Thai Newspaper Attacked (fwd)

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Date: Mon, 5 Dec 94 23:44:12 -0500
Subject: Thai Newspaper Attacked

        BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- A rocket-propelled grenade was fired at
the headquarters of the nation's biggest newspaper early Monday
morning, causing slight damage but no deaths or injuries.
        No suspects were immediately named in the attack on the daily
newspaper Thai Rath, but a statement from the country's
professional journalists' association hinted that it was linked to
elements in the military.
        The statement from the Reporters' Association of Thailand,
issued Monday evening, condemned the incident, calling it an attack
on freedom of the press and an effort to keep the press from
uncovering injustice.
        Thai Rath, in a story prepared for Tuesday's editions, did not
speculate on the reasons behind the 3:30 a.m. attack. It said an
M79 grenade was fired from a main road and exploded at the wall of
its editorial offices. Although no one was hurt, windows were
shattered, the wall was pitted with holes, and two cars nearby were
damaged.
        The statement from the Reporters' Association said only that the
attack occurred because Thai Rath ``had reported news that affected
a certain group of persons' corrupt interests so that the group of
people lost those interests.''
        For regular readers of the newspaper, the association's
statement implied heavily that the attack was linked to a scandal
involving a locomotive obtained by irregular means from the state
railway by a formerly important army general for his personal use.
        Thai Rath was the first to report, about a month ago, how Gen.
Issarapong Noonpakdi in early 1992 had the antique locomotive and
two coaches installed on his wife's sprawling hillside estate. The
newspaper, which claims a circulation of over 1 million and is very
influential in shaping public opinion, featured the story
prominently until the engine was removed to the custody of the army
last week.
        Military spokesman claimed the locomotive was obtained
legitimately, and had been taken to Issarapong's farm only to be
shown off to a visiting leader from Laos in early 1992.
        Issarapong was a member of the military clique that staged a
March 1991 coup d'etat, and in May 1992 violently suppressed
pro-democracy demonstrations, killing about four dozen people. He
and his close colleagues were afterwards transferred out of
positions of power because of public revulsion over the violence.
        Thailand's press is considered one of the freest in the region,
with only the country's monarchy treated as an ``untouchable''
subject. But attacks on journalists, including murder, are not
rare, especially in provincial areas where local godfathers hold
sway and are used to using force to protect their business