Thai Army Chief Removed

[george]

Thai army chief removed amid failure to end southern unrest

BANGKOK - Thailand’s army chief has been removed from his post amid a failure to halt deadly violence in the troubled south, it was announced Tuesday.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he is transferring General Chaisit Shinawatra to the inactive post of supreme commander of the armed forces in a semi-annual military reshuffle which goes into effect October 1.

The reshuffle “is considered usual as many officers were due to retire in October,” Thaksin said from Prachuab Khiri Khan province, where he was beginning a five-day trip to the south.

“There is no change (in policy) but the implementation depends on the new army chief,” he told reporters, speaking of the government’s handling of an Islamist separatist insurgency which has cost more than 280 lives this year.

General Prawit Wongsuwon, the current assistant commander-in-chief, will take up the top spot.

Thaksin, who has admitted the southern insurgency is the biggest crisis of his tenure, did not elaborate on why he transferred Chaisit. The general is one year away from the mandatory retirement age of 60.

But on Monday, after a spate of weekend bombs blasts injured a dozen people, the premier let his frustration show as he acknowledged the deteriorating conditions in the southern provinces.

“Bomb attacks have been part of the campaign of unrest and have intensified so far that they are almost too much to tolerate,” he said.

Chaisit, who is the premier’s cousin, was promoted to army commander last October amid critics’ cries of nepotism, but Thaksin at the time insisted he was the best man for the job.

In Sunday’s Bangkok Post Chaisit said he was ready for the move to supreme command and would not seek to remain in the post of army chief.

The English-language daily also said Thaksin was not happy with Chaisit’s handling of a massive debt incurred by the army-owned Channel 5 television station.

Thaksin replaced his Defence and interior ministers in March for their failure to end the violence that erupted in January.

--AFP 2004-08-24

[marquess]

I wish someone would replace him!!

[Rhys]

General Stand to... lock and load

[kwiz117]

My Thai friends say it's a family problem, T's wife and his cousin's wife.

[ovenman]

My Thai friends say it's a family problem, T's wife and his cousin's wife.

That's also what was hinted at in a Bangkok Post article today. Heaven forbid that the removal be over something mundane/germane as a lack of progress in the South.