BANGKOK, Thailand — Thai troops armed with gas masks and assault rifles have vowed "not think about sex" or engage in drinking, gambling or internet pornography during their upcoming military mission in Afghanistan.

"We will make friends with people there and colleagues from other countries, but we will not think about sex," Major Siriphob Ungsupavanich was quoted as saying.

"Thai soldiers have been told to avoid alcohol, gambling, sex and internet porn while in Afghanistan," the Bangkok Post newspaper reported in a front-paged dispatch from Ratchaburi town on Wednesday (Jan. 22) where the troops were undergoing a training course at the Army Engineer Regiment base.

"The armed forces imposed the first three bans and the last was set by the United Nations," the report added.

Alcohol is frowned upon in Muslim-majority Afghanistan, though a thriving blackmarket has supplied bottles of imported liquor to foreigners who arrived after the Taliban regime collapsed in November 2001.

Any drinking among the foreign community now occurs in private, either in hotel rooms or in homes.

Some furtive gambling exists among Afghan men who watch dog fights or other sports, but it is considered taboo by devout Muslims.

Unlike Thailand which has a very visible, albeit illicit, multi-million-dollar sex industry, intimate relations out of wedlock in Afghanistan have always resulted in harsh punishment by various regimes or angry mobs who often kill one or both participants.

Afghanistan has internet links to cyberspace, mostly through satellite telephones to servers in various nations, and the country will officially receive its own ".af" domain suffix soon, according to a United Nations official.

Thai troops, meanwhile, have been lining up, strapping on black gas masks and firing U.S.-supplied M-16 rifles during their battle training in Ratchaburi.

They will be drilled in English and Arabic languages, Afghan culture and weather conditions in the war-torn land of harsh mountains and bleak deserts.

Beginning in mid-March, about 130 military personnel — including 90 engineering troops, 18 security forces, 12 medical staff and 10 Supreme Command coordinators — are to spend six months in Afghanistan, based in Bagram Air Base, 42 miles (67 kilometers) north of the capital, Kabul.

They will use their engineering skills to rebuild infrastructure in and around Bagram, Kandahar and possibly other locations.

The U.S. and Thailand are strong allies.

"They fought with us in Korea and Vietnam, and now they are fighting with us in the campaign against terrorism," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters during his July 2002 visit to Bangkok.

"They have been supportive of our efforts in Afghanistan especially, and I am very pleased that Thailand will be offering a construction battalion...to go to Afghanistan to help the people of Afghanistan and to help our efforts," Mr. Powell said.

He pledged Washington's support "in any way that the Thai military believes they can use assistance."

Immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon which killed about 3,000 people, Thailand pledged to help the U.S. fight terrorism.

"Our Thai allies quickly granted blanket permission to overfly their country in the pursuit of our military objectives," James A. Kelly, assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told the Asia Foundation in March 2002.

"When we asked, they allowed us to land our refueling and support aircraft at airbases on Thai soil, and invited U.S. ships beginning to deploy for Operation Enduring Freedom to visit Thai ports," Mr. Kelly said.

"When Prime Minister Thaksin [Shinawatra] met with President Bush in December [2001], he offered the services of a battalion of Thai construction engineers and five medical teams to assist in Afghanistan," Mr. Kelly said.

"Of course, some of the assistance and support Thailand has provided is best left undescribed," Mr. Kelly said.

About 95 percent of Thailand's 63 million citizens are Buddhist, and about four percent are Muslim.

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Richard S. Ehrlich has a Master's Degree in Journalism from Columbia University, and is the co-author of the classic book of epistolary history, "HELLO MY BIG BIG HONEY!" -- Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews.

His web page is located at http://www.oocities.org/asia_correspondent and he may be reached by email: animists at yahoo dot com