Thailand's 'Death Road'
ABRAMS, ARNOLD
THE BATTLE RESUMES ALONG Thailand's *Death Road. by arnold abrams Ban Pon The sun was shining, the air was clear and the surrounding countryside seemed calm as the car carrying Somsak...
...Trapped inside amid a tangle of twisted wreckage, he managed a wry thought despite the severe pain he was in: "Damn, they're clever...
...Well-informed sources estimate that some 8,000 armed guerrillas are now engaged in a full-time campaign against government authorities, with more than 6,000 of them concentrated in the northern and northeastern regions...
...We met with them quite a few times," recalls one participant in those extraordinary negotiations...
...Yet all are agreed that the outcome of the battle of Death Road may ultimately determine the fate of northern Thailand...
...To further complicate matters, the territory Death Road is intended to penetrate, just below the Laotian border, has become a major new route for drug smuggling...
...General Saiyud Kerdphol, director of the Communist Suppression Operations Command, fears the rise in terrorism will continue— notwithstanding the spirit of detente prevailing today between Bangkok and Peking, long considered the inArnold Abrams frequently reports in these pages from Southeast Asia...
...It turned the job over to the Ital-Thai Development Company, whose interests here range from tourist hotels and shopping malls to trade operations and heavy construction...
...But no one is predicting with any confidence when that might be...
...by arnold abrams Ban Pon The sun was shining, the air was clear and the surrounding countryside seemed calm as the car carrying Somsak Nanakornpanom and six of his construction workers bounced along a road site in northern Thailand...
...They are growing bolder," says one government official concerned with the project...
...Yet the guerrillas would not commit themselves, and last summer—when, in Ital-Thai's view, they decided no more provisions were needed—they announced the deal was off...
...With only 20 miles completed so far, the toll adds up to roughly one man for every 235 yards...
...However incongruous their affiance, both groups see the road as a threat and oppose its construction...
...According to Thai narcotics agents, more than 100 tons of opium from Burma's Golden Triangle have passed through this zone in recent months en route to Bangkok, Hong Kong and, after being refined into heroin, the United States...
...Designed in the late 1960s as a ring-shaped artery, it is supposed to swing north from the frontier town of Pua through several insecure districts (including one where two Americans employed by the U.S...
...Approximately 150 men—30 civilian workers and about 120 government soldiers—have been killed here since construction started five years ago...
...The contract was a fat one: roughly $100,000 per mile, double the standard rate in this country...
...Yet that didn't help me or anyone else...
...Most seriously hurt, with both legs broken in several places, was the driver, on whose side the mine had burst...
...In August, the insurgents blew up a bridge at the company's base camp as a warning...
...The car was completely demolished, but no one was killed...
...Suddenly there was a deafening explosion...
...In August 1972, with rebel forces signaling no let-up and security showing even less hope of improving, the government decided to try a new tack...
...Backing that threat are approximately 1,000 government troops and 450 civilians—an earthy collection of patriots, opportunists and soldiers of fortune looking for action...
...In the worst incidents, 12 civilian laborers were slaughtered by a single ambush in early 1972, and a few months later an Army patrol was decimated when it ran into mines and automatic weapons fire that left 14 dead and 30 wounded...
...Information Service were slain in 1971 after showing an anti-Communist film to local villagers), and then wind east for several miles along the Laotian border, before turning south and finally west, back to Pua...
...The company's pitch to the rebel leaders was essentially this: If you are genuinely concerned about the welfare of the local populace, you will allow the road to be built, because it will be of great benefit to this area...
...They have wives who nag them, girl friends they want to please...
...So they give them things...
...Somsak's legs were battered enough to cripple him for a week...
...This road will be built...
...But the company's defense force may be getting better, too, and we are trying to arrange for fast reinforcement by nearby Army units...
...If it is ever finished, the road should aid Thai authorities in their counterinsurgency efforts...
...The guerrillas, who dominate much of the northern highlands, have increased their activities by more than 40 per cent over the last six months, despite last fall's student-led ouster of the military regime that had been the rebels' primary propaganda target for nearly a decade...
...The guerrillas we met were Thais, just like us...
...And another 50 miles remain to go, mostly through rugged, heavily fobaged mountain terrain...
...Many of the mercenaries hired to ride shotgun for the road crews are combat veterans from Thai units in Vietnam and Laos...
...Other observers are not so sure...
...Aided by several Bangkok officials who deal in unorthodox ways, the company succeeded in establishing contact with guerrilla leaders and—through a combination of subtle persuasion and outright bribery —sought to transform the project into a joint venture...
...Then, in broad daylight, they planted a mine beneath the freshly churned soil for the next vehicle to come along—probably aware it would be the chief engineer's...
...the rest suffered minor cuts and bruises...
...While high-level planners shuffled papers and officials issued optimistic statements, mounting numbers of workers and soldiers were killed in guerrilla attacks...
...During that period, the rebels permitted the road to forge ahead, half a mile at a time, in exchange for provisions of salt, medicine, communications equipment—and cloth for women's dresses...
...The project, initially handled by the ministries of defense and the interior, was a disaster from the outset...
...surgents' chief source of supplies and strategy...
...Most of the pick-and-shovel men are here just for the money...
...Rebel ranks have grown about 10 per cent annually since the mid-'60s, when Communist-supported insurgency surfaced in this country...
...Though everyone escaped relatively unscathed, the incident illustrated why the project has come to be called Thailand's "Death Road...
...In September, they struck the camp itself with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons fire...
...There was nothing we could do except wait for aid and see how much damage had been done...
...Guerrillas don't spend all their time fighting in the jungle...
...For new roads in remote areas invariably bring more marketing outlets, higher living standards, additional schools and medical facilities, and a general expansion of employment opportunities, thereby increasing the allegiance of the people...
...Thus, a band of capitalistic opium traffickers has developed a common cause with the Communist-inspired terrorists...
...Somsak's vehicle rose into the air, crashed off the roadbed and rolled over twice before stopping...
...More recently, they began blowing up construction vehicles with planted mines...
...Indeed, its costs are measured in lives rather than money...
...I knew right away what had happened," says Somsak, a stocky 42-year-old man with prematurely grey hair...
...Somsak, the chief engineer on this government-sponsored project, settled back in his seat and contemplated with satisfaction the recently improved rate at which the work was progressing...
...Besides earning nearly twice as much as they could elsewhere in Thailand, they receive free housing, food and the promise of an eight-month bonus upon completion of the project...
...They" were a small band of armed terrorists who had waited in nearby hiding places until a bulldozer engaged in clearing operations passed well beyond them...
...Aside from furnishing easy military access to contested territory, it would extend government influence over a relatively isolated—and alienated— populace...
...The meetings took place intermittently for seven months, from late '72 to mid-'73...
...That's right," one of the negotiators explained to me with a grin...
...There was always plenty of [company-provided] food and drink, and we had some pretty good parties...
...Just like us...
Vol. 57 • April 1974 • No. 9
