Here is an important report from today’s Bangkok Post. I have reproduced it in full, given that Bangkok Post stories quickly disappear from the web.
What happened, I wonder, to the “evidence” that an ”old political power clique” was behind the bombings? Was there ever any evidence pointing in that direction? Or was it just part of a public relations campaign (eagerly taken up by many international observers and press outlets) to discredit Thaksin’s backers?
‘Separatists’ behind city bombs
Devices made the same way as in South
WASSAYOS NGAMKHAM
The police team investigating the New Year bombings in Bangkok and Nonthaburi has concluded that a southern separatist group was responsible for the nine explosions. Police are now hunting for a man with a southern Thai accent who bought 300 silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) diodes, used in the assembly of bomb circuits, in Bangkok’s Ban Mo area. A highly-placed source in the investigation team said the insurgent group responsible for the nine bombs wanted to show its capability to launch terrorist attacks outside its home region.
Evidence collected from attack scenes and the detonation circuitry used to assemble the bombs supported the investigators’ conclusion, the source said. ”After examining evidence thoroughly, it was found that the bomb detonation circuits are the same [as the circuits used by a southern insurgent group]. Moreover, the materials used to make the bombs are all the same,” the source said.
The investigation team is now focusing its investigation on one insurgent group. The materials used to assemble the nine bombs included metal boxes containing ball bearings and nails, a Casio 200 watch, a nine-volt battery and a small deodorant spray bottle containing gunpowder. The same materials are used by the southern insurgent group, said the source. The brand and model of diodes used in the bomb circuits was also the same as the devices the group used to launch attacks in the deep South. They are SCR diodes made by Motorola. The owner of an electronics shop in Ban Mo told investigators that on Dec 23, one week before the bombings, he sold 300 of the SCR diodes of the same model, together with 300 nine-volt battery terminals of the same type that police collected from the bomb scenes, the source said. The shop owner said the man who bought them wore a hat and spoke Thai with a southern accent. Bomb disposal experts told the investigation team that the bombs used in the New Year attacks and terrorist attacks in the deep South were probably assembled by the same person. Each bomb-maker has his or her own signatory bomb-making style, the source said.
The investigation team will report its findings to the Council for National Security (CNS) soon. The CNS earlier believed that an ”old political power clique” was responsible for the Bangkok bombing. ”Now it’s rather clear that it was a southern insurgent group that launched the attacks,” the source said. Assistant national police chief Pol Lt-Gen Phanuphong Singhara na Ayutthaya, who leads the bomb probe, has ordered the investigation team to gather information to identify insurgent groups capable of launching such an attack, another police source said.
Another investigation team, led by assistant police chief Pol Lt-Gen Jongrak Juthanont, has asked the Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for two suspected New Year bombers who appear in video footage from two security cameras, one at the Saphan Khwai intersection and another at Major Cineplex Ratchayothin. The team will make public the footage of the suspect at Major Cineplex on Wednesday, to seek more information from the public. The team has already publicised footage of the male suspect at the Saphan Khwai intersection and received more than 300 tips from the public.
12 responses so far ↓
1 patiwat // Mar 19, 2007 at 2:25 pm
The junta never claimed to have any evidence that Thaksin was behind the bombings. On the contrary, it acknowledged all along that the Bangkok bombs looked nearly identical to those used in the South.
The reason it blamed Thaksin was due to an “intelligence analysis” which showed that the Bangkok bombs were intentionally made to look as if they were created by the insurgents. However, the government rejected the theory that the southerners were behind the Bangkok bombings because southerners would get lost in Bangkok. The junta’s “intelligence” saw through the deception – “old power clique” was clearly trying to frame the insurgents. See here and here
When the government of Spain engaged in similar bullshit back in 2004, the resulting outrage brought down the Aznar government. In Thailand, I don’t know if anybody is going to even care, unless if there are further bombings. My guess is that the entire matter will be swept under the carpet, like the 2006 car bomb, the 2006 Prem house bomb, the 2001 airplane bomb, and the death of King Ananda.
2 Matt // Mar 19, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Amazing isn’t it. Nation doesn’t have anything on this yet. And for some reason the Post has this as only the third most important story filed nuder “General News”.
3 david w // Mar 20, 2007 at 2:25 am
I distinctly remember reading in either the Post or the Nation just a few days after the bombings that bomb experts had concluded that the technical components of the bombs indicated that they were NOT the work of the insurgency in the South. Similar but not identical, and thus not likely the work of the southern insurgents. Does anyone else remember reading anything like that? Not that I suprised at the fluidity of interpretations about how much of a significance a small difference can make given the larger political interests at play.
4 Srithanonchai // Mar 20, 2007 at 3:08 am
David:
…
Meanwhile Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont told the National Legislative Assembly Thursday that forensics tests showed the New Year’s Eve bombs were not of the same type as those used by the separatists.
“Forensics tests found that the bombs were similar to those used in the south, but I can reassure you that they are not exactly the same,” Surayud Chulanont told the NLA.
“That is the reason why we have concluded that the bombings had nothing to do with the south, and rather that the ill-intentioned perpetrators are in Bangkok,”he said.
…
The Nation 4 January 2007
5 Matt // Mar 20, 2007 at 1:33 pm
It’s been nothing but a farce, and Thaksin must be reveling in it all.
6 david w // Mar 22, 2007 at 9:14 am
Apparently this isn’t as important as Andrew suspected, seeing as Sonthi has told folks not to pay attention to those silly police analysts until he gets a chance to vet their conclusions. Is there really any reason to ever believe anything they say on the topic of who set off the bombs? Will anyone ever believe them, or is that the point?
7 david w // Mar 22, 2007 at 10:00 am
Whoops. Spoke too soon. Here is the latest attempt to thread the needle (from an AFP report at http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=117589):
‘However, he [Gen Watanachai Chaimuanwong] cautioned that authorities were now linking the insurgents – but not their cause – to deadly bombings in Bangkok on New Year’s Eve which killed three people and wounded more than 40.
He insisted the attacks were not linked to the southern unrest, saying someone connected to the political turmoil in Bangkok had hired the militants to stage the attacks to further their own interests.
“The explosive devices were the kind commonly used in the south, and the people who made the bombs were militants who worked in the south, but they were hired to mount the attacks for another purpose,” Watanachai said.’
8 Matt // Mar 22, 2007 at 12:48 pm
The era of confusionism is upon us.
So, someone with a political agenda hired some people from the South to blow up Bangkok on New Year’s Eve? Meaning that it WAS Southern insurgents, albeit acting on behalf of … wait a minute… how does any of this make sense?
9 Jon Fernquest // Mar 22, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Weapons and gun control might be the real issue. Different cultures have different situations, like Mindanao where they have quite open gun craftsmen shops fashioning and selling weapons, and I remember witnessing a soldier fight with his wife while his pistol and grenade were sitting on the table, potential danger lurking, to South Korea, with near 100% gun control, licensed “gas guns” for women to protect themselves, is about all you see. Maybe someone needs to lock the arsenal.
10 Srithanonchai // Mar 22, 2007 at 4:11 pm
“Weapons and gun control might be the real issue. … Maybe someone needs to lock the arsenal.” Well, it seems that nobody–at least since the attack on the army camp in Narathiwat in 2004–has discovered this real issue. Now that we know it, things will soon return to normal.
11 Jon Fernquest // Mar 22, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Noticed at Chiang Rai’s fair last month at the old airport, gun culture t-shirts that read something like, “I use a….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLOCK
12 bangkoker // Mar 23, 2007 at 2:18 am
How can anyone have thought for a second that this was not the work of Southerners…
Remember about one month prior to the Bangkok bombings there were 22…yes 22 banks hit in one 2-minute span.
The southern insurgents are capable, organized, well-funded and in my estimate will be back for more. As long as the police is as totally incompetent as they have shown to be they can continue their terror for years to come, unobstructed but not unnoticed.
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