US embassy cable - 05BANGKOK2665

UNCLAS BANGKOK 002665 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PTER, TH, Southern Thailand 
SUBJECT: ANTI-TERRORIST MEASURE -- RTG REQUIRES ID FOR 
TELEPHONE CARD PURCHASES 
 
REF: BANGKOK 2441 
 
1.  (U)  Summary:  In an effort to thwart or identify and 
arrest separatist bombers, the RTG intends to require that 
buyers of mobile phone SIM cards show their national ID cards 
to register the purchase.  Following the bombings in Hat Yai 
and other locations in the south recently, the RTG is eager 
to show its determination to track down the perpetrators. 
Critics question the effectiveness of the measures.  End 
summary. 
 
SUSPECTED USE OF MOBILE PHONES BY BOMBERS LEADS TO 
RESTRICTIONS BY RTG 
 
2.  (SBU)  The RTG announced on April 17 that buyers of 
mobile telephone SIMs cards will have to produce either a 
national identification card or a passport at the time of 
purchase.  In addition, according to press reports, all 21.5 
million existing prepaid Thai and foreign mobile phone system 
users in the country will be required to report their citizen 
identification or their passport numbers to their phone 
operators within six months.  Phone services will be canceled 
by the government if users do not meet the registration 
deadline.  The decision to regulate the use of SIM cards for 
prepaid mobile phones was reportedly made in response to 
Prime Minister Thaksin's instructions at the April 12 cabinet 
meeting following the April 3 Hat Yai Airport bombing, in 
which Thai authorities believe separatists detonated an 
improvised explosive device using a mobile telephone. 
 
3.  (SBU)  The new requirements were reportedly reached on 
April 17 at a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and 
Interior Minister Police General Chidchai Vanasatidya and 
attended by top security officials such as Defense Minister 
Thammarak Issarangkura, National Security Council Secretary 
General General Winai Phattiyakul, National Intelligence 
Director Jumpol Manmai and Police Commissioner-General Kovit 
Wattana, as well as officials from the Information and 
Communications Technology Ministry (ICT). 
 
THAKSIN SAYS NEW REQUIREMENTS STRICTLY SECURITY-RELATED 
 
4.  (U)  Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters 
that the campaign to trace SIMs card users is intended to 
follow and locate bombers quickly but must not undermine the 
users' privacy.  An ICT Ministry official told reporters that 
the RTG is actively seeking the cooperation of service 
providers nationwide in the registration effort.  This will 
theoretically prevent potential saboteurs from buying cards 
in peaceful areas of the country to use in the troubled 
provinces.  With Cabinet endorsement, the ICT Ministry is 
expected to draw up the requirements as ministerial 
regulations which will then be signed by the ICT Minister and 
published in the Government Gazette. 
 
HOW EFFECTIVE? 
 
5.  (SBU)  Comment:  In the wake of the bombings at Hat Yai 
airport and several other locations in the south earlier this 
month (reftel), the RTG is eager to show that it is taking 
measures to track down the perpetrators.  It is hard to see 
how this effort will have an impact on the use of bombs in 
the south.  Already critics are being heard.  National 
Reconciliation Commission (NRC) member and Muslim scholar 
Asmadsomboon Bualuang complains that the measure does nothing 
to resolve the overall situation in the south.  Bangkok 
Senator Seri Suwananond reacted to the measure by saying that 
forged documents (and Bangkok is the center of an 
international document forgery industry) will simply be used 
by separatist bombers to purchase phone cards for use in 
detonating improvised explosive devices.  With virtually all 
of these unknown persons who have set off bombs in the 
southern border provinces over the past year still at large, 
we expect the bombings to continue. 
 
BOYCE