fmr*oi in exile

[ bangkok burning ]

From Reuters’ Best of the Year:

ADREES LATIF (May 19: Bangkok, Thailand) “It was the day thousands of anti-government ‘red shirt’ protesters feared might happen every night since they seized the most popular shopping district in central Bangkok. Demands for new elections by the protesters failed after repeated negotiations. On May 19, Thai troops came in to clear the ‘red shirts’ from a several kilometer stretch of trendy shopping malls, luxury hotels and key intersections they had occupied. Led by armored vehicles, the soldiers charged past a fence constructed with hundreds of tires and bamboo sticks. What followed was a violent confrontation between protesters and the military, leaving the streets stained with blood as plumes of smoke rose over the Thai capital. I started my coverage at daybreak from within the red shirt encampment. Half past six in the morning, protesters, sensing battle, started releasing paper lanterns which are generally symbolic for problems or worries floating away. An hour later, military rounds echoed off nearby buildings and the first group of protesters defending the barricades were shot. As others went in to assist the injured, they were also shot. For the next hour, bullets showered off-and-on into the ‘red shirt’ encampment. I had taken cover between two buses, and later behind trees, while chronicling the events. When sounds of gunfire seized, I moved out of the fire zone and into safety, hundreds of meters away. From the driveway of a hotel, I witnessed dozens of injured protesters being rushed away by motorbike. Not being able to move freely or provide adequate coverage, I decided to leave the ‘red shirt’ encampment and find a way to get behind the advancing soldiers. Although the Army was only 500 meters away, it took me an hour and a half to encircle the road-blocks of the metropolis to find myself exactly at the same point I had departed, but this time behind the soldiers’ arms. The ‘red shirt’ leaders had surrendered but the protesters were still on the offensive and the soldiers steadily advanced. I spent the next few hours photographing arrests and taking cover as a firefight still insisted. A grenade was launched towards the Army, badly injuring a soldier and journalist. Before the day ended, my aim was to get back and document what was taking place near the main stage and heart of the anti-government protests. I left the Army and once again encircled the city for several hours to find myself in the midst of where tens of thousands massed and rallied each day for six weeks. Once reaching my final destination, there was an absolute eerie silence. The main stage, where the songs and slogans from microphones bounced off the structures of shopping malls through the nights, was left deserted. The protesters vanished, leaving their belongings still in place. Pet dogs, with red bandannas tied around their necks, walked aimlessly and confused through the stretch of empty tents. I surveyed the area for some time, desperately seeking a human element to fill my camera lens. I saw a lone fire fighter, on his radio and then photographed a man cycling through a street left flooded by gushing fire extinguishers from nearby shopping centers. After a day of witnessing one of the fieriest firefights in my professional career, followed by death and plumes of smoke over one of the largest capitals in this world, another chapter in Thai history was written. As dawn turned to dusk I stood and photographed a lone statue, ironically adorned by a worn Thai national flag, as Bangkok’s Central World shopping complex burned to the ground.” Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, lens 50mm, f4, 1/500 sec, ISO 640