now, The Naman Luang park, the Thanon Rathadomen, and now at the very nerve of the Thai establishment, the Bangkok financial system.

The Red Shirts rural folks are mostly in the Thanon Ratchadoemen and big Naman Luang park.  The Red Shirts who took over the Bangkok financial district are Bangkokians themselves, so the great divide between the rural and urban Red Shirts is fast disappearing…

Please continue praying for me and the Thai people,

Reynaldo C. Lopez