Thai strongman home again

Press, 20 September 1976, Page 8

Thai strongman home again

NZPA-Reuter Bangkok The former Thai military strongman, Marshal Thanom Kittikachom returned to

Thailand from exile yesterday despite Government requests that he stay away, and student warnings of further violence. The 65-year-old Marshal said in a statement after arriving in Bangkok from Singapore that he had come back to enter the monkhood to “gain merit” for his ailing 91-year-old father in accordance with ancient Buddhist tradition. Army officers and policemen met the former Prime Minister at Bangkok airport and whisked him away to a temple in central Bangkok ! where he was being ordained las a monk.

The metropolitan police chief, General Vichien Saeng-

: kaew, said the police had provided security for the Marshal, who was toppled from power bv student riots in ' 1973.

Students are holding protest rallies at Thammasat University, Bangkok. Left-wing student leaders issued serious warnings two weeks ago when Marshal Thanom threatened to return to Bangkok, and the Cabinet, by a majority decision, advised him not to come back. Two persons were killed and 36 injured in bombing and shooting incidents when Marshal Praphas Charusathien, a former Deputy Prime Minister, sneaked into the country last month. Marshal Praphas, one of those who went into exile with Marshal Thanom in 1973, was later escorted back to exile in Taiwan by senior Thai officials.