NPR News:泰国多地爆炸致4死 或与新宪法草案公投有关

Thailand today was supposed to celebrate the queen's birthday. Instead the country has been rattled by bomb explosions at tourist resorts. Four people are dead. Dozens, including 11 foreigners, are wounded. As Michael Sullivan reports from Thailand, it appears the attacks were linked to domestic politics rather than international terrorism.
MICHAEL SULLIVAN, BYLINE: So the most pressing question on many people's minds here is who did it.
PAUL CHAMBERS: We can say who didn't do it.
SULLIVAN: That's Paul Chambers, director of research at the Institute of South East Asian affairs at Chiang Mai University.
CHAMBERS: It seems extremely unlikely that an international terrorist organization from the Middle East would come over and simultaneously bomb the northern part of southern Thailand.
SULLIVAN: He says the most likely culprits are ethnic Malay Muslims in the deep south of the country who've been engaged in a low-level conflict with the Buddhist-majority Thai government for more than a decade, a conflict that's left more than 5,000 people dead.
CHAMBERS: These insurgent groups have the experience, and they have the bombing capability to get this done.
今天本应该是泰国庆祝王后生日的日子。可是，泰国却因多个旅游胜地发生的炸弹袭击而慌乱。袭击造成4人死亡。另有数十人受伤，其中有11名外国人。据迈克尔·苏利文从泰国带来的报道，这些袭击似乎与泰国国内的政治问题有关，与国际恐怖主义无关。
迈克尔·苏利文连线：大多数人想知道的最紧迫的问题是，袭击是谁发动的？
保罗·钱伯斯：我们可以知道袭击与谁无关。
苏利文：保罗·钱伯斯是清迈大学东南亚事务研究所的研究主任。
钱伯斯：看起来极不可能的情况是，来自中东的国际恐怖组织来到泰国，并同时在泰国北部地区和南部地区制造爆炸袭击。
苏利文：他说，最可能的行凶者是泰国南方腹地的马来穆斯林，10多年来他们一直同以佛教徒为主的泰国政府发生小级别冲突，这种冲突已经造成5000余人死亡。
钱伯斯：这些反叛组织有经验，也有实施爆炸袭击的能力。

SULLIVAN: Zachary Abuza of the National War College in Washington, who's written a book about the southern Thai insurgency, isn't convinced.
ZACHARY ABUZA: They certainly have motive and the means. I absolutely agree with that. They have hit outside of the deep south on several occasions, but they've been one-offs. They've never been coordinated attacks. So if it is southern insurgents, this is absolutely uNPRecedented, and it would be a sharp departure from their normal targeting and operations.
SULLIVAN: Abuza says he believes the bombings to be the work of more mainstream political opponents of Thailand's military-led government, the attacks coming less than a week after the referendum on a new constitution approved by a majority of voters.
ABUZA: These guys are clearly trying to send a signal. You know, these IEDs were pretty small, were not meant to maximize the kill, but they were all there in tourist venues. And I think they're really trying to go after the economy, and tourism is 10 percent of the Thai economy.
SULLIVAN: Coup leader-turned-Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha has urged the public not to panic, blaming the bombings on those who he said seek to sow chaos and confusion. Today in Thailand there's a little of both. For NPR News, I'm Michael Sullivan in Chiang Rai.
苏利文：华盛顿美国国家战争学院的Zachary Abuza曾出版过一本有关泰国南部叛乱的书，他并不同意这种看法。
Zachary Abuza：显然他们有动机也有手段。我完全同意这一点。他们曾多次袭击南方腹地，但是他们只会制造一起袭击。他们从来没有进行过协同袭击。如果这是南方的叛乱，那绝对是史无前例的，而且这次也完全偏离了他们的目标和行动。
苏利文：Abuza表示，他认为这些爆炸袭击更像是泰国军政府的主要政治对手实施的，因为袭击案发生时，距离获得大多数选民支持的新宪法公投通过还不到一个星期的时间。
Abuza：显然这些人是想传递出一种信号。袭击中使用的简易爆炸装置非常小，其目的不是造成大规模伤亡，但是他们选择袭击的地方是旅游胜地。我认为他们是要破坏经济，而旅游业在泰国经济中占10%。
苏利文：政变领袖出身的总理巴育·占奥差敦促公众不要恐慌，他将爆炸袭击归咎在那些企图制造混乱和骚乱的人身上。今天，泰国的确又混乱又困惑。NPR新闻，迈克尔·苏利文清迈报道。