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| Southeast Asia |
| Train boomed in Thailand... |
| 2002-08-04 |
| A small bomb planted on rail tracks exploded as a train passed over it Sunday in Muslim-dominated southern Thailand, where a series of terrorist-style attacks has killed at least 20 police this year. One coach was slightly damaged but there were no injuries. The bomb exploded just as the first coach passed over it, and the blast damaged some window panes of the second coach, said police Col. Thaweporn Churind. No damage to the tracks was reported. The explosion occurred near Mai Kaen village in Yala province, ending a nearly monthlong lull in the violence in the south. A bomb had exploded July 9 at a Yala train station, injuring two policemen. A day later, gunmen ambushed and killed two policemen at a rubber plantation in neighboring Narathiwat province. Since then no violence had been reported from the region, which is about 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) south of Bangkok and abuts Malaysia. Sure do hate to do any "profiling," but where there are Muslims it's usually a pretty good bet that there will be violence... No group has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, which have mostly been drive-by shootings targeting policemen as well as a few bombings. Thai officials have discounted a revival of Islamic separatism which once plagued the south and generally describe the attackers as bandits. Observers point to poverty and corruption as possible causes. Something else that seems to go with Islam. Thailand is a stable, tolerant state whose people are mostly Lesser Vehicle Buddhists. Its standard of living has been rising steadily since the middle 70s. But there's always some excuse for |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |