BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's U.S.-backed
military regime is
warning that Islamist insurgent infiltrators
will try to bomb Bangkok
and escalate their war for independence, which
has killed 2,000 people
in the past three years.
American military forces have boots on the
ground in this Southeast
Asian "non-NATO ally," and are currently
involved in a fresh series of
training exercises for Thailand's army, which
seized power in a
bloodless coup last September.
Bangkok expects America's annual
multinational, Thailand-based
Cobra Gold military exercise to be held in May.
Previous Cobra Golds
included anti-terrorist strategies for
protecting oil platforms in the
Gulf of Thailand and other targets.
America's smaller Exercise Cope Tiger 2007,
specializing in air
force training, was held in northern Thailand
Jan. 29 through Feb. 9,
involving 600 U.S. service members, plus 600
from Thailand and
Singapore combined, according to the U.S. Air
Force.
"Intelligence reports said a group of about
10 rebels from the
south had infiltrated Bangkok," the relatively
pro-coup Bangkok Post
said in a front-page report on Tuesday
(February 27).
"This group was believed to be preparing to
launch a major attack
in Bangkok from March 13 to 15," the
English-language paper said.
"In Bangkok, Victory Monument is a target.
Others are similar to
those hit in the December 31 bombings," it
said, quoting intelligence
reports.
"We cannot control them, because they
exploit the liberty of
students to move freely about Bangkok," Defense
Minister, Gen.
Boonrawd Somtas, told journalists on Thursday
(February 22), referring
to Islamist insurgents who have kept their
identities secret by not
claiming credit for assaults.
"We have intelligence units to take care of
this matter, but they
might slip through our surveillance," Gen.
Boonrawd warned.
"We do not know who is working against us.
As long as they mingle
with ordinary people, it's difficult to tell
them apart," Gen.
Boonrawd told the National Legislative Assembly
the same day (February
22).
During New Year's Eve celebrations, nine
bombs exploded in Bangkok
killing two people and injuring 38 others,
including eight foreigners.
The overnight blasts hit shopping areas,
restaurants, Victory
Monument's downtown traffic circle, and other
crowded public places.
Insurgents unleash virtually daily assaults
in the south, including
beheadings, drive-by shootings, and multiple
simultaneous bombings.
Since 2004, the death toll on all sides is
around 2,000 victims.
Southern targets are mostly security forces,
Buddhist clergy,
Muslim collaborators, shops, nightclubs, rubber
plantations, banks,
and schools -- to make ethnic Thai Buddhists
abandon territory to
ethnic Malay Muslims.
The separatists' small, improvised bombs
include chemical
fertilizer and scrap metal, with a detonator
linked to a mobile phone.
Escaping rebels scatter bent nails on
highways, so security forces
suffer flat tires.
Insurgents seek to create an Islamist nation
ruled by ancient
sharia laws, similar to Afghanistan's failed
Taliban regime, within
southern, ethnic Malay provinces which Thailand
annexed 100 years ago.
"Government authorities must protect Thai
Buddhists, before our
land erupts in flames," a Thai-language
newspaper, Baan Muang,
demanded in an editorial on Monday (February
26).
Editorial cartoonists emphasized the
military regime's failures.
"Where are you?" a gigantic, armed officer
wondered in an editorial
cartoon published on Monday (February 26),
while gazing through a huge
magnifying glass at Bangkok's pedestrians,
workers and vehicles.
Nearby, a small pig warns: "The insurgents are
among us."
An editorial cartoon by Arun, published on
Friday (February 23),
showed a soldier studying documents about the
toppled government's
alleged corruption, but ignoring hacked up
humans in the "Deep South."
After overthrowing then-prime minister
Thaksin Shinawatra's
three-time elected government and invalidating
Thailand's
constitution, the ruling generals frequently
focused on corruption,
alcohol abuse, lotteries, satellite ownership,
media censorship,
foreign investment, airport construction, and
their fear of
eavesdroppers listening to the military's
telephone calls.
The military suggested walkie-talkies.
Southern ethnic Malay-Thai guerrillas
meanwhile have sharpened
their deadly, synchronized bombings.
The coup leaders earlier announced they
would try a soft approach
in the Muslim-majority south, but some of
Thailand's majority
Buddhist population demand a tougher approach.
"The policy of not allowing security forces
to fight insurgents is
based on the fear of causing civilian
casualties, which would be
counterproductive to the government's effort to
win over the hearts
and minds of locals in the area," said another
relatively pro-coup
English language newspaper, The Nation, in a
Monday (February 26)
editorial.
Impatient, it bemoaned the "inexcusable
failure by security forces"
to crush the Islamists.
"The peaceful approach to the southern
problem has proved correct,"
insisted a retired general, Surayud Chulanont,
who the coup leaders
installed as prime minister.
"We are increasingly gaining the cooperation
of Islamic countries,"
Mr. Surayud said, apparently referring to
increased trade with Iran, a
recent visit by Qatari officials when they were
shot at on a tour of
the south, and other links.
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Copyright by Richard S. Ehrlich, who has
reported news from Asia for
the past 28 years, and is co-author of the
non-fiction book of
investigative journalism, "HELLO MY BIG BIG
HONEY!" Love Letters to
Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing
Interviews. His web page is
http://www.geocities.com/asia_correspondent