Thai Deputy-Pm To Discuss Security İssues İn China

Thailand's deputy-prime minister-cum-defense minister is heading a high-powered delegation to China where he will meet Chinese Premier Le Keqiang and Defense Minister Chang Wanquan to discuss economic and security issues, local media reported Wednesday.



The Nation newspaper said that that Prawit Wongsuwan had left for China early Wednesday morning for a three-day visit that had not been announced publicly.



His delegation is reported to be composed of Army Chief General Udomdej Sitabutr and Anusit Kunakorn, the secretary-general of the National Security Council, among others.



Asked by a Bangkok Post reporter if he would discuss suspicions of Uighur involvement in a central Bangkok bombing that claimed 20 lives Aug. 17, Wongsuwan warned reporters not to link his visit to incident, adding that he will discuss "rice trade and security issues," and not the "Uighur issue".



Media have speculated on a connection between the bombing at a shrine -- popular with tourists, especially Chinese -- and the suspected mistreatment of 109 ethnic Uighur that Thailand sent to China in July.



The 85 men and 24 women were from a group of around 350 who were being held in Thai immigration centers.



Around 180 had earlier been sent to Turkey, which welcomes Uighur as its own as they are among a number of Turkic tribes that inhabit a region many Turks call East Turkestan and consider to be part of Central Asia, not China.



Wongsuwan underlined that one of the trip's goals was to lay the ground for Thai junta leader-cum-prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha's upcoming visit, probably at the end of this month.



Police spokesman Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri has said that the bombing was not related to "international terrorism", but rather to "people smuggling".



"The gang [to which the suspect belongs] is unsatisfied with police arresting illegal entrants," he told a Thai TV channel.



"The suspect had more than 200 fake passports when he was arrested. It is a network that fakes passports and sends the illegal migrants towards third countries."



Deputy-police chief Chaktip Chaijinda was "ed by a Bangkok Post journalist as saying Wednesday that a man arrested on suspicion of involvement in the bombing Tuesday carried a Chinese passport with Xinjiang as the birthplace, but -- given the large amounts of forged passports discovered in the apartment -- its authenticity has still to to be verified.



Xinjiang province, in northwestern China, is populated mostly by ethnic Uighur.There are currently 52 Uighur, mostly men, still detained at immigration centres in southern Thailand. - Krung Thep