Author:
Publication: BBC News
Date: October 30, 2002
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2374773.stm
A bomb exploded outside a hotel
in southern Thailand on Tuesday night, hours after another bomb blast and
a wave of school arson attacks.
The device, hidden inside a motorcycle,
shattered windows and destroyed a number of vehicles.
Police said nobody was injured in
the blast, which took place in Pattani province, one of Thailand's five
Muslim-majority provinces bordering Malaysia.
Police later defused a second bomb
in the same town.
Thai officials have described the
attacks as a local problem, though there are fears that in the wake of
the Bali bombing, any threat of violence could severely damage the country's
tourism industry.
Some European countries and Australia
have already warned nationals of the risks of visiting some tourist sites
in Thailand .
Pre-dawn raids
Earlier on Tuesday there were arson
attacks on five schools and a bomb blast at a Buddhist temple. A second
bomb was found and defused at a Chinese temple in Yala.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
has said Thailand is not at risk from international terrorism and he quickly
ruled out foreign involvement in Tuesday's attacks.
"It is a local problem and it will
not be difficult to find out who did it," he told reporters.
Mr Thaksin also said he believed
those responsible for the arson attacks were not involved in a series of
murders of police officers in the area earlier this year.
Songkhla province, where the arson
attacks happened, is mostly Buddhist, but it has a large Muslim minority.
The past year's violence has largely been in the neighbouring Muslim- dominated
provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.
The area has experienced Muslim
separatist violence in past years, but most analysts now believe any militant
groups are small and are not capable of carrying out major attacks.
Police Chief Sant Sarutanond said
the school fires, which appeared to be carried out by a single group, were
aimed at damaging Thailand.
"They didn't want money or to take
lives, they wanted to discredit the country's image," he told reporters.
"They wanted to create a situation
because this region (South-East Asia) has a problem but Thailand doesn't.
It has been done by a group of people who have ill will against Thailand."
Malaysia and Singapore have warned
Thailand that Islamic militants may try to hide in Thailand. Western countries
have warned of possible attacks in tourist resorts such as Phuket.
