KM Viray
8. Thailand Massacre by Neil Ulevich (1976)
This photo was described by Neil Ulevish as a symbol of “disorder and brutality in the streets of Bangkok.” In 1976 the worsening political situation in Thailand culminated in a violent confrontation at the Thammasat University. Several students who were demonstrating against dictatorial Field Marshall Thanom Kittikachorn’s plan of returning to the country were shot, beaten, hanged, mutilated, and even burned to death.
As Ulevich described the scene when he took the photo, “I saw some commotion in the trees. I walked down there and I saw a body hanging. He was certainly dead, but the crowd was so enraged that a man was hitting the body on the head with a folding chair. I stood there to see if anybody was looking at me. Nobody was. I took a few frames and walked away.”
