Funny-looking guys for unfunny times in Thailand

Seth Mydans (Carl's son) has an article in The New York Times about protests in Thailand:

In a new humiliation for the Thai government, several leaders of the Red Shirt protest movement escaped from a hotel after it had been surrounded by security forces, even as the raid was being announced live on television by a deputy prime minister. The raid was the first aggressive action by the government since a failed attempt to disperse the rallies that resulted in two dozen deaths and hundreds of other injuries. The so-called Red Shirts have occupied parts of central Bangkok for more than a month, while demanding that the government resign and hold new elections.
One protest leader, Arisman Pongruengrong, a popular singer who is one of the most militant of the Red Shirts, was lowered from a third-floor ledge of the hotel with a rope looped under his arms. According to local television reports, five protest organizers had been staying in the hotel. Three could be seen being hustled away by supporters as the outnumbered police looked on. Five leaders then appeared on the main stage of the rally, their arms wrapped around one another, receiving the cheers of a huge crowd that has taken over the core of Bangkok’s commercial district, turning it into a tent city. “I would like to thank all of the people who saved me,” Mr. Arisman said after his escape. “You have saved democracy.”
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who has been out of sight for five days, apparently sheltering in a military camp, was to address the nation later Friday, a government official announced.
As the raid was unfolding, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban announced it on Thai television, saying a Special Forces unit had surrounded a downtown hotel where protest leaders were staying. “As I am speaking, the government’s special team is surrounding the SC Park Hotel,where we have learned that there are terrorists and some of their leaders hiding,” said Mr. Suthep, who is in charge of security. “We will arrest and suppress the terrorists,” he said. “Innocent people should leave the protests because the authorities have to take decisive measures.”
The protesters had expanded their sit-in on Thursday, vowing to make central Bangkok their “final battleground” in an attempt to force Mr. Abhisit’s government to resign and hold new elections. Though the clash was the worst political violence in Thailand in nearly twenty years, it resolved nothing: the protesters held their ground and the government refused their demand to step aside.
Far from the action in central Bangkok, several hundred people gathered near a military headquarters in a show of support for the government and the armed forces. They demanded that the government enforce the law to deal with the prolonged protests, which have begun digging deeply into Thailand’s economic prospects. Annual growth, which had been forecast at 4.5 percent, could drop by two percentage points as a result of the political turmoil, according to Korn Chatikavanij, the finance mister. “Unless we put an end to this, and do it as peacefully as we can in the next few days or next few weeks, I think there will be a significant impact on Thailand’s prospects,” Mr. Korn said Thursday.
Already the protests have cost Thailand about $300 million in lost tourism revenue, according to Charoen Wangananont, a spokesman for the Federation of Thai Tourism Associations. He said hotel occupancy rates were down to thirty percent at a time when the industry would normally expect 80-percent to 90-percent occupancy.
The Red Shirt demonstrations, which had occupied two locations, now involve tens of thousands of people camping out at a major intersection in the heart of the city’s upscale commercial district, an area visited by many foreign tourists. The area is home to Central World, the second-largest shopping complex in Southeast Asia, and to the Grand Hyatt, the Four Seasons, the Marriott Courtyard, and other luxury hotels and apartments.