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.