Vocational students quit STR rally
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Dozens of vocational-student frontliners of the Students and People Network for Thailand's Reform (STR) have finally left the group, as their ties with the network's leaders soured.
The vocational students, who stood in the front row facing anti-riot police for long periods, felt the network’s leaders should have treated them better.
The network, however, decided to give these students a stern warning after video footage clearly showed the vocational students chasing down policemen during a brief confrontation last Saturday.
And just a day after vocational-student guards left the STR rally site, someone from the site hurled a hand grenade at a police zone.
The STR leader Utai Yodmanee said on Tuesday that a security guard from the vocational students group told him that they would join the rally at Democracy Monument on its D-day.
On day one, when the vocational students joined the STR, they had pledged to obey instructions from the STR leaders.
Things were going fine when they all marched from the Uruphong intersection to Makkhawan Bridge, with the vocational students at the front, their hands joined in order to protect other protesters.
The turning point for Utai came when the vocational student guards got involved in a clash with the police last Saturday, which they feared would damage the image of the protesters who claimed they were rallying peacefully and without weapons.
Utai warned that he would inform the police if there were to be another confrontation between the vocational guards and the police.
He was ready to give them a final chance to stay with the rally but threatened to throw them out if they clashed with the police again.
The vocational guards eventually decided to split from the STR.
Utai said they had walked out because they think they should not be under any authority.
He said they had agreed at the very outset that all groups must obey the leaders.
The vocational student guards felt hurt after the leaders allowed the police to look for weapons in their tents without intimating them.
However, Utai said they had announced on stage that police would be visiting the site. He said the guards should have joined hands to protect the protesters and not confront the police.
Utai reaffirmed that the leaders and the vocational student guards had separated without any trouble.
He also told protesters that they still had volunteer guards from several universities.
