Double Trouble

A few years ago, I checked into a Rangoon hotel on the first day of a magazine assignment. Like most foreign reporters who visit Burma, I had entered on a tourist visa and intended to keep my true profession a secret. So I was shocked when the receptionist said, “Welcome back, Mr. Marshall,” and presented [...]

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A Dangerous Woman

I’ve just heard that Chiranuch Premchaiporn, editor of the news site Prachatai, has been arrested at Bangkok’s main international airport, apparently on charges of insulting the Thai monarchy. In March, Chiranuch (left) spent nearly four hours in a cage beneath a Bangkok courtroom while her bail was approved on previous charges under Thailand’s Cyber Crimes [...]

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Thais Love Peace

One person was killed and scores injured in the latest violence in Bangkok last night. The M-79 grenades which caused the carnage were, said the government, fired from the direction of Lumphini Park, where thousands of red-shirt protesters remain encamped. The reds deny firing them. The fact remains: someone lobbed high explosives into rush-hour crowds, [...]

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Body Counts

Two more people, a soldier and a civilian, have died of injuries from Saturday’s clashes in Bangkok between the army and red-shirt protesters, bringing the death toll to 23. Anyone living here is also aware that Thailand is currently racking up a second and far higher body count. Road accidents killed 114 people and injured [...]

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We’re In The Army Now

One of the last rituals of the Buddhist year in Thailand is also one of the most unpopular: the draft. Every young Thai man must present himself for military service and, if he is not stupid or desperate enough to volunteer, can be drafted by lottery. He will then spend up to two years in [...]

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Clash of Symbols

So who’s winning then: the red shirts or the yellow shirts? Hard to tell, I know, but perhaps a glance at their protest strategies will help us decide. First, the yellows. In 2008, they not only mustered their largest forces during the cool season, but then chose to occupy Suvarnabhumi airport—one of the largest air-conditioned [...]

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The Battle Of Ed’s Head

I’ve been thinking about Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, and not just because it’s a journalistic must-read with some of my all-time favorite lines. (Many still resonate today: “If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger [...]

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Thaksin Shinawatra, Shooting To Win

The Sunday Times Magazine 5 December 2007 Manchester City fans once regarded him as their saviour—but Thai investigators believe they can prove his government was responsible for a shoot-to-kill policy that endorsed mass murder. Andrew Marshall meets both Thaksin Shinawatra and the families of those who were killed under his rule

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