Thailand hit by holiday blasts

Twenty-seven people have been injured in at least three separate explosions in Thailand's insurgency-hit south.

The blasts took place on Sunday night at entertainment venues in the town of Sungai Kolok in Narathiwat province, as people celebrated the holiday season.

Devices exploded at or outside two hotels and a disco, police said.

There are frequent gun and bomb attacks in Thailand's southern-most provinces, where separatist rebels are fighting for an Islamic state.

More than 2,500 people have been killed since the violence escalated in 2004.

Two of the 27 people hurt in the blasts suffered serious injuries, police said.

Security had been tightened in the region ahead of the New Year holiday.

The attacks come exactly a year after a series of blasts hit the Thai capital, Bangkok.

Three people were killed when at least five bombs exploded on New Year's Eve in 2006.

No-one has yet been charged in connection with the attacks, which occurred amid political instability four months after the military seized power.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7165470.stm

Published: 2007/12/31 05:54:24 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

let them have their islamic state and leave the rest of us to enjoy beautiful thailand. would love to see how they would cope without a tourist industry to support them.

who wants to go on holiday to an islamic state?

quote:

Originally posted by axel1974:
l... who wants to go on holiday to an islamic state?

Well, actually, I spent a throughly enjoyable 5 days in the United Arab Emirates just last month, and an excellent day in Oman.

quote:

Originally posted by axel1974:
let them have their islamic state and leave the rest of us to enjoy beautiful thailand. would love to see how they would cope without a tourist industry to support them.

who wants to go on holiday to an islamic state?

Genius, shear genius! Ooops, what about the large Thai minorities who live in those southern states? Or the chinese merchants who run most of the towns. Doh!

Ian

well i am tired i guess

just don't seem to have any energy today after last nights festivities.

it saddens me hearing about all the troubles in the south. i wish they would all just either get on with each other or go their separate ways. either way..... bombing is not the right way to go about these things

its always the idiot minority that spoil it for the rest of us

quote:

Originally posted by axel1974:
well i am tired i guess

just don't seem to have any energy today after last nights festivities.

it saddens me hearing about all the troubles in the south. i wish they would all just either get on with each other or go their separate ways. either way..... bombing is not the right way to go about these things

its always the idiot minority that spoil it for the rest of us

Agreed, but then if you simply do what the idiot minority wants, then you end up getting more idiot minorities using bombs to achieve their aims! Thailand has a long history of compromise and negotiation as a way of dealing with situations like this, and in the end that might be the only solution. (I was still in Thailand when the last groups of communist insdurgents in the South gave themselves up and were welacomed back from the jungle.)

I am not sure that Thaksin's master stroke of dropping millions of paper peace doves from planes onto the South was very sucessful either!

Ian

I would be very interested to hear how YOU would negotiate with these terrorists, IanB. That 'great' Muslim general Sondhi didn't have much luck did he. In case you cannot recall who he is he's that guy in a 'minority' at the head of the coup.

I haven't been contributing to the forum for some time now but this thread caught my eye.
I am spending quite a lot of time in Thailand on business and last month we had to meet the army in Yala.
We were escorted around various rural roads with armed guards.
What was utmost on our minds was the state of 'alert' everyone was in. Everyone, from all religions and walks of life were trying to simply get on with their lives.
It was soon very apparent that the 'terrorists' were a very, very small minority. It also surprised me (rightly or wrongly) how tollarrant everyone was to each others religious believes and persuasions.
I had never been to northern Ireland, but somehow reminded me of there when the troubles were at there heights in the 70's/80's. A big army presence doing, well nothing really!
I found our group to be made most welcome everywhere especially by the Muslims.
In fact from who we spoke to, these Muslims were very much Thai, very patriotic to Thailand.
All without exception, made it clear the 'terrorists' were a minute minority who would have nothing without support from northern Malaysia. I found some areas (mostly Muslim) to be actively supporting desegregation (that exists in schools etc)
Overall, I strangly found the south very peacfull and at ease both in towns and rural areas. Actually, the sort of Thailand I would seriously consider settling in.

Then a reality check; our small convoy, army 4x4, army truck, us, school mini bus, a couple of goods trucks and then two more army 4x4's were rounding a corner on a dirt road (you know the type) to find a burnt out car. The car was still hot to touch, two bodies were inside unrecognizable and another was found at the side of the road full of bullet wounds.
We were on edge as the army went into overdrive, guns at the ready and a kind of chaos only Thais understand. The rest of the convoy just calmly stayed in the vehicles until the army boys cleared the road.
Theres no moral point to the above no answer except this made by our guest house manager;
"yes, we need help here, but Thailand is not run by Thais it is run by 'Bangkok' Thais"
Ian1208

very interesting and informative reply ian.
i just hope things manage to sort out for the best in the end, whatever that may be.
i just hate fighting in the world.

quote:

I would be very interested to hear how YOU would negotiate with these terrorists, IanB.

And for my next trick . . . world peace and love!

The only point I was making is that simply handing over the Southern provinces to the Islamic terrorists is NOT an option. This point is well supported by Ian's post which shows that the majority down there appear to still support Bangkok.

Ian

Thanks for the clarification IanB, and I agree. My previous comment was based on what seemed to be your point that it was just a matter of negotiating and it would all be sorted pronto. The heavy handed approach of course did not work. It takes a very skilled army to do any good in such circumstances, and very few have those skills.

Its no surprise (but reassuring) from Ian's very interesting post that it is indeed a tiny minority supporting these awful attacks on innocent folk.

I do wonder where it all ends though - these brainwashed terrorists seem a lot more fanatical than the communists were (although that's purely a personal hunch).

You have to admire the people just getting on with things when some of them such as teachers have been particularly targetted.

Remember that it was not that long ago that the Thai army was fighting pitched battles and a major guerilla war with insurgents in mountainous areas not all that far from Bangkok. The last guerillas in the south came in from the jungle while i was living there.

The Thai military campaign failed. What succeeded seems to me to have been a combination of hearts and minds propaganda and sheer bribery - with guerillas who surrendered being given land and money.

In any visit up country in the 1980s you couldn't fail to notice military planned and built roads everywhere, frequent army checkpoints, and propaganda broadcasts on loudspeakers in every village.

To me, at that time, it was impressive.

Ian