Though it's been a month since the political unrest was brought to a violent end on May 19, some people are still feeling the pain and looking for ways to rebuild their lives.
Redshirt protester Santipong Inchan, a 24yearold new graduate, had the dream of becoming a flight attendant. It is a wellpaying job, and he speaks the Englishlanguage fluently enough to deal with foreign tourists. Unfortunately, this dream of his will never come true because he lost his eye to a rubber bullet during the April 10 clash at Khok Wua intersection.
"Which airline will accept a man with one eye?" he asked.
He is currently waiting for an artificial eye and needs to go to hospital regularly for treatment. Since he hails from a middleincome background, he does not have enough funds to cover his treatment and is asking for donations.
Ever since he lost sight in one of his eyes, he has not been able to get around too well and often runs into things. Also needs help to clean his wound every four hours.
Santipong joined the redshirt rally on March 12 at Phan Fa Bridge, because he had heard about the political movement while studying at the Mae Fah Luang University.
"My friend told me about the yellowshirt movement while he was watching the ASTV channel. Later, I spoke to my parents about the yellow shirts and they advised me to find out more about it. So I looked through the Internet, and discovered that some of the accusations the yellow shirts were making against the red shirts were untrue," he said.
When the protest kicked off at Phan Fah Bridge, he made his way there to talk to the demonstrators and discovered that most of them came from the Northeast.
"They just wanted the government to dissolve the House of Representatives. It was not such a difficult task, but the government did not do it. Instead, they used violence to crackdown on the protesters and caused so much damage, so many lives were lost," he lamented.
On April 10, Santipong had gone to Phan Fah Bridge with his parents and decided to go to the frontline. The protesters were trying to push back troops stationed at Khok Wua intersection. His parents were watching from the Democracy Monument.
He said the standoff began at about 6pm, and before too long he heard gunshots and grenades. At around 7pm, teargas was fired at the protesters and they scattered. Santipong was making his way out of the area to find a place where he could wash his eyes. However, he was suddenly hit and as he collapsed he saw a foreign photographer taking pictures nearby and yelled for help. The cameraman asked someone nearby to take Santipong to the medical tents, and he was eventually sent to Vajira Hospital.
While he waits for an artificial eye from a private hospital, he can't help but wonder about his future. After all, he doesn't know if the airline he had applied to would accept him now that he has just one eye. Moreover, he was also a redshirt protester.
Another victim whose life has been shattered is 28yearold motorcycle taxi driver Seksit Khanthong. Bullets hit him in both his eyes while he was delivering a passenger at a protest site near the Pheu Thai Party headquarters on May 19.
He had decided to stay in the area because he was worried about his friends who were protesting at Rajprasong intersection. He had heard that the troops were working to disperse the protesters there, but he couldn't make his way there because soldiers were blocking the roads. So he stood there waiting and watching until 10am, when the soldiers started shooting and he ended up losing his sight.
"The doctors have told me that I have little chance of seeing again because the bullets have cut the optic nerve," he said.
He has been undergoing treatment at the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration General Hospital.
Seksit, father of a sevenyearold boy, supported his family by working as a motorcycle taxi driver. However, now that he is disabled, his wife will have to shoulder the financial burdens, including mortgage payments for their new home.
"Even though I had no weapons, I have been named a terrorist," he said. "I'm just an ordinary man who works in the mornings and goes home in the evenings."
Yet, he hasn't lost his spirit and is determined to keep fighting for justice for the poor.