Latest Bombing Developments

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Note from GB: Despite these bombings, life in Pattaya is perfectly normal. Following the coup, unless you were watching the news you would not have known, in Pattaya, there had been a coup. The same is true after these bombings. Apparently there is a greater police presence in Walking Street, but other than that if there is a significantly greater-than-usual police presence, I have not spotted it.

 

There are, of course, concerns that something could happen in Pattaya, since the city is such a highly popular holiday destination, but at least so far there have been no incidents in Pattaya and people are going about their business routinely, just like any other day.

 

The following articles appear in the BANGKOK POST:

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Latest Developments: Bomb Type Identified, Chief Investigator Named

 

(BangkokPost.com)

 

Assistant police commissioner-general Jongrak Juthanon has been put in charge of investigating the double wave of bombings which killed three people and injured 38 on New Year's Eve.

 

Coup commander Sonthi Boonyaratkalin cut short his Haj pilgrimage, and flew back to Bangkok this afternoon from Saudi Arabia.

 

Pol Lt Gen Jongrak said he would start by instructing teams to watch tapes made by closed-circuit TV cameras at the Central World Plaza to see if they can spot anyone who might have been involved.

 

Pol Lt Gen Jongrak has built an insider's reputation as a no-nonsense officer. He led the police to try to arrest Thailand's most powerful mafia-type figures, Somchai "Kamnan Poh" Khunpluem of Chong Buri last April. Somchai was long considered so well connected that he was legally untouchable.

 

Meanwhile, the six foreigners known hurt were identified as two Serbians, two Britons, a Hungarian and an American, said Suchila La-oan of the Police General Hospital, where they were sent.

 

Police spokesman Pol Gen Achirawit Suphanphesat said experts have identified the type of bomb used in most of the New Year's Eve incidents.

 

He said they were small, about 5 by 3 by 1 inch, made primarily from ammonium nitrate, and set off by digital clocks. He called them "M-4 bombs".

 

Around Thailand, officials ordered stepped up security, particularly at popular tourist sites in Chiang Mai and in Phuket, although no other incidents were reported outside Bangkok.

 

The caretaker of a Chiang Mai mosque was wounded Monday morning when teenagers on a motorcycle threw a hand grenade at the mosque but the case was believed to be vandalism and not connected to the organised Bangkok bombings.

 

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said "politicians who have lost power" are behind the bombings.

 

"Based on various reports of intelligence agencies and evidence available, it was the work of people who lost political benefits, but I cannot clearly say which particular group was behind it," the prime minister told a news conference.

 

The lawyer for the family of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Noppadol Patama, was quoted on the Matichon newspaper's web site as saying that Mr Thaksin was in China, and not involved in the bombings.

 

The former secretary-general to Mr Thaksin's government, Prommin Lertsuridej, said today he has been invited by the Council for National Security to help them with their enquiries into the bomb blasts. Mr Prommin immediately asked CNS deputy commander Gen Saprang Kanlayanamitr to delay the invitation.

 

Three major private associations will meet Wednesday to confer regarding their responses to the expected negative effects on business and the economy following Bangkok's New Year's Eve bombings, according to Pramon Suthiwong, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.

 

Thailand has in the past been recognised as a safe country by foreigners for both tourism and investment, and tourism revenue has been growing steadily, Mr Paramon said.

 

But the very high profile New Year's Eve incidents could definitely affect international tourism.

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Grenade Thrown at Chiang Mai Mosque

 

Chiang Mai (BangkokPost.com)

 

A grenade apparently thrown by two teenagers on a motorcycle has wounded a man at a mosque in Chiang Mai.

 

Police said the injured man, a Burmese nation who is caretaker of the Chang Klan mosque, was hit by shrapnel from the grenade thrown by the two males on the motorcycle.

 

Chiang Mai is tense after the double wave of bombings in Bangkok, and cancelled all public New Year's Eve festivals in the nothern city.

 

The commander of Provincial Police Region 5 in Chiang Mai, Pol Gen Kittithat Ruenthip, inspected the mosque and vowed thatpolice will find the bombers and take legal actions against them.

 

The province governor has ordered security officials to closely monitor important places, and operate checkpoints 24 hours a day through the holidays, particularly at tourist sites.

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PM: Politics Behind Bbombs; Thaksin Denies Involvement

 

(dpa) - Military-installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont on Monday fingered political opponents as the main suspects behind a spate of New Year's Eve bombings in Bangkok that killed three people and injured more than 30 others, including at least six foreigners.

 

"Based on our intelligence reports this was the handiwork of a group who will benefit politically," he told a press conference.

 

Surayud, an ex-army commander-in-chief who was appointed premier on October 1 by the military junta that ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said it was unlikely that southern insurgents were behind the bomb attacks.

 

"Whoever did this was trying to create panic during the transition period from the old to the new year when everyone is trying to enjoy themselves, and was trying to make it look like this government cannot assure the people's security," said Surayud.

 

He suggested that the makers of the bombs, some of which were similar to those used by Muslim militants in Thailand's deep South, may have deliberately copied the separatists' style to sow confusion.

 

Altogether seven bombs were detonated in Bangkok and one in nearby Nonthaburi province on Sunday and early Monday.

 

In the first spate of attacks, six bombs and grenades were set off Sunday evening shortly after 6 p.m., killing two Thais and injuring about 25 people. A third victim died in hospital on Monday.

 

Two more bombs were detonated shortly after midnight near the Central World Plaza department store in Bangkok, where a New Year's countdown had been planned but cancelled.

 

Bangkok authorities issued warnings to revellers to cancel their New Year's Eve celebrations shortly after the first spate of attacks. Public countdowns for the New Year were cancelled at Sanam Luang and the Central World Plaza.

 

Numerous western embassies, including Germany's, have issued "cautionary" advisories to their citizens living or travelling in Bangkok and Canada has advised its citizens to avoid the capital if possible.

 

A bomb set off minutes after midnight at the Best Seafood restaurant near Central World Plaza ripped off the leg of one foreigner and injured three others along with two Thais, while a second detonated in a phone booth outside Central World Plaza wounded both foreigners and Thais passing by.

 

All those injured in the World Central Plaza vicinity were taken to the nearby Bangkok Police Hospital.

 

According to hospital sources the injured included two British nationals, two Serbians, one Irish national and one Hungarian. Their names were not immediately available.

 

Bangkok-based political analysts were also inclined to blame the bombs on disgruntled supporters of Thaksin rather than on Muslim militants, arguing that the coordinated attacks were beyond the operational capacity of the southern separatists who have in the past limited their activities to Thailand's three southernmost provinces.

 

"It doesn't add up," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Director of the Institute of Security and International Studies. "The southern insurgents have been very reluctant to expand their conflict beyond the deep South, which has been an ethno-nationalist separatist movement so far."

 

Until now, despite three years of carnage that have left 1,900 people dead, the southern terrorists have made few attempts to operate outside their three Muslim-majority provinces next to the border with Malaysia.

 

The only other systematic violence witnessed in Thailand in recent months has been the burning of 14 public schools in North-East Thailand, the political stronghold of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party.

 

"I think this ultimately boils down to Thaksin," opined Thitinan. "It's this is political who else would benefit?"

 

But Noppodol Pattama, Thaksin's lawyer and unofficial spokesman, was quick to deny the allegations.

 

"He had nothing to do with it," said Noppodol. "How would the old regime benefit from the tragedy? Thaksin's people would never do anything like that. We love the people. We would never harm the people," he added.

 

Thaksin, a billionaire businessman who held the premiership between 2001 and 2006, is currently living in Beijing and is reportedly seeking to return to Thailand to fight several corruption cases against family members and his political associates.

 

Thus far the military and Prime Minister Surayud have blocked his return, arguing that it would further destabilize the political situation. Thaksin's family fortune is estimated at 2 to 3 billion dollars, giving him considerable clout in Thailand where "money politics" tends to rule.