EDITORIAL

Is Thailand still in the arms-smuggling trade?
By The Nation

 

Even as our neighbours pursue peace, a Wild West mentality seems to persist in the military

 

The ruling junta – the National Council for Peace and Order – and particularly the Internal Security Operation Command (Isoc) must come clean with regard to a military officer’s alleged involvement in weapons trafficking. On Saturday, Flight Sergeant Pakhin Detphong, an Air Force officer attached to Isoc in Bangkok, was arrested on a charge of arms trafficking after his pickup ran off a road in Trat. He was allegedly hauling 29 AK-47 rifles, four machine guns, more than 4,000 AK-47 rounds and 53 M79 grenades. Most worryingly, it’s believed the arms might have been intended for anti-government militants in Myanmar.

 

This was not the first time a Thai military officer has been tied to weapons trafficking. A decade ago a non-commissioned officer was caught with a truckload of military-grade weapons when his vehicle broke down in the South. Authorities suspected the shipment was bound for Aceh in Indonesia, at the time the scene of a full-blown insurgency. 

 

In early 2004, then-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra admitted that hundreds of weapons stolen from an Army arsenal had ended up in Aceh. He said nothing about the extent of Thai soldiers’ involvement, whether it was just a rogue unit, or if the smuggling had the approval of top brass. In January and February that same year, eight Indonesians were arrested and charged with moving hundreds of firearms from southern Thailand to the Free Aceh Movement.

 

It is not hard to imagine that many other such transactions succeeded where these failed.

 

At the height of the Cold War Thailand was engaged in proxy wars with its neighbours. Given the political and security climate, illegal activities such as arms and opium trafficking were tolerated because the money derived was funding armed ethnic groups fighting the country’s enemies in the Golden Triangle and Indochina. No one in society complained because society itself was tolerant of the means justifying desired ends. The proxy armies along the borders were deemed necessary because the Thai Army didn’t want to get bloodied.

 

Those days are all but over, however. A generous measure of peace reigns the region. Trust spans frontiers. It takes an incident such as the one that occurred on Saturday to remind us that Thai military personnel – acting as a group or individually – remain mired in a Cold War mentality.

 

It’s been suggested that the arms seized at the weekend were destined to bolster the ethnic militants in Myanmar. If so, it would be an outrageous affront to efforts in that country to achieve a negotiated peace. The international community is carefully watching discussions between the government and armed groups aimed at ending decades of horrendous fighting. Attempts originating in Thailand to undermine those efforts would earn global condemnation.

 

The generals and their security planners need to take a long, hard look at how Southeast Asia has changed since the Wild West days of the 1970s. Selling arms to old proxies across the border has to be understood as appallingly inappropriate and unacceptable. There is no justification for it at any time, and certainly not while peace talks are underway. Myanmar might still have a long way to go, but it has to be given a chance. At the very least, Thai military personnel need to refrain from making the situation worse.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/opinion/today_editorial/30317394

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-06-07

The Nation is asking:

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Is Thailand still in the arms-smuggling trade?
By The Nation  

- © Copyright The Nation 2017-06-07

 

and then The Nation answers itself:

Quote

BANGKOK: -- TWELVE MILITARY officers and seven civilians have been detained over alleged online weapon sales, Army chief General Chalermchai Sitthisart said yesterday.

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-06-07

 Like th

 

the article is reasonably pursuasive to those of us that do not trade in weapons; doubt those that do will respond to this moral argument

hey, they had to lay low on human trafficking for a while, so arms smuggling picks up the slack. 

It has got nothing to do with "cold war mentalities" 

 

And everything to do with making money I would have thought,

 

does being trained to kill people inspire them to have a moral compass?  somehow I doubt it........

This proves that one day civil war could easily break out in Thailand,

regardless of any further military coups taking place in the future.

If members of the armed forces are involved, then their abilty to

supply civilians in the future would be a distict posibility.

Wild West days of the 1970s.80's, 90's 2000 to 2017 still going strong cowboys on every street corner

 

 

Arms? How about humans, drugs, humanitarian aid (basic medical supplies destined for those in need in other countries and donated by Western gov'ts and taxpayers). You name it. They have it. And deal it. 

Not sure, but it is human nature o assume that with the opportunity to make money you can do it.

Usually that is not true.

In Vietnam as a soldier there were weapons available everywhere.

It was a big time business opportunity.

The American company I worked for had a accountant from the Phillapines.

He was caught taking money from the company accounts and buying weapons.

He was caught, and deported.

Marcos was in power at that time, and weapons dealers were not tolerated by Marcos and his police.

Our accountant was never heard from again.

True story from 1967 Vietnam.

 

 

He will need a good excuse for Trump, start working on it now if I was you, but liars are always found out in the end.

 

need to make a buck for the pension and after life, what can we sell next, The Sub maybe.