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| More on Thai blasts | |||
| 2004-01-06 | |||
| Two bombs have exploded in southern Thailand’s Pattani province, killing two policemen and injuring others. The policemen died when a bomb they were trying to defuse, which had been placed on a motorcycle, went off. The incident came as martial law was declared in Pattani and two other provinces following weekend raids blamed on separatists turned bandits. Gunmen killed four soldiers during a pre-dawn raid on an army weapons depot on Sunday, stealing more than 100 guns. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said weekend arson attacks on 21 schools were designed to distract the authorities. The BBC’s Kylie Morris in Bangkok says the latest attacks are a further set-back to the government, which is already defending itself against criticism that it has under-estimated the problems in the country’s predominantly Muslim south. Mr Thaksin blamed Sunday’s attacks on a Muslim group called the Mujahideen, known to operate from southern Thailand and Malaysia. My guess would be that this is the KMM, as at least the profile seems to fit. He suggested they would sell the weapons to allied groups, including separatists in the Indonesian province of Aceh. Martial law has been imposed on Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala as authorities search the Thai-Malaysian border for suspects and weapons. Mr Thaksin blamed a lack of co-ordination between the police and the army for the weapons raid. "The security forces, with more than 2,000 soldiers in the camp, they knew about the bandits looking for a big lot of weapons. But still they were negligent. They deserved to die," he said.
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| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #6 ZF - I tend to agree with Thaksin that these are more bandits than ideologically driven terrorists. Its primarily a law and order problem, and that is why Thaksin went after the army and police. Otherwise, the average budhist Thai aint crazy about moslems, and it would be easy for Thaksin to play the religion card, which to his credit he hasn't. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-1-6 7:07:09 PM |
| #5 Thaksin is very popular in Thailand. He is a modernizer while trying to preserve the best of the past. Thaksin's see-no-evil approach is what has brought martial law to the southern provinces. He did nothing even as Muslim terrorists plotted. As to his accomplishments, Thaksin is no prize. His use of death squads to take out alleged drug dealers is dangerous and unnecessary. Other countries in the region have put drug dealers to death without using secret police tactics that can be used as cover for settling private disputes. As to his economic accomplishments, Thaksin's reckless expansion of credit (via forcing banks to lend) which has fueled Thailand's recent boom, is going to bring the Thai economy down in flames when the debts need to be repaid. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-1-6 5:42:13 PM |
| #4 Here's some backround from Asia Times. EFL: In May, the illegal Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO) boasted that Thai security forces were "falling like leaves" because Muslims were fighting to free southern Thailand from Bangkok's rule. "On the one hand, Thaksin admitted ... there are still a handful of uprisings in the form of liberation movements [in southern Thailand], but said that they are not powerful enough to be considered as a threat to his territorial ambitions," wrote PULO deputy president Lukman B Lima in a rare dispatch from exile in Sweden. "If his conglomerates and himself are so powerful in practicing 'might is right' - which is the law of the jungle - then why are his serving security men falling like leaves?" Lukman said in remarks published in The Nation in May. Bangkok "illegally incorporated" the far south into Thailand 100 years ago and now rules it with "colonial" repression while "committing crimes against humanity in the area", Lukman said. Bangkok denies all allegations of intentional mistreatment of Thailand's Muslims and insists that separatist guerrillas are "bandits" enriching themselves while spewing religious and political rhetoric. About 90 percent of Thailand's 63 million citizens are Buddhist. Most of Thailand's 4 percent Muslim population live in the south, in and around Pattani province. About 80 percent of these Muslims are of ethnic Malay descent, inspiring PULO to demand a so-called Malay Kingdom of Pattani, or Greater Pattani. It would include the southern Thai provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani, Satun and part of Songkhla - a region Thailand annexed in 1902. For more than 500 years, Muslim ethnic Malays have battled Thai security forces in hit-and-run skirmishes to end what they perceive as Thailand's "racist" Buddhist domination. Thai Buddhists crushed southern Muslim uprisings in 1564 and 1776, but the area remains relatively poor, alienated and misunderstood by Bangkok's government and military officials. Today, PULO is believed to possess a couple of hundred fighters scattered on both sides of the Thai-Malaysian border. Great, another 500 year old holy war, no wonder JI leaders made so many trips to Thailand. |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-1-6 1:52:15 PM |
| #3 Riverdog - hold on here! Thaksin is very popular in Thailand. He is a modernizer while trying to preserve the best of the past. He is exactly the kind of developing world leader we should support. He is also serious about controlling drugs. Thailand is THE big sucess story in controlling AIDS- its been declining for about 10 years. The birthplace of political correctness I don't understand. And finally I'll leave the Japanese reference alone cos WWII was the great tradegy of the 20th century which we are only now starting to deal with the consequences of. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-1-6 10:08:24 AM |
| #2 the babes are cute..reason enuf? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-1-6 9:46:28 AM |
| #1 If I had to hazard a guess as to the mood of the Thai Army after their PM's remark: "The security forces, with more than 2,000 soldiers in the camp, they knew about the bandits looking for a big lot of weapons. But still they were negligent. They deserved to die," he said. It would be that when next those troops go to rifle practice, their targets will bear the likeness of Mr. Thaksin. I spent a good bit of time flying out of Thailand during the war in 'Nam, and I always thought it to be an interesting and even advanced place. Don't forget that when every other nation in SEA fought encroaching Japanese hegemony before WW2, Thailand actually invited them to invade. After further review, it seems to have been the birthplace of political correctness, and given all the negatives about the country (exporting crime, AIDS and drugs), it hardly seems to be worth our renewed support. |
| Posted by: Rivrdog 2004-1-6 7:49:32 AM |