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Southeast Asia
Thai Coup Leader Soft on Muslim Insurgency?
2006-09-20
Long piece in Forbes, so here's the most important part:
Striking when Thaksin was in New York at the U.N. General Assembly, army commander Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin sent tanks and troops into the drizzly, nighttime streets of Bangkok. The military ringed Thaksin's offices, seized control of television stations and declared a provisional authority loyal to the king.

In his first public appearance since seizing power, Sondhi Wednesday asked for the public's support and declared the coup was necessary to end serious conflicts within Thai society that Thaksin had created.

Sondhi, who is known to be close to Thailand's revered constitutional monarch, will serve as acting prime minister, army spokesman Col. Akarat Chitroj said. Sondhi, well-regarded within the military, is a Muslim in this Buddhist-dominated nation.

Sondhi, 59, was selected last year to head the army partly because it was felt he could better deal with the Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand, where 1,700 people have been killed since 2004. Recently, Sondhi urged negotiations with the separatists in contrast to Thaksin's hard-fisted approach. Many analysts have said that with Thaksin in power, peace in the south was unlikely.
The rest of the article has reaction blurbs, quotes and analysis.
Posted by:Steve White

#10  Displace the Muslims into Malaysia. The international stink will be muted because (a) if the white folks aren't involved nobody cares for long (b) There are bigger things going on around the world.

That's what I would do. At least to any villages that are uncontrollable. The Soviets moved the entire population of Chechnya at one time. Solved the Chechnyan problem until someone got the bright idea to let them return to their homeland.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2006-09-20 11:49  

#9  ....errrr....WAS the PM.
Posted by: mcsegeek1   2006-09-20 11:16  

#8  I know you meant General Sondhi, Zenster. Thaksin is the PM.
Posted by: mcsegeek1   2006-09-20 11:15  

#7  It does rank right up there, doesn't it TW??

Fred's the Master.
Posted by: lotp   2006-09-20 09:56  

#6  I'd wait for verification from Debka.

If I were ever capable of such subtlety as this, y'all would be pulling the knife from between your ribs, cleaning it and handing it back to me with thanks for my kindness.
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-09-20 08:53  

#5  If Muslims are given autonomy, then they will then demand independence if not unity with Malaysia. Negotiation with terrorists is another word for surrender.
Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550   2006-09-20 07:21  

#4  and a double-order of salt-lick!
Posted by: Frank G   2006-09-20 07:18  

#3  Toxin's problem in the south has hardly been that he's been too "hard-fisted." It's Forbes, but it's an AP story. I'd wait for verification from Debka.
Posted by: Fred   2006-09-20 06:58  

#2  Hear the tanks are under attack for taking up Noodle Stand space on the sidewalks....that,according to a source out of Hong Kong...
Posted by: crazyhorse   2006-09-20 04:42  

#1  If achieving "peace in the south" requires appeasing the Muslim insurgency, everybody involved will be in for a huge surprise about what's to come. Well, maybe except for Prime Minister Sondhi.
Posted by: Zenster   2006-09-20 02:02  

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