3 replies to this topic

[B.I.G.]

"Several controversial major military procurements and projects have been endorsed or are awaiting approval ahead of the coming retirement of army chief Gen Anupong Paojinda. They include a new infantry division in the North; a 5 billion baht procurement for 121 armoured personnel carriers; and a 350 million baht reconnaissance airship. . .

Gen Anupong, who will retire at the end of September, assigned the 3rd Army late last year to study the establishment of the 7th Infantry Division based in Chiang Mai. The new division will have 25,000 soldiers. The establishment of the infantry division will cost about 10 billion baht. The spending will take five years and start next year.

At present, the North has only the 1st Cavalry Division in Phitsanulok and the 4th Infantry Division in Nakhon Sawan with 20,000 soldiers in total who must secure the border with Laos and Burma for a distance of nearly 1,000km from Tak to Phitsanulok. Some of the soldiers were deployed to secure the strongholds of red shirt protesters and the opposition Puea Thai Party in the North, the source said. The military helps the government confront protesters and is rewarded with opportunities to order weaponry.Controversies over the wisdom of the purchases tends to be ignored, such is the government's eagerness to please."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/security/1...ping-list-grows

[Gene]

Planning a whole new division of 25,000 regular troops in Chiang Mai suggests that the army is planning for the possibility of an insurrection in the north similar to what's happening in the South or civil war. It's a sad day for any country when its army needs to expand to control its own people.

[Harold]

It's a sad day for any country when its army needs to expand to control its own people.

The Thai army has certainly killed more Thais than foreign soldiers in the past 20 years, and that's only in Bangkok, not counting all the Thais killed by the Thai army during the communist witch hunts of the Vietnam era or all the muslim Thais killed in the South over the past 10 years.

[TheYenta]

The Bangkok Post's most knowledgeable military affairs writer, Wassana Nanuam, leaves no doubts in her column today what she thinks the army intends to do with a whole new division in the North: fight the Red Shirts. It certainly gives me the impression that the army is getting ready for what amounts to using Thai soldiers against the people in a coming civil war. I can't imagine that the army or PM Abhisit were happy to read this:

"Despite military reasons, there is no doubt that the hidden agenda of having a new division is to bring the force in to take care of "internal security" concerns.

The North is undoubtedly a red zone. After the clash at Ratchaprasong, the army sees an increasing need to have soldiers operate in the field. Indeed, Gen Anupong and Deputy Prime Minister in charge of security, Suthep Thaugsuban, discussed the possibility of setting up the 7th Division since late 2009. To realise this ambition, the army plans to carry out a five-year project from 2011 to 2015, with a budget of more than 10 billion baht. . .

Critics of the army - which is viewed as being solidly on the Abhisit government's side after the Ratchaprasong operation - have ventured so far as to speculate that the army is setting up the new division in preparation for the coming general election. After all, the ISOC is the army's arm for political affairs. . .

Right now, the Ministry of Defence still has not approved the proposal forwarded to it by the army. Politically speaking, there is every reason to believe that the 7th Division will be set up . . .especially when considering the mission of battling Thaksin Shinawatra and the red shirts, a task for which the government has no one to rely on but the military. With the 7th Division in place, the government would certainly benefit."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion...sh-new-division