Thai clashes spark coup fears [-Clashes sparked by Thai army to prevent election?]

Thai refugees gather in a holding camp after being evacuated from the scene of deadly fighting between Thai and Cambodian forces in Surin province near the border. Source: AFP

April 25, 2011
Sian Powell in Bangkok
The Australian

TENSIONS rose in Thailand yesterday as a fiery border clash with Cambodia entered its third day and coup rumours swept Bangkok.

The fresh outbreak of fighting took place ahead of an expected announcement that the nation would go to the polls in July.

Thousands of people have been forced to flee the disputed jungle frontier after fighting broke out on Friday, shattering a tense two-month ceasefire.

Each side has accused the other of restarting the armed conflict, in which at least 11 people have been killed. Public accusations of invasion, artillery bombardment and poison gas bombing have been aired in increasingly inflamed rhetoric on both sides.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on both nations to declare a ceasefire and begin "serious dialogue" to resolve the lethal dispute.

Some analysts see the clash as a continuation of the four-day battle that erupted in February near the 11th-century Hindu temple of Preah Vihear, which left 10 dead.

The latest fighting broke out 150km west of Preah Vihear at the site of two other temples claimed by both nations, called Ta Krabei by the Cambodians and Ta Kwai by the Thais.

Cambodia has accused Thailand of firing shells filled with poison gas, a claim rejected by Bangkok, and sending Thai military aircraft deep into Cambodian airspace. "The Ministry of National Defence condemns in the strongest possible terms these repeated deliberate acts of aggression by Thailand against Cambodia," the ministry said. Thailand accused Cambodia of "repeated armed attacks" and of shelling a district containing civilians and a hospital.

In his weekly television address yesterday, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the government backed the army in defending Thai territory. "We must not fall into Cambodia's trap," he said. "Cambodia tried to internationalise the dispute, but the dispute can be settled at the bilateral level without a third country."

The border tensions have inflamed domestic politics in Thailand, where an expected election has fired a rush of political speculation and coup rumours.

The Thai military is known to be unhappy with the Thai-Cambodian border talks that have sputtered along since fighting began in February. The army chief, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, originally flatly refused to countenance the idea of independent observers in the Preah Vihear district.

Thailand's militant People's Alliance of Democracy yellow-shirt protesters staged demonstrations to denounce the alleged Cambodian encroachment.

Military dissatisfaction is one factor leading many rattled Thais to believe the restive security forces will soon mount a coup, perhaps before the election expected in early July.

One Thai news website has counted 11 coup denials so far this year, and on the weekend General Prayuth again said a coup was not in the offing. "The only thing we want to ask is for all parties not to violate the monarchy or bring the monarchy into their conflicts or get us involved in political conflict," he said in The Nation newspaper.

Thailand has endured 18 coup attempts, 11 successful, since the end of absolute monarchical rule in 1932. Some cynics point out that the Thai military roundly rejected the notion of a coup in 2006, just weeks before troops ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

But Thailand's red-shirt leaders, from the rebel United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, have accused General Prayuth of meddling in politics and trying to divide the nation rather than promoting unity as a military leader should.

Thailand is still bitterly divided after security forces last year forcibly routed thousands of red-shirt protesters, who had joined the weeks-long sit-in in central Bangkok. As many as 91 people were killed in the clashes.

Meanwhile, Mr Thaksin, in exile after he jumped bail on corruption charges in 2008, has again entered the thick of Thai politics, using a video link on the weekend to address thousands of members of the Puea Thai party with promises of a new capital city site and plans for new infrastructure.

He urged the military to stay out of politics, and pledged allegiance to the throne.

"The military must not intervene to set up a government like last time, when it formed a government in the barracks," he said.