Thailand's troubled South

PJ_Quek SG

Two shot dead in Thailand's troubled south as PM visits region

BANGKOK: Two more Buddhists have been shot dead in Thailand's mainly Muslim troubled south before a visit by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to the town where scores of Muslims died after troops and police broke up a protest a fortnight ago.

Thaksin was due Sunday to visit a Buddhist temple for a ceremony in the southern town of Tak Bai, where 78 detained Muslims suffocated or were crushed to death after being rounded up and piled onto trucks on October 25.

Thaksin, accompanied by Defence Minister Sumpan Boonyanun, met southern business leaders before heading to Tak Bai in Narathiwat province. Tight security was expected for the one-day visit.

"The main point of today is not about security, it's to boost the morale of the people at Tak Bai," said government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair.

There have been a spate of reprisal attacks against Buddhists following the death of 87 people on October 25 after security forces broke up a protest outside Tak Bai police station with gunfire, tear gas and water cannon. All but nine of the Muslims died while in detention.

In the latest killings Paosan Tayamanon, 42, was shot dead in his grocery shop around midday Saturday in Narathiwat by two men posing as customers, police said.

Chan Monopak, 40, was shot by two gunmen on a motorcycle late Saturday in Narathiwat while travelling home from work and died later in hospital.

Both men were Buddhists, estimated to make up 30 percent of the population in Thailand's three southernmost provinces near the border with Malaysia.

Panitan Wattanayagorn, assistant professor at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University and a security expert on the south, told AFP that attacks appeared to be increasingly better coordinated and planned.

He said the militants included a mixture of groups including separatists, Islamic hardliners and the disaffected.

"People are more randomly selected. I think the offices and the camps and the high-profile targets are better protected. They have still been attacked, but since September they have switched their targets to softer ones."

Thaksin has cancelled his trip to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in Chile this month amid fears of continuing violence.

He had been due to fly out on November 18 but his place will now be taken by Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, according to officials.

Thaksin, who has been criticised by Thailand's opposition and abroad for his hardline tactics in the south, showed few signs of softening his approach during his weekly radio address on Saturday.

He rejected any negotiations with separatists battling for autonomy in the Muslim-majority region and warned that anyone found with assault rifles or bombs faced the death penalty.

Militants have been behind almost daily killings since January when a decades-old separatist insurgency sparked back into life. Some 539 people have died this year.

Narathiwat council member Ahmad Benno, a Muslim, said he wanted Malaysia to act as a broker between the two communities in the south to try to resolve the crisis.

"We need a third party to come in," said the former activist for Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party. "It it's just the two parties, then no way."

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[b]Thai PM cancels trip to APEC summit over fears of domestic unrest

BANGKOK: Thailand's premier has cancelled his trip to the APEC summit in Chile this month amid fears of continuing violence after 87 Muslim protesters died in the country's strife-hit south, officials said Saturday.

Thaksin Shinawatra called off the trip as revenge killings continued in the Muslim-majority south after dozens of Muslim men died from suffocation after being rounded up and piled into trucks following a riot 12 days ago.

"The prime minister will not be travelling to Chile to attend the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit," Yongyut Tiyapirat, secretary general to the Prime Minister told AFP.

Thaksin, who had been due to leave for Chile on November 18, said he would travel to the southern province of Narathiwat on Sunday to chair a meeting with security officials as the violence continued.

Thaksin, who has been criticised within Thailand and abroad over his hardline tactics in the south, showed few signs of softening his approach during his weekly radio address on Saturday.

He rejected any negotiations with separatists battling for some autonomy in the Muslim majority region and warned that anyone found with assault rifles or bombs faced the death penalty.

"For the militants who thought that by staging more violence the government will surrender and negotiate with them for secession, I will not yield," he told his radio audience.

"Anyone who illegal possesses a war weapon will face the death sentence but
innocent people do not have to panic. The government will apply a softer approach," he said.

Two more Buddhists have been shot dead since Friday afternoon taking the death toll to at least 537 this year from a long-running insurgency that sparked back into life in January.

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Thai PM predicts violence to intensify in Muslim-majority south

BANGKOK: Thailand's premier said he expected violence to intensify in the country's restive south following the deaths of 78 detained Muslim protestors and a violent backlash by militants.

Thaksin Shinawatra, facing criticism in Thailand and overseas for his handling of the crisis, said separatists would increase killings to try to provoke the authorities into a harsh crackdown for "propaganda" purposes.

He said that more than 300 non-militants, including government officials, security forces and monks, had been killed since an insurgency in the Muslim-majority south sparked back into life in January.

"I am convinced that the violence will be intensified... since the militants want to tempt the government to get angry and adopt a more hash crackdown then they can use it as propaganda in foreign countries," Thaksin told reporters.

"The propaganda will be cited as the pretext for legitimacy of control of the area," he added.

An uprising has flared sporadically for decades in southern Thailand, which used to be part an independent sultanate until it was annexed by Thailand in 1902.

Thailand has strongly resisted any calls for autonomy and has built up its forces in the region amid fears of continued unrest since the deaths of 87 people in a riot and its aftermath last week.

The majority died after the riot in southern Narathiwat province from suffocation after being rounded up by security forces and piled into trucks, according to government officials.

Attacks by militants since the riot have left at least 21 dead, taking the death toll to more than 480 since January when the uprising sparked back into life with a raid on an army camp.

Thaksin also called for sympathy for security forces in the south and said they had acted in good faith.

Thaksin said that they were unwilling to make arrests, citing alleged intimidation of witnesses by militants, which resulted in suspects being freed.

"They (the militants) are trying to drive out residents from the area who are not their sympathisers or will not surrender to them," he said.

Thaksin, who is due to travel to Chile on November 18 for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, said his trip could be cancelled if the situation worsens.

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PM targets illegal weapons

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday vowed to rid southern Thailand of illegal war weapons as more violence rocked the Muslim-majority region.

In the latest attacks, two unidentified men shot Dam Thongmuang, 72, in the head at point-blank range yesterday morning.

Police Lieutenant Boonserm Klaewwathree of Narathiwat's Chanae district said Dam was a former district volunteer for natural disasters and accidents.

Later, in the same province, one of two men who walked into a motorcycle repair shop posing as customers shot the owner's son, Paosaen Payanon, 40, in the head, Police Captain Decha Lertdechanon said.

In Songkhla's Sabah Yoi district, Wieng Kaewbangorn, 54, was shot dead on Friday evening as he was standing and chatting in front of a friend's house.

Earlier in Narathiwat's Than Yong district, Suriya Ma, 16, a student at Naralikalai High School, suffered a shotgun wound and was in a stable condition.

Fearing more pupils could be targeted, the director of an Islamic private school, Wayari Hajimayeng, has agreed to shorten school hours by 15 minutes so that students can change out of their school uniforms.

"In the past our concerns were mainly for the teachers. Now the students are being targeted as well," Wayari said.

In his weekly radio address, Thaksin reiterated his aim to launch a massive crackdown on illegal war weapons in the restive region and that he would take a personal interest in it.

More than 500 weapons and tonnes of explosives have been stolen from government armouries since the beginning of this year, including the raid on an Army camp on January 4 by Islamic insurgent groups. None of the explosives or weapons have been recovered.

The prime minister said he would continue to employ both a "soft approach and an iron fist" to address the problems in the South, adding that "innocent people don't have to fear or worry".

Thaksin's government has been sharply criticised at home and abroad for using strong-arm methods rather than trying to win the hearts and minds of the country's Muslim minority.