Thailand: Politics Of The Bomb

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November 13, 2008: Peace talks with Cambodia have resumed, avoiding a border war over real estate near an ancient temple. The basic problem is that the current 730 kilometers long border was defined in 1907 by the placement of only 73 border markers. This has left the exact location of the border open to interpretation. Occasionally these interpretations clash, as is happening now.

In the capital, someone threw a bomb into a camp occupied by market stall operators protesting being evicted from their current location, to make way for new stall operators. The bomb wounded fifteen. There have been several similar bombings in the last few months.

November 4, 2008:  Two bombs went off in a marketplace in the south, killing one and wounding over 70. The murder rate down south continues to run at several times the national average, as Islamic terrorists continue to try and drive non-Moslems out of the area. Anti-Moslem vigilantes strike back, killing suspected terrorist leaders.

November 1, 2008:  Over 60,000 pro-government demonstrators assembled in the capital. Wearing red shirts, the demonstrators came in from rural areas, where the government gets most of its votes. Police were largely successful in keeping the pro and anti-government demonstrators from clashing with each other.