Posted on 09/19/2006 3:02:16 PM PDT by Arabs only 600 years behind us
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- The chiefs of Thailand's army, navy and air force met with King Bhumibol Adulyadej to declare they were taking over the country, according to a televised statement early Wednesday. The coup is being led by Thai army chief Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, who announced that the military and opposition Party of Democratic Reform were taking over while Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was in New York for a U.N. meeting. Sonthi said Wednesday he would meet in the morning with government officials and leaders of other institutions, such as universities Thaksin canceled a scheduled Tuesday evening speech to the U.N. General Assembly, a U.N. official said. He insisted, however, that his government was still in control of the nation. Tanks and troops patrolled Bangkok early Wednesday after the army said the military was taking control. (Watch tanks roll through the streets of Bangkok -- 3:53) Police were closing stores and directing traffic off Bangkok streets, residents told CNN via e-mail, but no violence was reported. The coup plotters declared martial law and suspended the constitution of the Southeast Asian nation. They also declared Wednesday a holiday, with schools, banks and the country's stock market closed. "The armed forces commander and the national police commander have successfully taken over Bangkok and the surrounding area in order to maintain peace and order. There has been no struggle," the coup announcement said, according to The Associated Press. "We ask for the cooperation of the public and ask your pardon for the inconvenience." Sonthi, who is known to be close to Thailand's revered constitutional monarch, will serve as acting prime minister, army spokesman Col. Akarat Chitroj said, according to The AP. Sonthi is a Muslim in this Buddhist-dominated nation,
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Still not clear on this.
Is this good or bad for US?
Yeah, I suspected this was a result of revulsion regarding corruption.
Tiku Hiku. lol
Just tell me they won't be turning towards islam.
I'm sure that's the plan. Tourists better watch their backs
Is this good or bad for US?
Muslim took control...not encouraging
LOL... I think by most measures, Singapore shouldn't be called a third-world country anymore...
Oh, Shi'ite!
Not good.
The Thai PM cancelled his UN speech.
Maybe he's heading back to the fight.
A wave of attacks in southern Thailand forced the government to stop blaming "bandits" and acknowledge, for the first time in decades, that separatist militants were operating in the country. On 05 January 2004 Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra declared martial law in most of the affected region, the provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala. Defence Minister Thamarak Isarangura authorised Fourth Army Region commander Lt-General Phongsak Aekbansingha to place six districts in Narathiwat, three districts in Yala and four districts in Pattani under martial law. This followed a deadly arms raid and arson attack which re-ignited security concerns in the majority Muslim provinces of Southern Thailand. More than 100 assault rifles stolen in a raid on 04 January 2004 by dozens of assailants who killed four Thai soldiers and torched 18 schools. In early 2004 there were reports of more than 100 fighters moving near the border.
The premier blamed the assault on the Mujahideen Islam Pattani, one of several Muslim separatist groups accused of killing about 50 police officers over the previous three years. The banned Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO) had boasted in May 2003 that Thai security forces were "falling like leaves" as Muslims fought to free the south from Bangkok's rule. PULO Deputy President Lukman B. Lima charged that Bangkok "illegally incorporated" the far south into Thailand 100 years ago and now ruled it with "colonial" repression while "committing crimes against humanity in the area."
Historically, this region, consisting of the provinces of Satun, Songkhla, Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat, has served as a dumping ground for corrupt and/or incompetent civilian and military officials. This has been further aggravated by the population's ethnic make-up, predominantly Thai Muslims, which has produced a major degree of alienation intensified by government misadministration. Additionally, daily life there, particularly in urban areas, is continually plagued by a higher level of common banditry and lawlessness, more so than in the kingdom's other regions, making it very difficult for authorities to differentiate between criminal lawlessness and terrorist acts commissioned by domestic Thai terrorist or Muslim Separatist groups.
The practice of Islam is concentrated in Thailand's southernmost provinces, where the vast majority of the country's Muslims, predominantly Malay in origin, were found. The remaining Muslims were Pakistani immigrants in the urban centers, ethnic Thai in the rural areas of the Center, and a few Chinese Muslims in the far north. Education and maintenance of their own cultural traditions were vital interests of these groups. Except in the small circle of theologically trained believers, the Islamic faith in Thailand, like Buddhism, had become integrated with many beliefs and practices not integral to Islam. It would be difficult to draw a line between animistic practices indigenous to Malay culture that were used to drive off evil spirits and local Islamic ceremonies because each contained aspects of the other. In the mid-1980s, the country had more than 2,000 mosques in 38 Thai provinces, with the largest number (434) in Narathiwat Province. All but a very small number of the mosques were associated with the Sunni branch of Islam; the remainder were of the Shia branch. Each mosque had an imam (prayer leader), a muezzin (who issued the call to prayer), and perhaps other functionaries. Although the majority of the country's Muslims were ethnically Malay, the Muslim community also included the Thai Muslims, who were either hereditary Muslims, Muslims by intermarriage, or recent converts; Cham Muslims originally from Cambodia; West Asians, including both Sunni and Shias; South Asians, including Tamils, Punjabis and Bengalis; Indonesians, especially Javanese and Minangkabau; Thai-Malay or people of Malay ethnicity who have accepted many aspects of Thai language and culture, except Buddhism, and have intermarried with Thai; and Chinese Muslims, who were mostly Haw living in the North. yitbos
How is this affecting the girls in Bangkok?
"Muslims took control" - Joan Kerrey
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CIA report (2000 cenus): Religions...
Buddhist 94.6%, Muslim 4.6%, Christian 0.7%.
________________________________________________________
How?
The syllables on those Thai names make it awkward.
Here's mine:
General with tanks:
"I don't like constitution."
Will he fight Islam?
Sonthi is a Muslim in this Buddhist-dominated nation.
Thank you and the other who responded. Now why can't an international news organization figure that this background information might be important to put into their story? They are often useless when they are not intentionally wrong.
The MSM is in a pretty sorry state, isn't it? Either they won't dig, or when they do it's for an agenda. Ratherism.
I don't have any special sources - I have an interest in Thailand and have followed events online, mainly through the BBC.
"Now will gum be legalized..???...oops wrong third world country..Its so confusing"
Singapore is hardly a "Third World" Country. In fact, it is considered to be the most technologically advanced country in the world (of course, it's small size is a huge factor).
As for the gum comment, it was legalized a few years ago.
Fortunately he's already in New York. I'll bet the State Department will buy his ticket to Miami. Hell, Condi might take him into Florida exile in her plane.
"This. Has. Nothing. To. Do. With. Islam."
Now stop it! You're just going to crush all of their little wet dreams with talk like that!
It's the same BS with the liberals and "Bush's fault." Not everything has to do with immigration, Islam, or any other hot button topic of the day/month/year.
And behind the obsession is a not so subtle bigotry. In the same manner that some antisemite go crazy because someone's name ends in "berg" or "stein", certain people here freak out because some guy has an Arab name.
This is beyond stupid.
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