Former Thai army chief passes away

BANGKOK, January 19 (TNA) - Former Thai army chief and supreme commander General Arthit Kamlang-ek has died of heart failure at the age of 90 years. General Arthit, who was also a former Thai deputy prime minister and a former senator representing Loei Province in the Thai Northeast, passed away on early Monday morning at Phramongkutklao Hospital in Bangkok, three months after he started seeking treatment for his heart disease there. A royally-sponsored bathing ceremony for the late top Thai military leader was set at Benjamabopit Dusitwanaram Temple on January 20. General Arthit succeeded General Saiyud Kerdpol as the supreme commander on October 1, 1983, while concurrently remaining as the army chief, becoming the most powerful Thai military officer at that time. When former finance minister Sommai Huntrakul of the then Thai government of General Prem Tinsulanonda depreciated the Thai baht by 14.8 per cent, from 23 to 27 baht a US dollar in November 1984, General Arthit strongly criticized the then administration, causing a conflict which led to the sudden removal of him from the army chief’s position on May 27, 1986 and General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh was appointed to succeed him. After his retirement as the supreme commander, General Arthit formed the Puang Chon Chao Thai Party and ran in a general election before being elected and appointed as the then defence minister in the government of General Chatichai Choonhavan. But before starting his job as the minister, General Arthit was arrested by the then National Peace Keeping Council, which took over the administrative power in a coup led by General Suchinda Kraprayoon, while he was on his way to a swearing-in in Chiang Mai Province in the Thai North on February 23, 1991. After a domestic political unrest, known as the Black May, in May 1992, to oust the then government of General Suchinda, General Arthit renamed his party Chat Pattana, headed by General Chatichai. (TNA)