Thai PM asks nation to brace for more bombs

Bangkok, Jan 4: Army-installed Prime Minister SurayudChulanont today told Thailand to prepare for repeats of the bombattacks which killed three people and wounded 38 in Bangkok on NewYear's Eve.

''I would like to ask our brothers and sisters to brace themselvesfor a life-threatening thing like this for a while,'' Surayud told theNational Legislative Council, which is acting as a parliament in thewake of a September 19 military coup.

He gave no details.

His comments are likely to keep the nine million inhabitants ofthe sprawling capital on edge after a string of bomb hoaxes and scaressince the New Year. Thai media reported false alarms at a governmentoffice and major shopping mall today.

The identity of those behind the bombings, which knocked 4 percentoff the stock market as investors feared political violence in 2007,remains a mystery, although post-coup ministers are pointing the fingerat dissident soldiers and police.

However, the government has provided no evidence to back up itsclaims, which most Thais interpret as implicating ousted prime ministerThaksin Shinawatra, now in exile in Beijing, and his allies still inthe country.

Defence Minister General Boonrod Somtat continued to rule outforeign terrorist groups and Muslim militants fighting Bangkok's rulein the far south, despite some similarities in style.

''So, there are only those inside the country left -- thecivilians, police and armed forces both in khaki and green,'' he toldreporters.

''Intelligence puts 90 per cent weight on political issues.

There is a political group in which a few people have the potential to do such a thing,'' he said, without elaborating.

''People who can handle this involve civilians, police andmilitary officers.'' Thaksin, a former police lieutenant-colonel, hasdenied any involvement in the bombings, which prompted the UnitedStates, Britain and Australia to issue travel advisories to itscitizens.

What Evidence?

Diplomats said a Foreign Ministry briefing today had failed to provide much by way of reassurance or answers.

''There was no evidence whatsoever,'' one diplomat said. ''It wasnot exactly enlightening.'' Ministry spokesman Kitti Wasinondh told anews conference that investigators were struggling to find witnessesand that much of their work centred on security footage and forensics.'It might be some time for the results of that to come,'' he said.

General Saprang Kalayanamitr, the most outspoken member of theCouncil for National Security (CNS), as the coup leaders now callthemselves, said the authorities had video surveillance tapes from twoof the bomb sites but no clear suspects.

''The people who did it must have been trained for that, orfamiliar with it. Gangsters, mafia or well-known people were not ableto do it,'' he told a Bangkok radio station.

Security analysts said it was impossible to rule out completelythe groups behind the campaign of violence in the three southernmostprovinces, the only Muslim-majority region of overwhelmingly BuddhistThailand.

Since that campaign began with a raid on an army barracks onJanaury 4, 2004, more than 1,800 people have died in daily shootingsand bombings.

But the violence has never moved outside the immediate vicinity ofthe Malay-speaking provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, whichBangkok annexed a century ago.

Although many of the bombs in the far south have used ammoniumnitrate fertiliser as explosive -- as did the Bangkok bombs -- analystssaid their wide geographical spread across the capital was verydifferent.

''This has to be in some fashion linked to the former regime --but that's such an enormous pool of people,'' said security analystBrian Dougherty of Hill and Associates in Bangkok.

Reuters>