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to be released and for a return to constitutional government. Students from Thammasat
University marched to the Democracy Monument, and other students and members of
the public joined in the demonstration, estimates putting the crowds by the following day
at more than 200,000. The police lost control of the huge crowd, and the military were
brought in, with tanks rolling down Ratchadamnoen Avenue and helicopters overhead.
The army opened fire, and the students fought back, and the scene became one of mas-
sacre. Dead and injured were taken to the lobby of the Royal Hotel, at the edge of Sanam
Luang, while at the other end of Ratchadamnoen, crowds of students gathered in panic
at the gates of the royal palace of Chitralada, which were opened, allowing them to flood
into the safety of the grounds. King Bhumibol, Rama
IX
, ordered Thanom and other milit-
ary leaders to leave the country, and an hour later the king appeared on national television
asking for calm, announcing that Thanom had been replaced with Dr Sanya Dharmasakti,
a respected law professor who was rector of Thammasat.
A new constitution was drawn up under Sanya, and elections were scheduled for Janu-
ary 1975. An elected government under Prime Minister Seni Pramoj, leader of the centre-
right Democrat Party, was established the following month but as there was no clear
majority in parliament the government was unstable, and Seni was replaced in April by
his brother Kukrit Pramoj, who led the centre-left Social Action Party. Unrest continued
amongst the public and the student population, as the economic situation was poor, and
there were strikes and rallies. The unions and the Left appeared to have the upper hand,
and as this was a time when Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were falling to communism,
many Thais were convinced that a similar fate could engulf their own country. A right-
wing coup began to seem likely, and when Thanom returned, undergoing ordination as
a monk at Wat Bowon and claiming he was only in Bangkok to pay respect to his dy-
ing father, there was a massive demonstration of students at Sanam Luang, which then
moved onto the campus of Thammasat University. Early in the morning of 6
th
October
1976, paramilitary forces entered the campus and opened fire. Hence another massacre
took place exactly three years after the first. There is a memorial to those who died in 1973,
1976 and during a further uprising in 1992, set on the corner of Ratchadamnoen Avenue
and Tanao Road, a few metres from Democracy Monument.
