PREMIER, FIRES TWO MINISTERS

THAILAND, Thailand’s Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has removed the agriculture and defence ministers for their presumed inability to deal with the epidemic of bird ’flu and to end the ongoing violence in the restive south.

Defence minister Chetta Thanajaro has been replaced by another army general, Sumpan Boonyanun, while the agriculture minister, Somsak Thepsuthin, has seen his post taken by one of the deputy prime ministers, Wan Muhamad Noor Matha.

Chettàs replacement follows differences with security agencies over the violence in Thailand’s majority Muslim southern provinces, where hundreds of people have died in violence since the start of this year.

Instead, Somsak had been at odds with the health ministry over measures to contain the so-called ’chicken ’flu’, which has claimed 11 lives since the start of 2004. Another deputy premier and various ministers have also been ’fired’ or transferred to other posts in what is seen as the ninth cabinet reshuffle since 2001, when the telecommunications magnate and founder of the party ’Thai rak Thai’ (Thais love Thais) Shinawatra took office. [LC]

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