On 28 January 2010 Colonel Apirat Kongsompong and the leaders of several Army Regiments and Battalions came out in support of Army Chief, General Anupong Paochinda, and denounced Major General Khattiya “Sae Daeng” Sawasdipol for violating the code of conduct and military regulations.

The following day, during the Red Shirt Rally at the Army headquarters, the furious Sae Daeng answered the media with harsh insults, and accused the officers who oppose him of violations of their own. He criticised them for having allowed the military coup of 2006 and having not acted against the People’s Alliance for Democracy during 2008.