Korn upset with Thailand's ranking in terrorism risk index

 While Iraq is ranked as the country most at risk from terrorist attacks for the second year running, ranked 11th last year Thailand has now dropped two places in the ranking and into the extreme risk category. Terrorism incidents in Thailand's restive Muslim south - such as the October 2009 bomb attacks in Sungai Kolok - largely account for the country's rating.

 Korn said he was upset with the ranking, as the country has shown development in many areas in the past year. However, terrorism is still holding the country down.

 He urged all Thais to focus on building peace. On Tuesday, the ministry joined 12 financial institutions to launch a commemorative pink wrist band campaign, to remind all Thais how happy they were on the previous birthday on His Majesty the King.

 "We should focus more on our own problems and convey the message to the outside world how peaceful we are and how much we try to improve the situation. The problems would be solved only with Thais' supports," he said.

The Terrorism Risk Index (TRI) has been developed by Maplecroft for companies to assess terrorism risks to their international assets. The index measures not only the risks of an attack, but also the chances of mass casualties occurring.

 On the list published on Maplecroft's web site are Iraq (1), Afghanistan (2), Pakistan (3) and Somalia (4) top the ranking of 162 countries and are rated, along with Lebanon (5), India (6), Algeria (7), Colombia (8) and Thailand (9) are the only extreme risk nations.

 Others on the list are the Philippines (10), Turkey (14), Russia (15), Nigeria (24) and Spain (34) all rate as high risk countries, whilst the UK (41), China (43), USA (46) and France (56) are considered medium risk. Countries rated at low risk include Germany (81), Canada (116) and Australia (120).