APINYA WIPATAYOTIN
Her Majesty the Queen has donated 800,000 baht to three public hospitals providing medical treatment for those injured in Tuesday's clashes between police and anti-government protesters. The Royal Household Bureau yesterday said the Queen donated 300,000 baht to Vajira hospital, 200,000 baht to Phramongkutklao hospital and 300,000 baht to Ramathibodi hospital and instructed them to provide medical treatment for all people who sustained injuries in Tuesday's clashes around parliament.
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| Friend to an injured foe Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat visits injured PAD supporter Pongpan Krahothong at Phramongkutklao hospital yesterday. |
The clashes left two people dead and hundreds injured. Most of the injured were People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) demonstrators. About 20 were police officers.
The majority of them were treated for wounds and burns. Seventeen had to undergo surgery for severe injuries. Four have lost their limbs while four others had to have either their hands or feet amputated. Surachet Satitniramai, director of the Narenthorn Emergency Centre, said 10 emergency medic teams were on standby at the Government House compound which has been seized by the PAD protesters since Aug 26.
Pol L-Cpl Theerachet Tharapanjasap, 25, one of the injured officers, said the situation got out of control as the demonstrators became enraged when police tried to disperse them. The officer was hit by a car driven by a PAD protester and suffered broken legs.
Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat spent the first half of yesterday visiting injured victims being treated at Police and Phramongkutklao hospitals.
As he entered Police hospital to visit 16 wounded police officers, a woman shook a PAD clapper at him and shouted ''Somchai the tyrant ordered the shooting of people''.
After that Mr Somchai visited four injured PAD protesters at Phramongkutklao hospital. He gave each of them a basket of fruit and repeatedly talked to them about the need for national harmony and reconciliation.
''We are Thai people. We can have different thoughts, but we should not be divided. We don't want to see this kind of incident happen again,'' he said.
Mr Somchai spent about 15 minutes talking with the PAD patients.
Later, he went to visit Pol Snr Sgt-Maj Taweeb Klanniem, who was stabbed and seriously wounded by a protester. His wife, Pakramon, quoted Mr Somchai as saying that he felt very sorry for what had happened to the officer and promised to take good care of him.
Nares Pongpanich, a 35-year-old man who sustained back injuries caused by the force of an explosion in front of the Metropolitan Police Bureau headquarters said the prime minister had no sincerity in dealing with the problem, adding that the violence would not have erupted if he had not ordered the police to crack down on the protesters.
Mr Nares also said he and other eyewitnesses could confirm that some policemen had thrown bombs into a crowd of protesters.
Suchon Sookpitak, another PAD supporter from Narathiwat province who lost six teeth in the violence on Tuesday, vowed to rejoin the PAD rally right after his discharge from hospital to ''help save the country''.
''I will continue fighting until I achieve the goal of introducing a new era of Thai politics,'' he said.
''I want to tell all PAD members now resting in hospital to get well soon and then [go out to] work together again to get rid of the Thaksin regime.''
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