Bombings in Bangkok & CMai - opinions

[ajarnmark]

Well, it was really sad to hear about all these bombings in Bangkok. Once a peaceful city is now something under terror and fear. When I first heard of the bombings, I was shocked and I wonder who did all these. So following came to my mind:

1. Some so-called Muslims who were angry due to execution of Saddam on the Eid day. However, this seems remote as none of such factions have ever been reported to be in operation here in Thailand. (Please correct me if I am wrong.)

2. Some so-called Muslims from the south to prove that they are not weak and they can still control and get what they want. However, this Muslim story does not click in my mind, unless I am in a mood of putting the blame on Muslims. (Only the time will tell.)

3. Some factions who are angry with the current government and want to take a revenge. However, this was beyond the reasonable thought that they should do it so early. We have just recently got the new government installed. However, some doubts could go to them.

4. Someone powerful to put the blame of any scapegoat. So far seems to be the most likely, as people started blaming a certain personality. Remember the car bombing plot, where everyone was of the view that it was preplanned, however, I was of the view that it cannot be and the time and new government proved that, it was not. So, I believe that this will also be proven that such bombing are done by someone angry or its just some stunt.

5. Some other powerful countries, who may try to do it everywhere in the world to show that this is the result of Saddam's execution. I just read the news that there was a bomb in the Madrid Airport parking area. Please check this news on google or other sources.

Well, I suspect number 4 and 5 more relevant as compare to any other alternative. I would also like to add that some posters said that its Muslims, which is a kind of fashion nowadays that put all the blames on Muslims. I am not in favor of such Muslims who do these things, however, so far no strong evidence was found for their involvement. Maybe I will be proven wrong and the so-called Muslims maybe involved behind all these.

Another strange thing is that almost all the blasts occurred near farang hangout areas. Which maybe an attempt to chase them away from Thailand. Thai Baht is getting very strong, so one way to control it to chase the tourists away so the Baht demand will go down and everything would be fine.

Comments are welcome from everyone including trolls.

[endure]

Comments are not welcome from trolls nor are anti-religious rants or flamefests. Keep it civil or it will be closed.

[britmaveric]

Not sure - multiple bombings like this is normally muslim related. However could be easy scape goat for powers that be, bit like Madrid bombings, blamed ETA and ended up being Al Queda Cell.

I personally cant see Thaskin responsible or even current govt - conspiracy theories are popular, but I tend to think it doesnt benefit the govt nor thaskin to do such things.

Hopefully we will get to the bottom of things, and we all know it could have been much worse.

[The Skipper]

Pro Democracy groups are responsible is my first guess.

[chiang mai]

I tend to think this is not the work of the southern separatists - surely if they wanted to damage the tourists trade then Phuket would be a more obvious target and it is much closer. And after all the coup is still very recent and dialogs between the new leaders and the southern rebels seems to have been positive thus far.

I also discount Al Queda since the bombs were well coordinated and quite small by comparison to their usual fare - no, this doen't seem to be the work of professionals.

On the surface this looks to me like the work of factions associated with the Toxin mob.

[llothar]

I agree with the offical sources that it is not an islamistic group who did it. It does not fit in any existing pattern. But the immediate statement from the goverment that it has nothing to do with the southern insurgency is IMHO comming in to fast, so my worst fears are that this was a coup from the current goverment - to allow a hard fist against all opposition. It makes sense if you think about it.

It's 2 o'clock in the morning and as a drunken german i don't want to write a political essay but i will post a statement in the next days.

[cdnvic]

Too may people have opinions. How about asking if anyone has facts?

[Aussietraveller]

Whilst i know that we all may have opinions on this matter, they are all all ill informed at this point in time.

The worst thing that we can all do is to start to lay the blame, and speculate about who did this and why.

What we need are facts, and i am sure that some will start to come to light in the next 24 - 48 hours.

Moderators - Can we please have a thread run by you, that will keep us up to date with the facts of the case...

To all those who are affected, our sympathies go out to you.

None of us want to see this sort of thing happening in Bangkok...

Happy new year to all....

[on-on]

The only conclusion I can come to is that so far there's just not enough information to make any educated guess (not that this will stop the talking heads on TV). Every group with an obvious motive also has a sort of alibi for why it's unlikely that it would be them - all mentioned above. The only other obvious guess is the burning of the Reichstag type theory mentioned above, but, again, that seems fairly unlikely for reasons mentioned above. All of that makes it fairly difficult to do anything but guess blindly, so I've just been waiting for more info to come out. Unfortunately, the official information that does come out has a tendency to not be very reliable at times.

The only question that really piqued my interest so far is why one would go to the trouble to plan such a massive bombing campaign in one of the world's largest cities on New Year's Eve and then make sure that it did as little human damage as possible by using small explosives. It would make sense if this were the old IRA or ETA, where they planted bombs and then warned the police about them, but things don't tend to work that way over here AFAIK. Certainly, condolences are due to the deceased as well as best wishes for a speedy recovery to the people and businesses harmed by this.

Edited January 1, 2007 by on-on

[taxexile]

if it wasnt southern muslim insurgents , then my guess would be it was the work of a rogue army or police faction loyal to the trt and seeking to discredit the junta. doubt if thaksin himself had any prior knowledge.

[astral]

It is much better to wait until the police examine the evidence and report,

rather than pointless speculation.

Not that I have a great deal to faith in the forensic skills of the Royal Thai Police.

[IMA_FARANG]

Too may people have opinions. How about asking if anyone has facts?

Good point.

I have no answers but here are some knowns.

1. It has been suspected for 2 to 3 years that some of the Muslim insurgents down south ( a more radical youth faction) were unhappy with the current senior leadership's apparent desire to avoid bringing the bombings out of the south and into the tourist areas. Contacts with more radical fundamentalist groups from Indonesia (Bali) and the Phillipines are known.

2. The new year's holidays are a big time news opportunity for the seperatists, and bombings will get them international press time.

3. I know of no warnings in the last 2 weeks or so that indicated Bangkok was particulary likely to be a target. Other cities in Asia, yes....but nothing special for Bangkok.

4. The obvious co-ordination of the bombings seems to indicate an organised group with some pre-planning.

Beyond that....everything is conjecture. Once again....the muslim link is not proved yet.

[LaoPo]

Too may people have opinions. How about asking if anyone has facts?

Second that; it's not just the 'people'....the press has opinions and speculations as well.

No facts so far.

LP

[SeanBangkok]

it seems like people secretly love and crave this type of stuff. lets all come up with worse case scenerios!!!!

[Donz]

Probaly some pissed off farang blaming everything on Thai's

[sceadugenga]

It seemed to me, and no facts here, that the aim was to cause maximum confusion rather than maximum casualties. If all the explosive used had been combined and used in one extremely crowded place the death and injury toll would have been multiplied many times. Also it appears that suicide bombers weren't involved. Doesn't sound like the Southern separatists to me, or if it was they were extremely amateurish.

The fact that a grenade was used in one attack makes me think a bit too.

[meom]

Since we're speculating I guess the baht might depreciate a bit this week. For all I know it could be the work of some pissed off (foreign) investors who lost their shirt last week.

[andy1308]

I too was worried about the almost instant dismissal that these events were nothing to do with the Southern extremists. That came within three hours of the first explosions - which makes me believe that someone somewhere was expecting something like this to happen.

The damage to tourism and investment will be massive - whoever is discovered to have been involved.

[Jai Dee]

Moderators - Can we please have a thread run by you, that will keep us up to date with the facts of the case...

The threads in the news forum are being moderated... although as is the case with any discussion forum, some members speculate there too.

The extremist speculators and off-topic comments in those threads have been deleted, and will continue to be... in an effort to keep our membership informed as best we can as the situation develops.

This thread in the general forum is titled "What's your opinion?"... thus inviting speculation.

Provided none of the forum rules are bent or broken, this thread can continue.

Speculate away...

[raybkk]

Too may people have opinions. How about asking if anyone has facts?

Good point.

I have no answers but here are some knowns.

1. It has been suspected for 2 to 3 years that some of the Muslim insurgents down south ( a more radical youth faction) were unhappy with the current senior leadership's apparent desire to avoid bringing the bombings out of the south and into the tourist areas. Contacts with more radical fundamentalist groups from Indonesia (Bali) and the Phillipines are known.

2. The new year's holidays are a big time news opportunity for the seperatists, and bombings will get them international press time.

3. I know of no warnings in the last 2 weeks or so that indicated Bangkok was particulary likely to be a target. Other cities in Asia, yes....but nothing special for Bangkok.

4. The obvious co-ordination of the bombings seems to indicate an organised group with some pre-planning.

Beyond that....everything is conjecture. Once again....the muslim link is not proved yet.

Well, the car parks in Silom Soi Thaniya have been searching and inspecting cars for hidden bombs for over 3 weeks now. They also installed camera's. Looking back on things, incl. the announcement that Millitary and Police are not allowed to have a break over the new year, I beginning to think that maybe the Government knew something was brewing.

[mogoso]

So I am guessing it was a "###### them muslims, lets get them back" and then attack some people totally disconected with the attacks. Now causing reaction from those of muslim faith who DO retaliate. Yay a volley of attacks for New Years.

I'm not saying yea or nay on Islamic guilt, but lets not exonerate them or anyone else until the facts are in.

[PeaceBlondie]

Thai TV reports a bomb in a MOSQUE around 1130 AM in CHIANG MAI. See the thread in Thai News forum. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...c=99273&hl=

Okay, just a speculative comment: Closer to Home is no longer just a classic rock song. Those of us who didn't live in the bottom 3 provinces of this long kite-shaped country could at least walk our streets safely. Then there was Hat Yai and Songklha. Now, Bangkok and Chiang Mai. It's a whole new year

[thaihome]

Not sure I understand why people keep saying this was not the hallmark of the Southern extremists. In several cases they have done exactly this, set off multiple bombs of small size, located in high profile areas but causing little human casualties. I do understand the type of explosive and detonation technique is thought to be different, but nevertheless, this seems to me to fit well into their past profile.

IMHO the statements from the army and police that Taksin supporters are the prime suspects is due to their paranoia, well documented over the past month, about the “under currents” being the biggest threat in Bangkok. For most of them, the southern trouble has been too remote to have ever affected them.

There as been several reports in English papers from commanders in South that something was expected from the Southern extremists over the holidays.

I guess we will see over the coming months if the insurgency has moved to Bangkok as the next tactic is assassination of low and middle level government workers, particularly teachers.

TH

[BlackArtemis]

sorry I did not mean to either place blame nor remove blame from them or anyone else. But this seems to have a calling card of someone who is made retaliating w/o even bothering to think. But whether justified or not this type of action can easily stir a hornets nest.

[Who, me ?]

So I am guessing it was a "###### them muslims, lets get them back" and then attack some people totally disconected with the attacks. Now causing reaction from those of muslim faith who DO retaliate. Yay a volley of attacks for New Years.

I'm not saying yea or nay on Islamic guilt, but lets not exonerate them or anyone else until the facts are in.

Any supposition at that stage is irrelevant...It can be anything, anyone...Last night bombing, and this grenade matter are serious matters which need to be dealt with calm, and serious mind....better give time to those who are in charge....

[thaihome]

Edited January 1, 2007 by thaihome

[Jet Gorgon]

Yikes. Any thoughts for how to bring peace without killing off a whole culture, tribe, nation?

[Who, me ?]

Yikes. Any thoughts for how to bring peace without killing off a whole culture, tribe, nation?

maybe a good start should be to stop throwing oil on the fire.........

[BlackArtemis]

Yikes. Any thoughts for how to bring peace without killing off a whole culture, tribe, nation?

No clue on how to do that one...

But until we actually have one of the bombers in custody things are just going to be chaos :/

My mom is screaming at me to move back to the US, not because she fears ths stuff, but is afraid there will be a point where my Fiancee will not be able to leave and thus I won't leave.

[womble]

Yikes. Any thoughts for how to bring peace without killing off a whole culture, tribe, nation?

No clue on how to do that one...

But until we actually have one of the bombers in custody things are just going to be chaos :/

My mom is screaming at me to move back to the US, not because she fears ths stuff, but is afraid there will be a point where my Fiancee will not be able to leave and thus I won't leave.

I'd be very surprised if we don't have a whole bunch of 'guilty' suspects marched in front of the cameras in the next few days.........

Who's to say they'll be the real deal tho??????

Thailand will go into damage mode for the outside world, and we all know what that means...................................................