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Bangkok blocks access to Thaksin's official Web site

Thailand's army-backed government has blocked ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra's Web site amid heightened tensions ahead of a court decision on the future of two key political parties, an official said yesterday.

The Hi-Thaksin Web site can no longer be accessed in Thailand due to "security concerns," an information ministry spokesman said while declining to indicate whether the move was related to tomorrow's landmark verdict on the parties.

The Constitutional Tribunal decides tomorrow whether Thai Rak Thai (TRT), the party formed by Thaksin, and the Democrat Party are guilty of a slew of charges of electoral fraud related to annulled elections in April last year.

If found guilty the tribunal has the power to dissolve the parties and ban their executives from politics for five years. Such a move would significantly alter Thailand's political landscape, analysts say, and there are fears the verdict may spark violence in Bangkok, prompting warnings that the junta could resort to "an emergency decree" if necessary.

Thaksin's lawyer Noppadol Pattama said the government feared his client, who remains in self-imposed exile, could use the Web site to try and rally support.

"I think the junta is too concerned that the former prime minister will post something related to politics," Noppadol said.

Media rights campaigners have warned of increasing censorship since last year's coup that ousted Thaksin.

Since coming to power, the military has blacked out international news broadcasts, seized a private television station and blocked political Web sites.

Thailand has blocked some 45,000 Web sites, the group Freedom Against Censorship Thailand has said.

Most are pornographic, but the government also targets sites critical of the king or supportive of Thaksin.

The English-daily Nation newspaper said yesterday the government had blocked 16 pro-Thaksin Web sites, but the information ministry declined to confirm the report.

Hi-Thaksin currently features information about Thaksin's trip to Russia earlier this month, and sports.

Meanwhile, Thai police yesterday began scouring security camera footage to find out who was behind a string of seven bomb blasts that wounded 13 people in a southern tourist town overnight.

The small bombs hit hotels, shops and restaurants across Hat Yai, the main tourist hub in a southern region beset by separatist violence that has killed more than 2,200 people since January 2004.

Police Lieutenant General Jetanakorn Napeephat, chief of police in lower southern Thailand, refused to speculate on whether the bombs, which went off late Sunday, were planted by separatist rebels.

"We have to investigate first ... we are starting by checking the CCTV [closed-circuit television] in town," he said.
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