Explosions in Bangkok

[Bangkoktraveler]

!/2/07 issue of the Bangkok Post addressed the issue of IRK. I read the article but did not save it. I tried googling the article but google finds the article but will not open. The google info reads:

 

Police rule out 'IRK' graffiti tie-in

Bangkok Post, Thailand - Jan 2, 2007

Deputy Metropolitan Police Chief Pol Maj-Gen Krisada Pankong-chuen said any youths found spraying the letters would be charged with provoking public panic. ...

 

The link is http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/03Jan2007_news02.php

 

[chuckwoww]

Irks? Are they like Thai chavs?

[bust]

!/2/07 issue of the Bangkok Post addressed the issue of IRK. I read the article but did not save it. I tried googling the article but google finds the article but will not open. The google info reads:

Police rule out 'IRK' graffiti tie-in

They adressed the "IRK" issue and put it down to probably being a tag. They have had very little to say about "RKK" which is who I was informed were highly likely to be responsible.

[Gadfly]

It means that we may start to see in Bangkok the sort of bombings that have been occurring regularly in the South. That doesn't sound pleasant to me."

 

Yes, that is exactly what I think it means. I think that the insurgents would like nothing more than to turn Thailand into another Israeli / Palestinian type conflict. In fact, it actually IS they same type of conflict as the land in the south was taken from them, and they are now fighting to reclaim it (at least per their propaganda).

 

I've been very closely following the insurgency since 2003. I've hoped that Thai military would be able to quell this problem via surgical strikes against their leadership before it gained too much momentum. Unfortunately this has not happened, and the current political vacuum will probably only embolden these lunatics to further action. There have even been recent reports that factions from other countries (Philippines, Afghanistan, and Pakistan) have either been providing technical support or actually personnel to the insurgentsâ?¦Not to mention a major Al-Qaeda figure...

 

This is exactly what I feared. If it is a political clash between factions in the past or current governments, it will presumably end when the current political crisis ends (it will end) and won't go on forever like the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

 

I have no expertise in this area, just a opinion (more like a hunch), but I do have some questions. If it is Southern insurgents, why are the denying they planted the bombs? And why now?

 

PULO has an agenda - they want to set up an independant Moslem state in the South of Thailand. If they plant bombs in Bangkok, they are presumably doing it to advance their cause. How does this advance their cause if they deny planting the bombs?

 

Why now? The current government seems more willing than the prior one to negotiate with the insurgents in the South. I doubt that an independant state is even on table, but this government seems willing to talk and it isn't involved in any major atrocities, such as the incident where about 70 Southern Thais were handcuffed, thrown into army trucks and smothered to death.

 

I see arguments for and against all three possible scenarios (which is why I am not committed to any particular scenario), but I am having a hard time getting my mind around why Southern insurgents would want to do this. I can easily see why elements in the prior and current government might pull this stunt, but I don't understand why Southern insurgents would do this now.

[YimSiam]

Maybe it was the Burmese... or the 'Bodians?

Or that western journalist up on the border who trains terrorists in a camp with the aid of a very well known American organization.

 

What about Johnny and Luther, and their Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors buddies? One of them - I forget which - is back in Myanmar and cozy with the generals, and they - unlike most everyone else - have at least a limited track record of Bangkok terror. Maybe the MYA junta don't like the generals relatively supportive attitude towards the camps, or just like the chance to cause havoc for their eternal enemies. As likely as the core Muslims, in my myopic view.

 

I hate to say it, but the public pronouncements of the Thai generals seems about right on target - police or military with connections to Thaksin's dirty friends.

 

Speaking of whom, where's Newin Chidchob these days? As a Buriram boy, he'd have plenty of access to the fertilizer used in the attacks...

 

YimSiam

[shygye]

Maybe for the same reason Bin Laden first denied any part of 9/11.

 

 

[Old Hippie]

Remember who created Bin Ladden, and who brought him into power...

[Guest lazyphil]

yes and he betrayed the US....have u been betrayed by a friend or lover....smarts dont it.

US helped the Afghans during the Russian war and look what thanks they got

[Old Hippie]

This is why I blame the US, we constantly back people who later fuck us...the Russians had their hands full, the war in Afganistan was helping to kill the communist regime in Moscow, and might have also helped keep the Taliban from forming...but hind sight is always 20/20...and we will never really know.

[bust]

Maybe it was the Burmese... or the 'Bodians?

Or that western journalist up on the border who trains terrorists in a camp with the aid of a very well known American organization.

 

What about Johnny and Luther' date=' and their Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors buddies? One of them - I forget which - is back in Myanmar and cozy with the generals, and they - unlike most everyone else - have at least a limited track record of Bangkok terror. YimSiam[/quote']

Sketchy information (may not be completely reliable) surfaced about a year ago which claims that the Htoo brothers were living in a refugee camp inside Thailand near the Burmese border. Luther was 16, and had allegedly taken a young Karen wife named "Paw" and they had a son. Not sure about now.

The Htoo twins are reported to possess supernatural mystical powers which protect them from harm. When the Htoo's began their career as child insurgents they were only 9 years old. They preached in a local Karen Christian church and claimed God had called them to lead soldiers in battle against Burmese troops. They later raided a Burmese outpost and killed several Burmese soldiers.

Members of God's Army are forbidden to consume alcohol, use drugs, gamble, commit adultery, eat pork, drink milk, or eat eggs. Luther Htoo does chain smoke cigars. Each brother claims they have thousands of invisible soldiers under their command...Johnny has 150,000 and Luther has 250,000. The standard uniform for the GA is green Army fatigues (taken off dead Burmese soldiers perhaps) shorts, black Rambo type head scarves, rubber thong sandals or confiscated combat boots, and Donald Duck T-shirts.

Ten members of the GA were killed during a 22 hour hostage-taking standoff with Thai security forces (several hundred people involved) after they took over a hospital in Ratchaburi, Thailand. The Htoo twins were not among the dead. Then sometime in 2000, after the ill-fated hospital raid, the GA split into three groups, two of these were led by the Htoo brothers, and a third group was lead my a mysterious 12 year old Karen warrior known as Chopa Thupli aka "king of the Black Tongue." The three groups disappeared deep into the Burmese jungle and it is thought they still engage the Burmese Army in sporadic firefights. It was rumored at one point that the Htoo brothers gave themselves up and surrendered to the Thai authorities. Very cool.