Thai Coup Crushed; Two NBC Newsmen Killed in Fighting

Government forces today crushed a coup attempt masterminded by a former prime minister, a former general and a disgruntled ex-colonel who had led an unsuccessful bid to topple the government in 1981.

About 500 rebels in commandeered tanks attacked key army installations during the 10-hour confrontation.

Officials said at least four people--including two members of an NBC News crew, Bangkok bureau chief Neil Davis, an Australian, and American soundman Bill Latch--were killed in a battle at an army compound that followed proclamation of the coup.

The dawn coup attempt, involving up to 500 rebels in 22 tanks, collapsed after the government issued a “surrender or die” deadline of 3 p.m. Authorities said one of the ringleaders, former Col. Manoon Roopkhachorn, surrendered.

At the same time, rebel soldiers manning the tanks in the Supreme Command compound, which served as their base, began to throw down their arms. Government officials said all rebel soldiers agreed to return to their barracks.

Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda hurried back from a trip to Indonesia and had an audience with Thai King Bhumipol Adulyadej. The king is the single greatest unifying symbol in Thailand and has figured prominently in the success or failure of previous attempts to change power.

The coup leaders were identified as former Prime Minister Kriangsak Chomanan, ex-Supreme Commander Gen. Serm Nanakorn and Manoon, the former army colonel who headed an unsuccessful coup attempt on April 1, 1981.

Gen. Tienchai Sirigumphun, acting head of the armed forces, told reporters the three had “deceived” or forced junior officers to join the plot.

Tienchai said 59 people, 29 of them soldiers, were wounded in the attacks on loyalist strongholds. Also reported killed were a soldier and a civilian Thai woman.

In Washington, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said that the United States “regrets the violence that has taken place in Thailand” and said the government “appears to have the situation under control.”

“We particularly regret the deaths of two representatives of the U.S. news media,” Speakes said, referring to the deaths of the NBC employees.

NBC spokesman Bruce MacDonell said Davis was killed in the fighting near the chief army compound.

MacDonell said Latch, 35, was hospitalized with leg wounds, but the network reported later that Latch also had died.

“They were obviously caught somewhere in the middle of everything,” MacDonell said. “A tank just slipped an artillery shell into them.”

Davis, 52, gained fame as the last correspondent for a U.S. network to leave Vietnam after the 1975 Communist victory.

Prem, who first came to power in 1980, has provided Thailand’s 46 million people with unprecedented political stability after decades of military coups and changes of government. He was reelected with a four-party coalition government in April, 1983.

Military officers recently had stepped up their criticism of Prem after the country suffered a record trade deficit of nearly $4 billion in 1983.