Fast Fizzle for Coup No. 14

By John Nielsen

"The last thing we want is to have Thais start killing Thais"

At first it looked like just another coup in Thailand--the 14th since constitutional government was established in 1932. Rebel army units took key buildings in Bangkok last week, sacked the government and installed their own man, General San Chitpatima, 59, the army's deputy commander. Coup tradition dictated that the incumbent, Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanond, 61, step aside for the new soldier-statesman.

But the characters were barely in place when the familiar scenario began to unravel. Instead of retiring quietly, Prem, also a general, and the army's cornmander in chief, escaped to the garrison city of Korat, 150 miles northeast of Bang kok. There, with the backing of the immensely popular King Bhumibol Adulyadej, he rallied his forces and skillfully set about isolating San and his fellow conspirators. "Only those who are bund are with the opposition," Prem declared in a radio broadcast from his temporary head quarters. "Almost all the army is in my hands, and the King is with us." At first San tried to counter. "Prem is like a wom an who stands under the umbrella of the royal family," he charged in a petulant ri poste over Bangkok's radio stations.

"Using the royal family as a negotiating tool is a dirty trick." But his support was steadily evaporating, and by week's end -- just two days after his attempted take over -- San had fled the country.

Ironically, the coup's instigators, a group of young colonels, had first sought out Prem's support in a late-night meeting just three hours before making their move.

Since taking office 13 months ago, Prem has been plagued by factionalism and cor ruption within his fragile coalition government. The result has been administrative paralysis, despite mounting inflation and commodity shortages. Though Prem has done little to stop the rot, he retains a reputation as a good soldier whose personal integrity is unquestioned. The army's young Turks, most of them 1960 graduates of the Thai Military Academy who formed the nucleus of a so-called Revolutionary Party, apparently hoped to capitalize on that image while offering Prem a fresh start. He refused.

The plotters then turned to San, who signed on almost immediately. His motive, analysts believe, may have been a simple grudge against his lifelong friend, Prem. Last October Prem forced through a change in the country's mandatory retirement law that permitted him to remain in the army, and thus in the commander in chief's position, past his 60th birthday. As a result, San's access to the top military job -- and with it perhaps an eventual premiership -- seemed blocked.

Whatever San's reasons, his decision set the coup machinery in motion. Troops, tanks and artillery began moving toward Bangkok from several directions in the dead of night. Some units were even with drawn from the tense eastern border near the town of Aranyaprathet, site of a number of clashes between Thai and Vietnamese forces over the past two years. "I was scared," recalled Private Udom Suksawat.

"I thought we were going to Cambodia."

But when the column reached the main highway, it turned west toward Bangkok, rather than east toward the frontier. It was, Udom realized with relief, just an other coup. If it followed Thai custom in such matters, not a shot would be fired.

"I laughed most of the way," said Udom.

"This is my first visit to Bangkok."

By morning, the capital was swarming with soldiers. Troops carrying automatic rifles and rocket launchers were posted outside parliament, Radio Thailand, army headquarters and Chitlada Palace, the royal residence. The city's new mas ters issued a number of tough decrees sus pending the legislature, banning political gatherings of more than five people, freezing all military movements and establishing a Revolutionary Council under San's titular leadership. In an initial statement the Council said that its coup was designed to prevent others from grabbing power and turning Thailand into a dictatorship. Prem had resigned, the statement claimed, and the Revolutionary Party had taken control of government.

Prem, however, had already made his getaway -- with the royal family in tow.

It was the first time that the King and his wife, Queen Sirikit, had been drawn so visibly into a political conflict. Some sources said that the Prime Minister had warned them that their lives were in danger. Others suggested that by going to Korat, the King had made clear his sup port for Prem's elected government. The unspoken royal message: the time for coups in Thailand was over.

Prem quickly began rallying loyal army units and making his radio broad casts. He denounced the coup leaders as "traitors" and called on their troops to return to barracks. Soon Cabinet ministers, legislators, high-ranking military officers and leading businessmen began flooding out of Bangkok, headed toward Korat.

According to some reports, Prem ordered two air force jets to buzz Government House in Bangkok. He reportedly also sent ten truckloads of troops toward Bang kok -- though in true Thai fashion, he stopped them 55 miles short of their destination. "The last thing we want," ex plained one officer in Korat, "is to have Thais start killing Thais."

As their support melted away, San and the young Turks backpedaled frantically. A day after suspending the constitution, they reinstated it -- along with the parliament, which was told it could pick a new government in two weeks. Intellectuals, students, politicians and union leaders were invited to stop by the Army Meeting Hall in Bangkok to air their views. (Only the unions accepted.) The order suspending poli tical meetings was revoked. By the end of his second day in "power," San had found only one man to serve his government: Damrong Sunthornsartoon, Under Secretary of Interior -- and he had been fired from the same ministry two months earlier on corruption charges.

The end came quickly. Prem had al ready cashiered the young Turks in his early speeches. At 9 a.m. on the third day, Prem's headquarters in Korat broad cast a warning to Bangkok's radio announcers: cease reading Revolutionary Party bulletins or be shot. By 9:30 every radio station in Bangkok was broadcasting Prem's version of the news. At 10:30 San boarded a helicopter bound for parts unknown.

-- By John Nielsen. Reported by David De Voss/Bangkok

With reporting by David DeVoss

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