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| Southeast Asia |
| Thais fear unrest spreading |
| 2005-04-05 |
| Thai authorities have imposed extra security measures amid fears that unrest in the Muslim far south is spreading after bombs hit an airport, hotel and supermarket just outside the violence-hit region. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the almost simultaneous Sunday evening blasts, which security officials blamed on Islamic militants, had raised concern across the Buddhist country. The bombs, which police said consisted of dynamite and fertilizer and which were detonated by mobile phone, killed two people and wounded 60, seven critically, health officials said. "This doesn't only worry me. It worries the whole nation," Thaksin told reporters on Monday. The government reacted with an array of security measures first imposed during an Asia-Pacific regional summit two years ago attended by U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. "To restore people's confidence, we have raised our security measures to the level during the APEC summit," Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya told reporters after a special national security meeting. Fears that militants might take their campaign to the capital, Bangkok, weakened the Thai currency, the baht, in early trade, dealers said. The blast in the departure lounge of Hat Yai international airport, 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Bangkok, in Songkhla province was the first bomb attack on a Thai airport, and comes two weeks before the Buddhist "Water Festival" celebrations. But until Sunday's blasts the violence had rarely spread beyond these three provinces, where most people speak a Malay dialect and have greater emotional ties to neighbouring Malaysia. The British Embassy in Bangkok revised its travel advice, saying there was "a high threat from terrorism throughout Thailand, particularly in the four southern provinces." In Washington, the U.S. State Department urged Americans to avoid travelling to Thailand's southernmost provinces except in emergency situations. "American citizens who must travel to these areas are urged to exercise special caution," the U.S. agency said. Small bombs or shootings, normally targeting police or government officials, have become daily occurrences in the three southernmost provinces since violence erupted in January 2004. The southern Thai tourist havens of Phuket and Krabi, popular with European holidaymakers, have avoided the trouble. Thaksin vowed to keep up military pressure on perpetrators of violence, but said police and army would act within the law, in keeping with last week's policy U-turn to scale back the military presence in the area. "We will continue our intensive prevention and suppression measures, but we will not abandon our non-violent means," he said before leaving on a trip to the northern city of Chiang Mai. Flights had resumed at Hat Yai airport, where mobile phone signals had been turned off at random as a measure to prevent remote-controlled bombs, Deputy Transport Minister Phumtham Vechayachai told reporters. Other security measures would also be adopted at all airports, officials said. "From now on, whoever leaves a bag unattended will be stopped and ordered to carry it with them," said Air Force chief Kongsak Wantana. On Monday, another bomb exploded at a technical college in Yala, wounding five people, hours ahead of a sports event to be witnessed by top regional military chiefs, police said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 LOL! Made from pages of the Naked Lunch. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-04-05 6:42:20 PM |
| #1 One word: Origami. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-04-05 1:33:37 PM |