US trains, equips Thais against
terrorism By Richard S Ehrlich
BANGKOK - The US Defense Department has trained
and equipped police on the tourist playground island of
Phuket to prevent "international terrorists" staging a
copycat of the October 2002 Bali bombing, a Thai
official said.
"The Bali bombing made us aware
of the need to prepare ourselves for any situation
within our area of control," Phuket's police deputy
commissioner, Major-General Phuvadol Krasaein, said
after receiving the US equipment. He was referring to
the bombing by Indonesian Islamists at Kuta Beach
nightclubs that killed 202 people, mostly foreign
tourists.
"The equipment is part of a training
program granted by the US government to upgrade the Thai
police's ability to deal with international terrorists,"
Phuvadol said, according to the government-run Thai News
Agency. "Terrorists are a threat to peace in the
society. They often target attacks on Western tourist
attractions. Although there is no indication of any
terrorism in the area, Thai police should be ready for
the situation."
He received the donated
equipment, worth about US$50,000, in a ceremony at the
Phuket provincial police headquarters on Wednesday.
David Turner, chief of the US Defense Department's Force
Protection Detachment at the US Embassy in Bangkok,
presented the equipment to Phuvadol, according to the
Phuket Gazette.
The equipment included hand-held
metal detectors, lights, mirrors to check under cars for
concealed bombs, and other unidentified items. It was
presented after the US Defense Department finished
administering a five-day anti-terrorism training course
in Phuket for 57 Thai police officers from Phuket island
and the nearby southern tourist destinations of Phang
Nga, Krabi and Koh Samui.
Phuket offers
five-star tourist facilities, including luxurious spas,
ornate resorts and lively entertainment, and is a
favorite retirement destination for wealthy foreigners,
giving the southern island a booming, parallel economy
compared with the rest of Thailand.
Phang Nga is
renowned worldwide among backpackers for hosting a "full
moon party" every month on the tiny island's beach that
attracts thousands of foreigners, including many who
take illegal drugs while dancing in the sand to loud
"trance" and "techno" music.
Krabi, along
Thailand's southwest coast, boasts gorgeous rock
formations and allows visitors to spend the day boating,
exploring caves and scuba diving. Koh Samui (Samui
Island) competes with bigger Phuket for international
tourists who, along with Thai developers, have turned
the tropical paradise into a rapidly modernizing venue.
Those areas have not suffered any major terrorist
attacks, though worries were heightened after the Bali
bombing.
Three weeks ago, suicide Muslim
insurgents in the shadowy Pattani United Liberation
Organization (PULO) threatened to use "fire and oil" to
"burn down" Bangkok in revenge for the deaths of 85
people, including 78 Muslim men who suffocated on
October 25 after Thai security forces crammed them into
army trucks.
For the past year or so, southern
Thailand's three Muslim-majority provinces of Pattani,
Narathiwat and Yala have been hit almost daily by
bombings, shootings, arson and other assaults, which
have killed more than 500 people. The government tried
to restore peace in the south after the 78 suffocation
deaths, but many officials fear the situation is rapidly
deteriorating.
The 78 Muslim men were among
1,300 arrested in Tak Bai during an unruly demonstration
in which seven other civilians were shot dead. The 1,300
men had their hands tied behind their backs before being
loaded into tarpaulin-covered, six-wheeled army trucks
in Narathiwat province. They were forced to lie down on
the floor of the trucks while other detained men were
piled on top of them in layers, officials and survivors
confirmed.
"Seventy-eight people were found dead
on arrival, in the [army] vans, at the military camp,"
Justice Ministry pathologist Pornthip Rojanasunan said
in an interview on October 26 after examining the dead.
"They showed bleeding in the eyes, in the white part of
the eyeballs, and bleeding on the body underneath the
skin, only tiny spots of bleeding", which are evidence
of "suffocation", said Dr Pornthip, the respected deputy
director of Thailand's Forensic Science Institute.
Muslim insurgents demand autonomy or
independence in the south amid claims that southern
Muslims suffer brutal injustice in Thailand, which is
95% Buddhist. The government denies most of their
charges and has experimented with various ways of
crushing the rebellion by minority ethnic-Malay Muslims.
Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based
journalist from San Francisco. He has reported news from
Asia since 1978 and is co-author of Hello My Big Big
Honey!, a non-fiction book of investigative
journalism. He received a master's degree from Columbia
University's Graduate School of Journalism.
