Thailand starts WWII treasure hunt

The claim gained credibility when Prime Minister Thaksin visited the cave

In this story: Fit for a king Truth or hoax? RELATED STORIES, SITES

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Armed with rock breaking equipment, Thai treasure hunters have started an official hunt for World War II era booty believed to be hidden inside a jungle cave.

The 60-member team, comprising army troops and experts from forestry, fine arts and mineral resources department, will drill through blocked portions of the cave for seven days, Forestry Department chief Plodprasop Suraswadi told reporters outside the cave on Monday.

More than 400 policemen and forestry officials were deployed around the area to keep at bay hundreds of people who gathered outside the Lichea Cave in Karnchaburi province, 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Bangkok.

The gold rush started after a controversial senator, Chaovarin Lathasaksiri, announced last week that he has discovered evidence of the treasure after a five-year search.

Chaovarin claims that after a five-year search, he located the hoard, including 2,500 tons of gold and 250 U.S. Federal Reserve gold bullion bonds dated 1934 with a total face value of $25 billion.

He said the treasure, left behind by retreating Japanese soldiers during the World War II in 1945, was worth billions of dollars, which could easily wipe out Thailand's national debt of 280 billion baht ($6.2 billion).

Fit for a king

The senator has made similar unproved claims in the past, and Thai media did not take his latest claim too seriously.

However, Chaovarin gained credibility when Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra flew to the area on Friday and said Chaovarin may be telling the truth.

Thaksin sanctioned a government exploration of the cave, which includes dark narrow passages and dangerous crevices. The air inside is dank and rarified.

Gold diggers have often tried to explore the cave in the past, spurred by an apocryphal story of a monk who claimed to have stumbled across a hidden treasure of 50 chests of gold, a steam train and the skeletons of Japanese soldiers who had committed hara-kiri.

Before the official team entered the cave Monday, Plodprasop lit incense sticks, offered jasmine flowers and prayed for the souls of the people who have died inside. Six treasure hunters died in the cave last year.

Plodprasop said no explosives would be used during the exploration. Chaovarin said that the booty, if found, would be handed over to Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

"The King will have the treasures. Thailand will be entitled to all of the gold and the treasures will belong to Thailand not Japan," Chaovarin said on Ruam Duay Chuay Kan radio.

Truth or hoax?

Details of just what the senator found, where, and why digging might be necessary are sketchy, despite newspaper photographs of what he says are bonds found in the cave.

A senior finance ministry official dismissed the frenzy as a "common hoax I've seen so often."

"There's no way I will believe the bonds are real," Deputy Permanent Secretary Sommai Phasee told Nation News Channel television. "There's no way those bonds are genuine."

Still, a poll of more than 1,200 Bangkok residents found that almost two-thirds believe the treasure exists.

Photographs published Monday in Thai newspapers show that the pieces of paper the senator says he found resemble fake bonds that have been circulating around the world for the past few years.

The photos show bonds in a denomination -- $100 million -- higher than was ever issued.

In February in the Philippines, more than $2 trillion in similar fake U.S. bonds was seized. As in Thailand, stories have circulated for decades about hidden booty left behind by Japanese occupying forces.

Other seizures of similar fake financial instruments were made in the Philippines in 1999 and 2000, in Toronto, Canada, in February, and in the U.S. state of New Jersey in November.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Thai senator lifts lid on treasure trove
April 16, 2001

Government of Thailand

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