Thailand's embassy in Sweden has received a letter threatening the Southeast Asian country with attacks like those on Spain in retaliation for sending troops to Iraq, Thai and Swedish officials said on Wednesday. "Since Thailand has cooperated with U.S.A., the Satan's states, and have interfered in the concern of Iraq by sending 443 Thai soldiers to the occupied land, we have our duty to inform you that Thailand is one of our targets after Spain," reads the letter, in ungrammatical English and dated March 31.
The Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed the text of the letter, which concludes with the Muslim phrase "Insha Allah" or "God be willing" and the phrase: "Peace be upon those who follow the guidance." Thai officials said it was signed with the Arabic name Al Bashir al-Makkawi. "We are aware of this and we are working on it," said a senior officer at Sweden's Sapo security police. "An investigation is under way into where it came from and who sent the letter," Bengt Berglund, an inspector at Stockholm police's diplomatic unit, told Reuters. It was the first such threat reported by any embassy in Stockholm since the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people, Berglund said. Thailand has about 440 medical and engineering troops in the southern Iraqi city of Kerbala, 60 miles south of Baghdad, but the Thai Foreign Ministry said that they were not involved in military operations. In Bangkok, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters Thai troops were only in Iraq for humanitarian reasons. "I can assure you that nothing will happen. Muslims know that Thais go there to help them, not to kill them," he said.
| Sigh, it doesn't matter, Thaksin. You're helping rebuild Iraq, the fundis don't want rebuilt. Ergo, you're a target. |
Two Thai soldiers were killed in a truck bomb attack in Kerbala in December last year. The deaths shocked many Thais and sparked criticism that the government had failed to explain to the public the risks of deploying troops, even on a humanitarian mission, to Iraq. Bangkok has forged closer ties with Washington since the arrest in Thailand last year of Hambali, the suspected mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings and operations chief for the al Qaeda-linked militant group, Jemaah Islamiah.
| And right there is another reason you're a target. |
Thailand and the United States have been sharing intelligence on a spate of violence in Thailand's largely Muslim south, where about 60 people have been killed since January. Thai security officials blame Muslim separatists, renegade officials and local mafias for the violence. But some senior officials have said they suspected the local separatists might have received support from foreign militant groups.
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