A total of 5,000 red guards are believed to be deployed at the rally site in Bangkok and at 30 other locations in the area. This includes 200 mobile units on motorcycle. They will be providing protection to the red shirts at the rally and also intercepting anyone trying to make trouble. The red shirt leaders know that if there is any violence by a red shirt (or someone pretending to be a red shirt) then they will lose support.
The guards at the mini-rally in Samut Prakan yesterday were dressed in Black with either cap or hard hat. It looked like they were wearing bullet proof jackets but I doubt it. They also wore a red and black scarf, armband and had an i.d. card around their neck. In Thai and English they are calling themselves “Defenders”. The badge on the sleeve says “The Democratic Defender”. On the i.d. the slogan in Thai says “Defender of the People”.
You can find all the latest links to blogs about the Red Shirt Rally over at our sister blog Thailand Voice. We also have a google map of Bangkok Dangerous – Red Shirts Rally March 2010 which has had over 10,000 hits in 48 hours. The Samut Prakan red shirts will be going into Bangkok tomorrow morning and we will be going with them. You can follow us live on Twitter @RichardBarrow.
