THAILAND: Thai military says interim civilian government will be in place soon

Tanks continued to surround the capital of Thailand on Sunday (September 24), four days after a bloodless coup ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. But the military presence in Bangkok was an attraction for residents and tourists as they walked passed the heavy machinery to take pictures alongside the soldiers and tanks. Roses and yellow ribbons were wrapped around the tanks to symbolise peace through the coup as the public showed their support for the coup as the only way to get them out of the political crisis. Military leaders added a former Thai central bank chief and a former Senate to a speculative pool of candidates to be named as prime minister. The Bangkok Post tipped former central bank chief Chatu Mongol Sonakul because of his monetary and fiscal expertise as well as his recognition in the world community. Military and civilian sources working with the coup leaders told Reuters that former Senate speaker Meechai Richuphand, who is writing laws for the coup leaders, was also being considered. Four days after they ousted the democratically elected government of Thaksin Shinawatra, all eyes are on the Thai military to fulfill their pledge to pick an interim leader within two weeks to oversee political reforms and eventual elections. Newspapers have been rife with speculation over who will be named by the coup leaders, who have named themselves the Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy. "CDRCM (Council For The Democratic Reform Under the Constitutional Monarchy) leaders have emphasized that the officials concerned should inform foreign diplomats and the media to clarify and create an understanding of the situation in Thailand as there are a number of different reports creating misunderstandings. CDRCM has also banned the tapping of telephones," said CDRCM spokesman Palangkul Klaharn. "We are speeding up our procedure in order to achieve our goal of having an interim civilian government," he added. The coup is Thailand's 18th since it became a constitutional monarchy in 1932, but it is its first in 15 years. Officials and business people are particularly concerned about the effects on investment and the economy, already damaged by a nearly year-long political crisis over Thaksin's rule. Meanwhile, hundreds prayed with Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn and Princess Srirat and Arpha on the first day of Ramadan in the a central mosque in the troubled Patani province of Thailand's Muslim South. A small bomb exploded near the same mosque in Pattani on Saturday, wounding four policeman providing security ahead of the royal visit, police said. The blast occurred about 500 metres (yards) from Pattani's central mosque. It was the first bomb attack in the deep south since the Thai military ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless coup on Tuesday. The coup, led by army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin who is a Muslim, has rekindled faint hopes in the Muslim-majority far south that he will ease violence in the region bordering Malaysia. Thaksin, who was loathed in the south, tried everything from iron fist to velvet glove to end the unrest, including drafting in more than 30,000 troops and police and promising billions of baht (tens of millions of dollars) in economic development for the region. In the days leading up to the putsch, Sonthi placed himself at direct odds with his political masters on the south, staging a peace rally and proposing talks with the as-yet-unidentified insurgent leaders. The Thai military said it had been forced into Tuesday's coup because there was no other way out of a crisis that pitted Thaksin, twice a landslide election winner, against the old guard and street campaigners determined to drive him out. Thaksin was in New York at the U.N. General Assembly at the time of the coup. He is now in London, where his daughter is studying at university, and has been photographed shopping with friends and looking relaxed. The coup leaders have said that he is welcome to return to Thailand but that he would have to face charges in cases already filed, including election fraud. The military council has also set up a body to probe allegations of corruption under Thaksin, which is likely to bring new charges. That news pushed down the stock prices of companies associated with Thaksin on Friday. Thaksin's relatives and political colleagues will be a particular focus but not the only targets, judges invited onto the panel said.

ITN Source | September 24, 2006

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