Seri Thai leader Seni Pramoj dies

Seri Thai leader Seni Pramoj dies

BANGKOK (AP): Seni Pramoj, who defied his government to lead
an anti-Japanese movement during World War II and was prime
minister three times during Thailand's modern political
transformation, died yesterday. He was 92.

Seni succumbed to chronic pulmonary obstruction and kidney
failure, doctors at Bangkok General Hospital said. He had been
admitted to the hospital in 1995 with heart disease and
emphysema, a result of his long history of smoking.

Because of the Seri Thai (Free Thai) movement that Seni led
against the Japanese during World War II, the United States did
not fight Thailand or treat it as a defeated enemy at the end of
the war.

As ambassador to Washington when the Thai government declared
war on the United States and England in January 1942, Seni
refused to deliver the declaration and began organizing a
resistance movement. Seni's longest term as prime minister was
only six months.