At the Most Sensitive Target: CS Pattani Car Bomb

A car bomb at CS Pattani Hotel could be deadly as hitting another security targets. CS Pattani is a field office to neutral international NGOs that monitors conflicts and make sure that parties to conflict played nicely according to geneva convention. Then it was a physical space for domestic and researchers, journalists and government officers who would organize meetings and stay there during their trips. Bangkok Post reported:

Two people died and 13 were injured by a car bomb on Saturday night that exploded in the parking lot of the CS Pattani, a hotel whose regular guests include government officials, security officials, NGO workers, politicians and journalists.
…
Commander of the Pattani Task Force Tawatchai Samutsakhon said that by targetting the CS Pattani hotel, separatists were sending a clear message. The attack on one of the safest hotels in the far South had a strong psychological impact, he said.

”The CS Pattani hotel is a frequent meeting place for the public and private sectors, NGOs and the media.

”This incident showed there is no such thing as a safety zone,” he told Deep South Watch, an independent organisation set up to monitor the violence in the restive region.

Pattani Senator Worawit Baru said the bombings had opened a new chapter of violence in the South.

Thus, a santuary violated. The hotel is both a social splace where dialogues were fostered and a physical zone there had been relatively “safe from bomb” until recently. Yet we have to note that zoning things didn’t work in iraq and there will not work here as well. As soon an area declared “green,” the most commonsense anticipation is that there would be some one trying to make it change the colour. However, another kine said the motive was local politics.

I would not look nostaglically towards the situation or talk about it as other activists that the senses of safety is disrupted by the event because they went there for an open and close session, discussion, panels, meetings, etc. As a guest in the hotel during the past two years, I think most people who go to the hotel with a mission in mind. I think local people know this well enough.

The hotel was a safe place for outsiders and people who “work” on the issue and obviously several “top” government officers, aid workers and researchers. A car bomb was, if the motive is about the ongoing conflict, the test and provocation that “you” or your approaches (who worked on this issue) would not be so welcomed (maybe it is a good thing!). A harsh warning about security system of a haven and a loophole. A little message to the new government, too?

Filed under: Political Sciences

Too early to call it another intervention?

Too early to call it another intervention?

The Sonthi (media) fraction was so eager to stage an event. Yet the new nominee government has just been running for a month. After a two years hiatus and Thaksin is now back to wherever, should a threat to protest and call for another coup necessary?

The technocrat bloc is still going strong with in-dept investigation and delegitimization, one by one, nominees, relatives and friends of Mr.T are being questioned.

How long would it take friends of Mr. T stop the investigation from independent organization? Strong former technocrat and pro-coup also paraded into the senate. It would be a tough ground for interference.

Still, this time it will not be the coup for the country (as it will never be and never has been). This time it is a backlash prevention, a clash of mass against mass. People who could call more supporters would win. It is a primitive use of force to abandon democratic root. It is not always pronounced “democracy” if they still want to call forth undemocratic intervention. The last intervention brings the techno-bureaucrat intervention to another level as it sweeped people’s power down the drain and reinvented new people’s participation under independent institutions’ endorsement.

Filed under: Political Sciences

Just a Bout

During the last few days Thai newspapers published an arrest of Victor Bout who have recently been captured in Bangkok. Internationally, readers can find them on AP, AFP and NYT. The arrest was the result of US DEA ‘s inside jobs and a lot of investment to track Mr. Bout down when he was claimed to visit Bangkok for a business trip.

A gunrunning business trip.

Later in January I was presenting my paper on “”, had I know I would find solid evidence that hint transactions in Thailand, I would have put more finger pointing tone in my paper.

Yet, as the movie Lord of War portrayed in the end, he is a link in a long chain of arms trade. He could be a chunky link, but not chunky enough to run his own manufacturing companies and large deposit of weapons. The amount of weapon he shipped is a small share of what the world and big manufactures produces. Most of producers are G8 and permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Plus who want to make a big wave of states as embargo breaker?

I may sound as if I sympathize him. Well I want to smack his wrist for making it easier to illegally supply weapons to arm groups. Yet I realized it is legal and easier for a state to acquire arms to do whatever they deem fit. And some states really take this right seriously beyond their borders.

So congratulation Mr. Bout for a free stay in Bangkok Prison. I hope you will get tanned while the other dealers are working on, the producers get shit load of money. Sorry. You should have been the producer. It is legal.

Filed under: non proliferation