Just as darkness fell in Bangkok on the last day of the tense and turbulent year of 2006, the bomb blasts began.
At the Victory Monument, a triumphal fascist-style obelisk at the center of a traffic-choked intersection, erected by the military in the 1940s to celebrate short-lived gains in a border skirmish, an explosion shortly after 6 p.m. tore apart a crowded bus shelter and shattered the windows of nearby shops and restaurants. “At first, I thought the noise was a flat tire,” Thanapon Prukthara, who was working at an outdoor restaurant close by, told Time magazine. “But then I heard all this screaming and saw people lying on the ground, so I rushed to help the wounded.” Songkran Kanchana, 36, died at the scene; 26-year-old Ekkachai Ruangpoom died the following day in hospital. One of Songkran’s relatives, Kwanjira Kajana, said he had been the single breadwinner for his elderly parents:
I would like the person who did it to stop and think about how much loss it is causing and whether some people who died had to look after others or not. Like Songkran who became a victim, he had the responsibility of caring for his parents. But he was killed without committing any wrong, so how will his family survive? Please do not do it anymore.
Beside the Sarn Chao Pho Seua, or tiger shrine, at one of Bangkok’s biggest and busiest wet markets in Khlong Toey, a nail bomb in a garbage can sprayed shards of shrapnel that blew up cooking gas cylinders nearby and pierced the heart of the shrine’s 61-year-old caretaker, Suvichai Nak-iam, as he rested on a bench outside, his work for the day just finished. His wife Sirilak, who sold food at the market, told the Bangkok Post that she was in her home nearby when she heard the news:
I felt numb and weak at the knees when my neighbour shouted, 'Come out of the house! Come out of the house! Your husband has been killed! Those howls constantly echo in my head…
I was in a sarong going to wash dishes and clothes. I didn't even know there was a bomb explosion as a neighbouring house was blasting music. It was only when I ran to the shrine and saw my husband lying face-down that I realised it. I pushed myself through the crowd but was blocked by officials. I just wanted to hold him tight but couldn't.
An ambulance arrived, and began weaving through the Bangkok traffic towards Chulalongkorn Hospital:
I was really scared but I tried to tell him he would be all right. He didn't say a word but nodded his head feebly. When we reached the hospital, the doctor administered CPR and blood started gushing out of his open wound all the way to the ICU. Around 30 minutes later, my entire body was shaking and my heart sank when the doctor told me that my husband could not be saved. I still couldn't believe it. He's a good, innocent and beloved man. I feel sorry for the loss of his life.
The two of them had met 15 years before, when both were married to other people:
At the beginning, I didn't really like that old, bony man. But he said he loved me and felt sorry for me as I was always been beaten by my husband. He said me and felt sorry for me as I was always been beaten by my husband. He said he wanted to protect me…
We've had our moments of hardship and struggle, being labourers and ice cream peddlers. Suvichai used to walk under the scorching sun for many kilometres until his shoes wore out, but still earned only 80 baht a day. It was impossible to have enough money to live. Some days, he even ate rotten food just to survive.
Suvichai had taken care of the shrine for six years, and his wife said it had transformed their lives.
We finally had enough food to eat. He quit drinking alcohol and I had my own business. Our lives were getting better and we even had money to save.
Three people were wounded by the nail bomb at the shrine, including a 10-year-old girl.
In the north of the city at another busy traffic junction, the Saphan Kwai intersection near the Big C superstore, a blast beside a police post wounded two people. Explosions around the same time damaged two other police boxes, one at the Khae Rai intersection even further north and the other at the entrance to Soi 62 on busy Sukhumvit Road, without causing casualties.
At Seacon Square, a vast mall in the east of the capital, a suspicious device was found in a trash can beside a gold shop. Security guards carried it to the parking lot where it exploded. There were no casualties, but panicked scenes ensued as thousands of shoppers at the mall were told to evacuate and shops were shuttered.
At the Major Cineplex on Phahonyothin Road, another major artery that runs north from Victory Monument, a security guard found a suspicious-looking black bag left unattended in a fast food restaurant and took it into a back room. It exploded a short time later, damaging electrical circuits and causing a partial blackout in the cinema complex. News of this incident only emerged a day later; the Cineplex owner had tried to keep it secret, fearing the news would damage his business.
By 7 p.m. there had been seven blasts in the capital. Shopping malls across the city shut down early, and worried Bangkok residents headed for home.
At 8 p.m., Thai television and radio broadcast an address from King Bhumibol, unrelated to the bombings. He noted that many things had happened over the year and, as usual, urged unity. TV stations displayed his Happy New Year card, featuring the king with his beloved dog Tongdaeng.
The New Year celebrations, at Sanam Luang and at Central World Plaza near the Ratchaprasong intersection, were cancelled, and people were told to stay at home. Tens of thousands began streaming out of the centre of the capital, but many others, including hundreds of foreigners, elected to stay at beer gardens and streetside bars around the Central World complex, where a large digital clock was a favoured gathering point for the countdown to 2007. At the stroke of midnight, two bombs were detonated nearby, one at the Best Sea Foods restaurant beside a pier on the Saen Saeb canal north of the plaza, and one beside a phone booth at a pedestrian overpass. At least nine people were wounded, most of them foreigners who had ignored instructions to leave the area. A bomb at another nearby tourist area, the Suan Lum night bazaar, was defused by police.
Thais were already weary and unsettled after a year of political instability that had battered the economy and dented tourism, and after the bombings a palpable atmosphere of anxiety permeated Bangkok. Less than four months after the coup that deposed Thaksin Shinawatra, bickering among Thailand’s new leadership, clumsy policy missteps and a string of embarrassing allegations had already battered confidence in junta leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin and the prime minister he had installed, Surayud Chulanont, the bombings. The bombings dealt another blow to their credibility, and from the start the reaction of the Thai authorities only made things worse.
On January 1, both Surayud and Sonthi dropped heavy hints that Thaksin was behind the bomb attacks, without actually naming him:
In a January 1 public statement, Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said: “From the evidence we have gathered, there is a slim chance that (the string of bombings) is related to the southern insurgency. It is likely related to people who lost their political benefits.” The latter reference clearly pointed toward deposed Prime Minister Thaksin and his associates.
Council for National Security (CNS) Chairman Sonthi Boonyaratglin publicly echoed Surayud's remarks later the same day, saying the government had detected “some links to the masterminds but never expected they would do something like this.” Sonthi said the CNS had summoned for questioning four former aides of Thaksin… [07BANGKOK15]
In fact, neither of them knew what they were talking about: as CNS Secretary General Phattiyakul told “Skip” Boyce the same day, the most plausible theories were that the bombs were planted by southern separatist Muslim insurgents or by allies of Thaksin, but as yet there was insufficient evidence to support any conclusion:
Citing discussions at a CNS meeting earlier in the day, Winai said he and his colleagues were unsure who had carried out the attacks. However, they felt the culprits were likely either southern Thai Islamic militants (unaffiliated with the Jemaah Islamiyah international terrorist network) or political actors linked to deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Acknowledging the bombs appeared similar in composition to devices used by southern militants, Winai nevertheless said the knowledge of how to construct such devices was widespread. Expressing doubt that the southern militants had the necessary support in or familiarity with Bangkok, Winai considered it 90 percent likely that political figures had organized the attacks, intending to discredit the government and harm tourism and the overall economy. The modus operandi of using bombs to create a sensation, without aiming to cause massive deaths or injuries, seemed more suited to political figures rather than southern Thai militants… Winai acknowledged the bombings injured many people, but - given the planned New Year's Eve festivities - the numbers could have been significantly higher. Winai speculated that many injuries might have resulted from low-level operatives having used poor judgment in placing their bombs, contrary to the intent of the planners. [07BANGKOK3]
Certainly there were some reasons to suspect Thaksin’s hand in the attacks: several mysterious – and generally harmless - bombings over the previous two years had appeared to be targeted at his opponents:
Many observers will find it plausible that Thaksin or his supporters may have orchestrated bombings in order to discredit those who overthrew him. During the last two years of Thaksin's administration, there were numerous incidents in which bombs were placed at Bangk