Deadly Bombs Make Bangkok Unsafe By Richard S. Ehrlich
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Increasingly deadly bomb attacks across Bangkok have plunged this Buddhist-majority country into
confusion, despair and fear because its military and police, who received years of counter-terrorism training by the
U.S., are unable to keep the capital safe.
The Thai government exposed its weakness when the prime minister and other officials -- issuing what sounded like a
macabre weather report -- bleakly warned more bomb attacks would occur in October but may taper off in November.
Security officials suspect frustrated pro-democracy Red Shirt revolutionaries may now be unleashing bloody revenge
assaults in Bangkok, after the military crushed the Reds' nine-week insurrection last Spring, leaving 91 people dead --
mostly civilians -- and more than 1,500 injured.
"If the conflict is not resolved, it is likely that more bombs will be used in attacks, especially IEDs (improvised
explosive devices) because they are easily assembled," warned Explosive Ordnance Disposal Police Lt. Col. Khamthorn
Auicharoen.
Bangkok's bombers may also be sourcing their explosives from southern Thailand, where the military has been unable to
crush minority Muslim ethnic Malay-Thai insurgents, in a murky war that has killed more than 4,000 people on all sides
since 2004.
Some skeptics, however, suspect rifts within the highly politicized military are enabling some attacks.
"Do not seek to destroy the army, even if you have failed to secure a promotion," Army Chief Prayuth Chan-ocha told
Thailand's splintered, poorly disciplined military earlier in October.
Adding to the worry is the unsolved theft of 32 rocket-propelled grenades, 8,000 bullets for U.S.-supplied M-16 assault
rifles, and other weaponry from an army arsenal during September.
A similar mysterious theft of 69 hand grenades, and 3,100 bullets for assault rifles, occurred at a different army depot
in March.
While Bangkok's security degenerates, residents have become increasingly jittery, jaded and suspicious while demanding
an immediate solution after each new bomb blast.
A "How to Identify a Bomb" advisory was published in the English-language Bangkok Post newspaper on October 10
describing an array of the grenades, Molotov cocktails, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) built with dynamite,
empty fire extinguishers, cooking gas cylinders, fertilizer, diesel fuel, nails, fireworks, and detonators linked to
cell phones, which have been used in recent weeks to wreak havoc in the Thai capital.
Bombings have included 40-mm, M-67, M-26, MK-2, RGD-5 and rocket-propelled grenades, police said.
The worst blast to hit the Bangkok area in many years ripped apart two floors of an apartment building on Oct. 5 in
Nonthaburi province, 40 kilometres north of Bangkok, killing four people, including the alleged bomb maker.
Investigators said electrician Samai Wongsuwan -- a known Red Shirt activist from Chiang Mai in northern Thailand -- was
the dead bomb maker who accidentally detonated a device made of 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of TNT.
They identified him from a driver's license and DNA match to a severed arm discovered amid the wreckage of his recently
rented inexpensive room.
Nine others were injured in the powerful explosion, and city officials ordered the five-story building to be dismantled
because its structure could collapse.
Police are currently hunting two suspects.
Amporn Jaikorn, 49, allegedly appeared in the building's closed-circuit security video when she and a man, Kasi
Ditthanarat, 48, visited the building, apparently to meet Mr. Samai, police said.
Mrs. Jaikorn was described as a Red Shirt supporter from Chiang Mai, while Mr. Kasi comes from Narathiwat province in
Thailand's violent, Muslim-majority south.
Their Toyota pickup truck's license plate also appeared to be from Narathiwat province, police said.
It was unclear, however, if that proved a first ever public link between the mostly Buddhist, nationalistic Reds who are
based in Thailand's north and northeast, and minority southern separatists who frequently build bombs in their fight for
an Islamist homeland.
Red Shirts and their supporters portray Bangkok's bombings as a shameless conspiracy by the government to entrench the
military, justify the government's ongoing state of emergency decree, and smear innocent Reds.
"The government is addicted to the power of the emergency decree," said opposition Puea Thai Party spokesman Prompong
Nopparit.
The emergency decree gives officials sweeping powers to seize and imprison people, curtail free expression and political
assemblies, and grants immunity from prosecution for officials under its scope.
The Puea Thai Party and the Reds, who wear symbolic crimson clothing, want to reverse a 2006 military coup, and have a
nationwide election to restore toppled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is an international fugitive based mostly
in Dubai, dodging a two-year jail sentence for corruption.
The Red Shirts are officially known as the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), but a hard-line wing
named Red Siam earlier broke away, reportedly to pursue "a true revolution."
It is unclear, however, who staged most of the bomb attacks or if they are by diverse individuals.
During September, successful and failed bombings in Bangkok have targeted a school, a shopping mall's car park, the
Public Health Ministry's parking lot, the Royal Turf Club, a ruling politician's office, and public sidewalks.
At least 71 bombs reportedly exploded this year in Bangkok, causing damage, injuries, and a handful of deaths -- some
apparently random -- which averages two bombings a week in a city now gripped by political polarization after the Red
Shirts' failed insurrection.
Another 43 explosive devices were defused this year, police said.
The scattered timing and locations of the blasts have people baffled but worried.
"It's not right in my face, but I'm of course scared," said one executive.
"I think if people see something funny, or weird, they should tell an officer," she said.
Unable to stop the assaults, desperate officials expressed strained hopes.
"I would like to thank the people for staying alert and cooperating with police following the recent bombings,"
soft-spoken Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said in his weekly broadcast on October 10.
"If everyone works together, the situation will be restored soon."
In September, the prime minister was similarly unable to protect his citizens and said: "Many people, including myself,
have assessed the situation and decided we will have to be more cautious over the next two weeks."
Others are nervous about the possibility of yet another military coup in a country which suffered more than 18
successful and attempted putsches since the 1930s.
"I will try to step back from politics, be clear of it, and leave it with the government so that soldiers can do their
military work," declared Army Chief Prayuth who is widely seen as a staunchly anti-Red, anti-Thaksin hawk.
"But if the nation has not returned to order, the military -- as a mechanism of the government -- must help build order
first," said Gen. Prayuth who was promoted to the military's top slot on Oct. 1 after helping to stage the 2006 coup.
America has spent millions of U.S. taxpayers' dollars training and arming Thailand's military since the 1960s, and
currently also trains its police through the State Department's Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program in the U.S. and in
Bangkok.
The U.S. Defense Department's Force Protection Detachment at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok has also trained and equipped
police with hand-held metal detectors, lights, mirrors to check under cars for concealed bombs, and other items.
The Thai military's bomb hunting abilities, and priorities, were exposed when it spent more than $24 million on hundreds
of empty plastic boxes -- each with a toy antenna sticking out -- and used them from 2007 to 2010 as bomb detectors in
the south and elsewhere, despite officials denouncing the British devices as a corruption hoax.
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Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist who has reported news from Asia since 1978. He is co-author of "Hello
My Big Big Honey!", a non-fiction book of investigative journalism. His web page is
(Copyright 2010 Richard S Ehrlich)