Thailand protests: it’s youths vs police at Bangkok’s Din Daeng neighbourhood
- Young protesters have converged on the working-class area every night for the past seven weeks, taking on the authorities amid clouds of tear gas
- They are motivated by anger at the government, and boredom amid online school and job losses as Covid-19 continues to take its toll
The nightly dance ends in clashes as police armed with batons and rubber bullets chase the youths – some barely teens – through Din Daeng, making arrests and riling residents by firing more gas canisters in the narrow alleys of the working-class neighbourhood, which covers roughly 5 sq km.
Sometimes it is a few dozen, many nights there are hundreds. Some drink beer or home brews made from cough syrup and kratom – a mild, legal high – while others are sober, driven to push back at the military-backed government that has ignored their calls for reform.
They are all loosely affiliated to “Thalugaz”, an ironic name for a protest group that means “through the gas”, formed after an August 1 crackdown by riot police sent clouds of tear gas into the path of pro-democracy protesters trying to march through Din Daeng to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s home.
“It’s become our battlefield,” said “A”, the leader of one of the crews of protesters, as deep, thick smoke from a pyre of rubber tyres winds around the overpass carrying cars into downtown Bangkok.
At 23, A – as he asked to be known – is the oldest of his 15-strong group, while the youngest is just 16.