The Thai name for Bangkok, Krung Thep, roughly translates as “city of angels.” Rarely has this moniker seemed more of a misnomer than the past week, with its climatic battle between the Red Shirt protesters encamped in downtown Bangkok and the Thai government.

Early Wednesday morning, the Thai army made a final push on the protesters’ camp in downtown Bangkok, rolling through barricades in armored vehicles and prompting two prominent protest leaders, Jatuporn Prompan and Nattawut Saikua, to surrender to the Bangkok police on charges of terrorism. At least five people died in the operation, adding to the previous six days’ toll of 38 dead. While Prompan and Saikua asked protesters to surrender, saying “we cannot resist against these savages anymore,” some die-hard elements chose not to, turning instead to rioting, looting and continued street battles in defiance of the government’s 8pm curfew.  One of the more extremist protest leaders, Arisman Pongruengrong, managed to escape government forces. Protesters set fire to around thirty buildings, including the Thai Stock exchange; CentralWorld, one of Bangkok’s biggest and ritziest malls; two banks, a television station, and a movie theater.

While the height of the organized protest is now over, replaced by rioting, the situation is far from resolved. Bangkok is still nowhere close to calm, and guerrilla-style attacks and looting by more militant members of the Red Shirt movement who have so far escaped arrest will likely continue for another few days.

More important, however, are the long-term effects the violence and events of the past month will have on Thailand’s fragile political situation. The activities of both sides of the conflict have entrenched the positions and grievances of each party, and a peaceful and speedy resolution of the country’s difficulties is looking farther away than ever.

While the Red Shirts may have lost this round, their movement is only likely to be strengthened in the long-run. Thai news stations have reported attacks on city halls in at least three provincial capitals in Northeastern Thailand, the heart of the Red Shirt movement, demonstrating the anger the Bangkok crackdown has elicited. The heavy losses incurred by the Red Shirts- most of the sixty-six people killed in the past two months were protesters or civilians- will serve to both increase a feeling of victimization at the hands of the government and provide the movement with sacrificial martyrs. Video footage and reports of army snipers shooting unarmed protesters in the head and soldiers firing at the backs of fleeing protesters will make it hard for the government to claim that it tried to minimize casualties. Moreover, the Red Shirts failed to achieve any of their demands (though this was as much their fault as the government’s), meaning that the underlying problems that prompted the protests in the first place remain unresolved.

The Abhisit government, for its part, has backed itself into a corner. The government made an effort to resolve the stand-off with peaceful means on May 3, when Abhisit offered to call elections in November, much earlier than required by Thai law, but still months off the protesters’ demand for immediate elections. However, negotiations between the parties were hampered by the Red Shirts, who continued to add fresh demands to the agreement until the government withdrew the offer in frustration eight days later. The government also (correctly) believes that much of the Red Shirts’ demands and tactics are being driven by exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, which it euphemistically calls ‘an actor abroad’ and who the government refuses to recognize as a legitimate political player. Finally, the chaos caused in Bangkok has undermined public faith in the government’s ability to exert control and provide security in Thailand, and has caused it a major international loss of face for Abhisit.

In short, no compromise has been reached, no issues resolved, no lights lit at the end of the tunnel. Instead, both sides have confirmed one another’s worst suspicions about the other side. An already messy situation has been significantly worsened by poor choices and tactics in both parties, and it will only continue to deteriorate.

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