Xinhua - English

BANGKOK, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont indicated anti-coup groups rather than southern insurgents were behind the multiple bomb attacks in Thailand on the New Year's eve, local media reported Monday.

Shortly after the New Year's eve bombings, unnamed sources pointed the figures at political cliques linked to ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as possible culprits, local media reported.

Surayud didn't indicate clearly whether Thaksin and his supporters had been behind the bombings, but said that anyone who lost power as a result of the Sept. 19 coup that deposed Thaksin administration could be to blame.

"Based on the government's information and intelligence agencies, it was the work of people who lost political benefits, but I cannot clearly say which group was behind it," Thai TV quoted the premier as saying at a press conference Monday noon after he called an emergency meeting with chiefs of security organizations in the morning.

The eight bombs that exploded across Bangkok on early New Year's eve and early Monday have killed three persons up till Monday morning and wounded some 40 others.

"These incidents have been copied from somewhere else," said Surayud, who was installed by the military coup makers as the interim prime minister.

He said the perpetrators wanted to create a sense of political instability among Thai people.

Surayud said his government was deeply sorry for the attacks in which innocent people died and were injured.

Relatives of those killed or injured will receive financial assistance from the government, said Surayud, adding that the Foreign Ministry would explain the incidents to foreign diplomats in Thailand this afternoon.

The premier said he did not think the blasts were linked to the insurgent violence in the country's southernmost provinces, which have seen daily bombings, shooting and arson attacks since the violence revived three years ago. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in the violence.

"It is very unlikely that it was linked to the southern violence, because it is much easier for the insurgents to mount an attack in the three southern provinces than to target Bangkok," he said.

Thai Interior Minister Aree Wongaraya on Monday morning also called for cautions in relating the explosions in Bangkok to the southern violence, Aree, himself a Muslim, explained that Sunday marked both the New Year's Eve and an important Islamic religious day, when Muslims attended prayers in festive mood, according to Thai News Agency.

Meanwhile, Suvit Yodmani, Thailand's Tourism and Sports Minister, said the bombings would definitely have a "short-term negative effect on tourism", and will also impact foreign investment in Thailand.

A policeman inspects the crime scene of a bomb blast at the Victory Monument during the evening of New Year's Eve in Bangkok December 31, 2006. At least six small bombs exploded in Bangkok on Sunday, wounding more than 20 people, police said.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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