Asia Security
Monitor
No. 73, April 2, 2004 North Korea – al Qaeda nuclear threat;
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| March 23: Australia announced a tightening of maritime security, based on fears of terrorists detonating “floating bombs” in any of the nation’s 70 sea ports, reports Agence France-Presse. Transport Minister John Anderson warned that gas or oil tankers could be hijacked and used as bombs, or that terrorists could be secretly transported aboard international ships. Boats carrying oil, gas and fertilizer are all potential bombs. March 29: Fear of new terrorist attacks heightened along the Thai-Malaysian frontier after Thai customs officials found a bomb hidden in a vehicle near the border town of Sungai Golok during peak rush-hour, reports the Singapore Straits Times. Two days earlier, a bomb explosion in the same town injured 28 people, including 10 Malaysians. The bombing and bombing attempts are part of a wave of Islamic extremist violence in southern Thailand, in which 60 people have been killed since January. The bombs are expected to have a devastating impact on the economy of Sungei Golok, at least in the short term. After the most recent incident, the Thai stock market fell 3 percent in one day. March 30: A new Thai government agency has been formed to coordinate the actions of the military, police and Interior Ministry in bringing peace to the terrorism-plagued South, reports the Bangkok Post. The establishment of the “Southern Border Provinces Peace-making Division”' has been ordered by Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh. Speaking to reporters, Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) deputy director Gen Pallop Pinmanee said “We avoid using the words `three southern border provinces' because we do not want to make people feel that it is for three provinces only. In fact, it is for all southern provinces.” Thirty ISOC officers had been sent from Bangkok to prepare the way for the new center, which will operate out of Sirindhorn Camp in Yarang district of Pattani. The new division will be tasked with coordinating police, military and Interior Ministry operations and all intelligence work in the southern border provinces. The Bangkok Post and Bangkok Nation also report, Lt-Gen Pisarn Wattanawongkeeree was appointed Fourth Army Commander [responsible for the southern provinces] in a reshuffle of almost 500 senior military officers. Several officers close to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his cousin, General Chaisit Shinawatra, the Army Commander-in-Chief, were promoted to key posts. Among the most notable, Lt. Gen. Pongsak Ekbannasingh - who was removed as Fourth Army chief on March 20 soon after 39 arson attacks occurred in one night - was promoted to Deputy Army Chief-of-Staff. He replaced Lt. Gen. Amnaj Mekilinhom, who became Chief-of-Staff of Gen. Chaisit Shinawatra. The mid-year transfers of military personnel involve the three armed forces, the Defense Permanent Secretary's Office and the Supreme Command. A wary officer in the Fourth Army expressed concern about nepotism in the reshuffle. “We were surprised since we were unaware that career advancements would be based on special ties rather than capabilities. This kind of nepotism has demoralized our forces,'' he said. April 1: Top U.S. military commanders in the Pacific warned Congress that North Korea could provide nuclear weapons to terrorist groups, such as al Qaeda, reports Bill Gertz in the Washington Times. Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, US Pacific Command chief Admiral Thomas Fargo, the senior member of the military panel, stated that North Korea’s nuclear weapons “threaten the entire Northeast Asia region as well as other nations in the Pacific.” He added, the potential for al Qaeda-North Korea cooperation is one of several serious threats in the region. He also said that incidents of piracy are growing in Southeast Asia, especially in the Malacca Strait, where a major portion of the world’s shipping trade regularly traverses.
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Copyright
© 2004, American Foreign Policy Council.
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