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CHAOS IN IRAQ: Thai troops to remain for now: PM


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CHAOS IN IRAQ: Thai troops to remain for now: PM

 

Published on Apr 11, 2004

 

 

Thaksin says situation will be reassessed when US hands over power on June 30

 

Despite a week of street battles between US-led coalition forces and Iraqi insurgents which left hundreds dead, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday said the situation had not affected Thailand's "humanitarian role" in Iraq.

 

Thailand's policy remained unchanged as of now, but the premier noted that his administration would re-evaluate its policy in light of the June 30 deadline, when the US-led coalition is to hand over sovereignty to an Iraqi interim government.

 

Thaksin, like the leaders of US allies Japan, Britain and Italy, had been under domestic pressure to reconsider his position following the latest wave of violence that included battles in Fallujah and elsewhere in the Sunni heartland of central Iraq.

 

The development also coincided with an uprising led by a radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose militiamen were reported to have battled coalition forces in Kerbala, a Shi'ite-dominated area about 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, where Thai troops are stationed.

 

Polish, Bulgarian and Italian troops have reportedly been successful in fighting Sadr's forces.

 

Meanwhile in Fallujah a delegation from Iraq's Governing Council yesterday held talks with Sunni insurgents to secure a peace deal.

 

Last Thursday six mortar shells fell outside the Polish-run Lima Camp, where 451 Thai medical and engineering troops are posted. No casualties were reported.

 

Two Thai soldiers were killed in a truck-bomb attack in Kerbala last December.

 

In a related development, DPA reported from Amman that the Jordanian government had told visiting Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa that Amman condemned the abduction of three Japanese nationals by a hard-line Islamic group in Iraq and called for their release "as soon as possible", according to an official statement.

 

The Jordanian stand was relayed by Acting Foreign Minister Amjad Majali during a meeting with Aisawa, who arrived in the country earlier in the day to conduct diplomatic efforts aimed at securing the release of the Japanese captives.

 

"Majali expressed Jordan's rejection of the detention of the three Japanese citizens who have been performing humanitarian activities in Iraq," an official statement said.

 

"Jordan hopes the crisis will come to an end as soon as possible with the release of the Japanese nationals," Majali was quoted as telling Aisawa, who briefed the Jordanian official on the latest developments of the abduction drama.

 

The Japanese official reaffirmed his country's determination to go ahead with its contribution to Iraq's reconstruction and humanitarian assistance.

 

The Nation

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