Thai military chief says Free Vietnam Movement behind bomb attack
BANGKOK - Thailand's military chief said Wednesday that an armed opposition group known as the Free Vietnam
Movement was responsible for a bomb attack on the Vietnamese embassy in Bangkok Tuesday.
Late last month 37 people were jailed for up to 20 years in Ho Chi Minh City for a wave of abortive sabotage
attacks said to have been organized by the group from Thai and Cambodian territory.
"According to our information the Free Vietnam Movement planted the bomb at the Vietnamese embassy in
response to the jailings last month," said Thailand's Supreme Commander General Sampao Choosri.
"We have enough information to confirm this but I can't give the details because it will affect the ongoing
investigation," he told reporters.
Security at all embassies in the Thai capital was stepped up Tuesday after two bombs were found at the
Vietnamese mission and destroyed in controlled explosions.
Police chief General Pornsak Burongkaviboon said an unidentified man arrived at the embassy in a taxi in the
early hours of the morning and placed a three kilogram (6.6 pound) bomb packed in a backpack outside the
gates.
The second device, a five kilogram device also made from fertiliser and gasoline and wired up to a mobile
phone detonator, was hurled into the embassy grounds inside a cardboard box.
Pornsak said Wednesday that the taxi driver who drover the bomber to the embassy had been located, and
helped police produce a sketch of the culprit's face.
Vietnam's foreign ministry said Tuesday it considered the incident to be an "act of sabotage" and called for
increased security for its diplomats and staff in Bangkok.
During a visit to Hanoi in March, Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai asked for the communist
leadership's help in clamping down on Vietnamese armed opposition groups operating from Thai territory.
"They know better than us who has done underground work or can be a threat to the peace and security of
Vietnam," he said.
Agence France Presse - June 20, 2001.
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