July 17, 2009:
In the south, a car bomb went off, killing two soldiers, and wounding four, plus a civilian. Elsewhere, an Islamic cleric and a Moslem shop owner were killed by Islamic terrorists (for not supporting the terrorists.) About 3,600 have died from Islamic terrorist violence in the south since 2004. Most Moslems down south are now opposed to the terror campaign, and the Islamic terrorists have to devote more of their murderous attention to Moslems, in an attempt to terrify civilians into supporting the terrorists, or at least stop helping the police.
The decades old dictatorship in neighboring Myanmar (Burma) has ruined its economy, and there are currently five million Burmese living (and mostly working) in Thailand. But 90 percent of these Burmese are in Thailand illegally. Last month, for example, border police arrested 4,000 Burmese trying to sneak into Thailand. There are also 100,000 political refugees, but most flee Burma for economic reasons.
Cambodia and Thailand continue to have thousands of troops facing each other across the border, near the site of an ancient temple compound. Negotiations to settle where the border should be, exactly, continues.
Bowing to public pressure, the government is prosecuting leaders of the royalist People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), who led demonstrators to close the major airport outside the capital last November and December. This hurt the economy, and caused the government to fall. The current government is royalist, so the prosecution is not seen as serious, but the government is trying to make it seem serious.
July 7, 2009: In the south, a roadside bomb wounded five soldiers. Troops were searching an area where a government official had been shot earlier.
July 6, 2009: In the south, a roadside bomb wounded 11 soldiers on foot patrol. Islamic terrorist violence has been increasing down south, with 36 dead and over a hundred wounded last month.
June 29, 2009: To calm the fears of non-Moslem teachers in the south, the government will provide living accommodations for teachers, especially women, on school compounds. About fifty female (out of 115) teachers have been killed by Islamic terrorists, even when accompanied by armed guards, in the last five years.
June 28, 2009: For the first time in two months, a large (20,000 people) populist (red shirt) demonstration was held in the capital. There were calls for new elections. In the south, a female teacher was killed by Islamic terrorists (who want all secular schools closed.)
June 26, 2009: In the south, an hour long gun battle left a soldier, a policeman and an Islamic terrorist dead. A tip led security forces to the location where some Islamic terrorists had a safe house.