Thailand

 ·  **Full name: ** Kingdom of Thailand  ·  **Population: ** 64.3 million (UN, 2008)  ·  **Capital: **Bangkok  ·  **Area: **513,115 sq km (198,115 sq miles)  ·  **Major language: ** Thai  ·  **<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Major religion: **<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Buddhism <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"> ·  **<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Life expectancy: **<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">66 years (men), 75 years (women) (UN 2008) <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"> ·  **<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Monetary unit: **<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 1 baht = 100 satangs <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"> ·  **<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Main exports: **<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Food including rice, seafood and live animals, office equipment, textiles and clothing, rubber <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"> ·  **<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">Head of state: **<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">King Bhumibol Adulyadej. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Thailand is a constitutional monarchy. He assumed the throne in June 1946 and is the world's longest-reigning monarch. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"> ·  **<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Prime minister: **<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> Abhisit Vejjajiva - <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">He defeated an ally of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. He’s Thailand's fifth head of government in a little over two years. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Mr. Abhisit's predecessor, Somchai Wongsawat, an ally of Mr Thaksin, was forced from office in December 2008 by a Constitutional Court ruling that disbanded his People Power Party and barred its leaders from politics for five years. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">The ruling came after months of protests by opponents of Mr. Thaksin and his allies that closed the country's two main airports. Protesters said the previous two years' governments were proxies for the discredited Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and has fled Thailand to escape corruption charges. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">His <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"> election marked the first time his Democrat Party had formed a government in eight years. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"> ·
 * //__ Thailand __//****//__ Factsheet __//**    __Source: BBC World News__ __Created: January 29, 2008 by: Laura Lake__
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Current Events: **<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #548dd4; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">"My husband Ahmed left by one of these boats to Thailand in mid-December. We paid the dalal (agent) all we had and he promised my husband a good job in Malaysia. But now he is asking for more money to get Ahmed released from a Thai jail," Shakila told the BBC over the telephone. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">  Shakila Khatun, a 25-year-old mother of three, lives in a UN camp at Nayapara near Cox's Bazar. Many Rohingyas live among the local population and not in any of the camps. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #548dd4; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">  ||

<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">There is testimony from survivors of brutal treatment given to asylum-seekers from the Burmese Rohingya minority by the Thai security forces, who set almost 1,000 of them adrift on the high seas last month in boats with no motors, and little food or water. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"> ·  <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The migrants are mostly Rohingya Muslims originally from the Arakan province of Burma. Over the past 20 years many have fled from there to southern Bangladesh to escape what they say is persecution from Burma's military government. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Thai military allegedly forced the migrants' boats back into the sea and set them adrift. Hundreds were rescued off India and Indonesia but hundreds more are still missing. The Thai army has officially denied forcing any of them to return. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"> Telephone interviews with family members reveal that the agents promised the migrants jobs in Malaysia and Thailand was only a transit point. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"> ·  <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Most are cared for in camps run by the UN but there are also "unofficial" settlements - between the coastal town of Cox's Bazar and the Naff river which serves as the border between Bangladesh and Burma - where conditions are especially tough. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"> ·  <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">Australian writer Harry Nicolaides, was given a three-year prison sentence on charges of insulting the monarchy, in a self-published book which sold only seven copies. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">It has prompted condemnation from around the world of the severity of Thailand's lese majeste law. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #464646; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">