BANGKOK, 10 April 2004 — Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday Thailand was reconsidering its military deployment to Iraq and would order the troops home if it remained too dangerous to carry out their humanitarian mission.

“The Thai military will remain in Iraq as long as they can carry out their humanitarian mission, but if they cannot then they will return,” Thaksin told reporters.

A contingent of 451 troops including engineers, medics and a surveillance platoon was sent to the central city of Karbala last September, as Thailand joined the US-led coalition after remaining neutral during the invasion of Iraq.

But a steady deterioration in security in recent days has forced Thaksin to order his soldiers to hunker down in Camp Lima, where they are stationed as part of a multinational force under Polish command.

“Today I instructed them to exercise extreme caution and not to go out from the camp,” Thaksin said. “We have a single mission to achieve, which is engineering and medicine” as part of the rebuilding effort in Iraq.

When asked directly for reaction on the three Japanese civilians taken hostage in Iraq Thursday, Thaksin responded: “This is not good.”

Thailand’s Foreign Ministry also issued a statement expressing “grave” concern over the worsening crisis in Iraq.

“The Thai government is closely monitoring the situation, taking into consideration other relevant factors, bearing in mind that the continued deployment of Thai military engineers and medical team in Iraq ... depends on whether or not the Thai personnel would be able to carry out their humanitarian and reconstruction mission in Iraq,” the statement said.

Bird Flu Outbreaks

Thailand’s hopes of declaring itself free of the bird flu virus were dashed again yesterday after fresh outbreaks were detected in two provinces, agriculture officials said.

“We have found bird flu in two provinces, Chonburi and Khon Kaen,” Deputy Agriculture Minister Newin Chidchob told reporters.

“They were still a problem and the (areas) were put on surveillance, and if there are no new findings I expect we could declare ourselves bird flu free on April 27,” he said.

Chonburi is southeast of Bangkok while Khon Kaen is in the heart of the country’s northeast. Both had recorded outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza earlier in the year, when the country announced it was stricken by an outbreak of the disease which eventually killed eight people.

Agriculture officials detected the latest bird flu outbreaks in Chonburi on April 7 and in Khon Kaen on March 25, and both provinces were now on a mandatory 21-day monitoring period, Newin said.

Thailand slaughtered at least 36 million birds, mainly chickens, and slapped quarantine regulations on affected zones in an effort to halt the spread of the disease which hit 41 of its 76 provinces.

The kingdom has reported 12 bird flu infections in humans, including eight deaths. Four other people made a full recovery. Bird flu has swept through 10 countries in Asia and also killed 16 people in Vietnam.

Britons Told to Be Vigilant

The British Foreign Office updated its travel advice for Thailand yesterday, telling Britons to be “particularly vigilant” lest they become targets of a terrorist attack.

“There is a threat to British and other Western targets from terrorism in Thailand,” it said on its website (www.fco.gov.uk).

It referred to the theft of “a large quantity of explosive material” in southern Thailand last week, and Thai concerns that they might be used during the April 10-17 Songkhran water festival holidays.