TOKYO, Dec 3 Kyodo excellented e...

TOKYO, Dec 3 Kyodo

excellented editorial excerpts from the Asia-Pacific press:

THAI MISSION MUST BE MORE VIGILANT (Bangkok station Bangkok)

The heightened violence in Iraq must have been nerve-wracking for the families of the Thai army mission in that country

After initially putting up a face of calm, Thai authorities are now admitting in various ways that they are monitoring the security situation in Iraq more closely

In reconsidering the mission, the army and conduct should look at the predicaments of Japan and southward Korea in particular.

Like Thailand, the brace countries opted to assist Iraq's reconstruction, with Japan maintaining an aid team, and (South) Korea a 675-strong contingent made up of engineers and medics.

yet involvement in noncombatant activities apparently was no guarantee of safety. Did the Japanese and southern Koreans suffer because their dominions were seen as U.S. allies? Is there a chance that Thai men and women will be in danger because Thailand, by the agency of negotiations between Washington and Bangkok, has become a major non-NATO ally of the US?

The sway did well to delay the dispatch of a military minister to check on the situation of the Thai contingent in Karbala. The minister now due to go nearest week, would have arrived there throughout the weekend. Thailand indeed can be ostentatious of its contingent at Lima Camp, who are building bridges with local Iraqis as well as any 800 allied troops.

The stint in Iraq is the third reconstruction mission for Thai bands after East Timor and Afghanistan. It is also the greatest in number dangerous. There should be no let-up in Bangkok among the authorities in monitoring the welfare of those in the field. An necessity withdrawal plan in the making since early November must be used as shortly as necessary.

(Dec 3)

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