Published on June 20, 2006 - Ministers are odds over latest bombs;PM 'furious' over intelligence failures

Army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin would be required to take a more active role in solving the ongoing crisis in the deep South and make more frequent visits to the area, National Security Council (NSC) secretary-general Winai Pathiyakul said yesterday.

Winai called on Sonthi to take a more active role in his capacity as chairman of the Implementation, Policy and Strategy Committee, a group formed last year to oversee operations in the restive region.

He said this did not mean Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya would be sidelined. Chidchai would continue as the country's security chief, overseeing national security policy, he said.

Government House sources said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was furious about the authorities' inability to curb the ongoing violence, and its failure to make headway in intelligence work. He reportedly said the Army chief was to blame because he was ineffective.

The fallout follows a spate of bombings last Thursday, when more than 40 locations, mostly government installations, were targeted for small bombs.

Meanwhile, top ministers were at odds yesterday Interior Minister Kongsak Wantana's claims that material from the bombs used last Thursday came from Malaysia.

"How do you know the bombs came from Malaysia?" said Chidchai, snapping at reporters yesterday.

The Foreign Ministry also issued a statement yesterday saying there was no evidence linking Malaysia to the bombs.

"Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon . . . reaffirmed that there was no evidence pointing to Malaysian involvement," the Foreign Ministry said.

But Kongsak refused to be silenced, standing by his earlier claim that the bombs used last Thursday came from Malaysia.

He said his ministry strictly enforced importation laws and the purchase of bomb-making materials, so the only way they could have been made was with materials from Malaysia.

However, security officials on the ground said the explosives used last week were mainly home-made with locally obtained components - not assembled from material from abroad.

Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid lashed out at Thailand last Friday, saying "finding a scapegoat to justify what has happened will not help in any way to ease the tension in the restive South".

The spate of more than 70 bomb blasts since last Thursday, which claimed two lives and wounded 30 more, is the latest escalation of separatist unrest that has killed more than 1,300 people in the region since January 2004.

Yesterday, a 25-year-old man suspected to have been a militant bomb maker was found dead in Narathiwat's Janae distict.

The man was identified as Asman Yusoh, who was registered as the owner of a house where police found material and equipment apparent used in bomb making. His body was found in a pool of blood apparently as a result of an accidental explosion.

Earlier, gunmen on a motorbike shot and killed a village defence volunteer in Pattani. His wife, riding pillion with him, survived the attack.