Thai premier humiliated over bogus 'gold rush'

Thailand's government is facing legal action and growing scorn for sanctioning a massive treasure hunt in a jungle cave that ended with a find of fake US bonds.

The gold rush was sparked by maverick senator Chaovarin Lathasaksiri who claimed to have found 2,500 tons of gold and US bonds worth $25bn.

He claimed it had been left behind by retreating Japanese soldiers in 1945 and said the money would end Thailand's economic woes.

The Forestry Department had launched a massive search inside the cave, 70 miles west of Bangkok in a protected national forest.

The Kanchanaburi Environmental Conservation Group has filed for legal action against the Forestry Department, accusing it of destroying the environment by leading an expedition inside the cave and digging through it with rock breaking equipment.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who had enthusiastically supported the venture over the weekend, has been humiliated after being forced to backtrack. "During the long weekend, people got their batteries recharged. Mine were charged incorrectly," Mr Thaksin said, adding that senator Chaovarin "should have been more prudent".

Mr Thaksin had rushed to the cave on Friday to meet with senator Chaovarin and had reportedly told him: "Brother Chaovarin, if these things are genuine, you will save the nation."

Following confirmation that the bonds are fake the Nation newspaper ran the headline "Thaksin exits cave, enters the real world". The episode has "exposed our chief executive to a new wave of international ridicule and criticism," it said in an editorial.

The bonds that were found are similar to those used in a recent $2trn scam in the Philippines, although it is not clear who had left them in the cave or why.

In the past five years, senator Chaovarin has repeatedly claimed to have found treasures stashed by Japanese occupying forces in Thailand at the end of the war, but has always failed to produce any evidence.

Worawut Suwannarit, a history lecturer at Kanchanaburi's Rajjabhat Institute, said Mr Thaksin's unwitting support for senator Chaovarin was laughable.

"Thai people are well aware of the behavior of Chaovarin, and his actions would not have received support from the Forestry Department if the prime minister had not rushed to the cave," Mr Worawut said. "The prime minister's actions are an embarrassment to the nation," he added.