Word: thailander
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...civilian Cabinet. In ceremonies presided over by King Bhumipol Adulyadej, NARC'S nominal chief, Admiral Sangad Chaloryu, even bade an official farewell to the nation as a new civilian Prime Minister, Tanin Kraivixien, 49, was sworn in. A former justice of the Thai Supreme Court, Tanin announced that Thailand would be "guided" by stages back to full democracy. "From now on," he said, "NARC is the outer shell that protects the snail...
...snail's pace seems an apt metaphor for Tanin's plans to delay transition back to "full democracy" for at least eight years. Meanwhile, NARC's military bosses will remain as Thailand's real rulers, ready to step in if any civilian regime falters...
...Thailand's conservative forces, by now fearful of the nation's steady drift to the left and its vulnerability to pressures from its Communist neighbors, fought back. Police seized two students who were putting up anti-Thanom posters and summarily hanged them. Several thousand right-wing vocational students known as "Red gaurs" (wild buffaloes) demanded that the left-wing students be ousted from the university...
...student skit triggered the final crisis, and the coup. Selecting a youth who resembled Thailand's Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, 24, the leftists staged a mock hanging. Gruesome pictures of the charade were splashed all over Bangkok's daily papers that night. By dawn, an enraged mob of 10,000 rightists armed with rifles, swords and clubs began attacking Thammasat. They were met by M-16 gunfire and grenades. Then the troops moved...
...week's end the junta was apparently in control of Bangkok, but it faces dangerous threats. Communist guerrillas are active in Thailand's northeastern provinces, and Radio Hanoi has denounced the coup as a plot between "American imperialists" and Thai "reactionaries." It was an ominous signal for a nation from which the remaining U.S. forces pulled out just last July, leaving the Thais to their own devices...