Ex-communists pocket cash benefits in Thai amnesty deal

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hhfarang
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Ex-communists pocket cash benefits in Thai amnesty deal

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"Final payouts made as part of agreement with government that led to the surrender of 80,000 party members in 1980.

The government of Thailand has distributed cash benefits to former members of the now defunct Communist party in the final stage of an amnesty deal.

More than 6,000 former Communist party members received nearly $7,000 each.

At a ceremony at the army club building in Bangkok on Wednesday, Prawit Wongsuwon, Thailand's deputy prime minister, met 294 former communist comrades.

The ceremony marked the final payouts of an amnesty deal struck by the Thai government in 1980 to squash the party’s armed communist resistance, which led to the surrender of 80,000 members.

Overall, $38m was given out over the years, first in 2002 and again in 2009.

Military commanders say it was a counterinsurgency success story.

"We don’t see these people as the enemy any more," Lieutenant-General Chainarong Klaewklar told Al Jazeera.

"We’re all Thais and this is what we do, forgive. Whatever happens in the past stays in the past."

In the 1970s, the Communist Party of Thailand was the second largest communist movement in Southeast Asia. ..."

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/c ... 42716.html
My brain is like an Internet browser; 12 tabs are open and 5 of them are not responding, there's a GIF playing in an endless loop,... and where is that annoying music coming from?
oakdale160
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Re: Ex-communists pocket cash benefits in Thai amnesty deal

Post by oakdale160 »

[
QUOTE---"Overall, $38m was given out over the years, first in 2002 and again in 2009.

Military commanders say it was a counterinsurgency success story".

That is the Thai military's idea of a success story---buying off the rebels

"
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Bamboo Grove
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Re: Ex-communists pocket cash benefits in Thai amnesty deal

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That is the Thai military's idea of a success story---buying off the rebels
If they give up the fight and return to peaceful living, I can't see anything wrong with that. More money has been wasted on stupid corruption in many places of the globe.
laphanphon
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Re: Ex-communists pocket cash benefits in Thai amnesty deal

Post by laphanphon »

Cheaper than trying to fight them, and nobody dies...........win win.

One man's 'freedom fighter', is another man's 'terrorist'. A Thai problem, solved the Thai way.
oakdale160
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Re: Ex-communists pocket cash benefits in Thai amnesty deal

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OK, I see your point. But its nor going to work when the Chinese come calling.

I am reminded of a Peter Sellars movie years ago "The mouse that roared" A small euro country declared war on the US knowing that if they lost the US would rehab them, but of course ----------
RCer
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Re: Ex-communists pocket cash benefits in Thai amnesty deal

Post by RCer »

The biggest fighting occured around Phetchabun. It was stopped when the farmers/villagers caught in the middle told both sides to knock it off.

It started during the Viet Nam conflict and lasted for years. There is a museum/monument about it up in the mountains outside Phetchabun.
lomuamart
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Re: Ex-communists pocket cash benefits in Thai amnesty deal

Post by lomuamart »

There was also a hot bed of Communism and piracy down in the Dolphin Bay area.
It was pretty lawless down there a few years ago.
oakdale160
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Re: Ex-communists pocket cash benefits in Thai amnesty deal

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Many of the Asian rebel groups called themselves Communists as that way they got arms from Russia and China. They had little in the way of Marxist philosophy in their motivation--they were nationalists who hated the existing governments, Deja vue???
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