Sunday, April 19, 2009

Thailand's bloody Muslim insurgency deeply rooted

Saturday, April 18, 2009
By DENIS D. GRAY

PATTANI, Thailand (AP) — While Thai authorities are preoccupied with riots in the capital, a five-year-old Muslim uprising in the south of the country is intensifying, and Thailand's troubled government and army are at odds about how to deal with it.

The bombings, shootings and beheadings show no signs of quieting. Machine-gun mounted Humvees scour for roadside bombs, soldiers sweep through villages suspected of harboring the insurgents and helicopters clatter above an idyllic, tropical landscape over which authorities have cast a security net more dense in terms of area and population than in Iraq.

The toll has risen to more than 3,400 dead and some 5,600 injured as the shadowy rebels pursue an ill-defined agenda that sometimes seems to call for an Islamic state separate from Buddhist-dominated Thailand, but is mostly a reaction to a history of discrimination.

Last month, in a surge-style operation, 4,000 more soldiers were added to a security force of 60,000 already in the three southern provinces.

But stalked by years of failed military efforts, the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is considering less military-focused options including lifting martial law and emergency decrees in the restive provinces, and reviving councils that once allowed Muslims more say in local matters.

But Abhisit is hamstrung. His energies have been absorbed by the mass demonstrations in Bangkok that are unrelated to the insurgency, and his political future is far from assured. And to an extent, he owes his premiership to a military that doesn't want to cede such powers as holding of suspects for up to 30 days without trial.

"Even if Abhisit knows exactly what he ought to do in the south he hasn't got a lot of power over these (military) guys. To move to a political situation you need to reduce the military's dominance and demilitarize the problem to some degree. But he isn't strong enough to launch a civilian-political offensive," says Duncan McCargo, author of the recent book on the insurgency, "Tearing Apart the Land."

Critics of government policy say causes of the southern crisis are too deeply rooted to be destroyed militarily, stemming from a history of governments that distrust the Muslims and don't regard them as "real Thais."

"The way they deal with us, press down on our youth, just makes young men more anti-government. They become more violent and go into the jungle to fight," says Nomee Yapa, whose father, a village imam, died in military custody. A court ruled last December that he had been tortured to death.

The complaints, even from moderate Muslim leaders, range from search patrols barging into homes to officials sneering at them for speaking their dialect of Malay, rather than Thai.

"We can't be ourselves anymore. Anything we do is suspect — a meeting among four or five friends, or just games. They even come into Quran classes for children to take photographs," says Nomee. The schoolteacher says that virtually every young man in Ko To village has been taken into temporary custody for questioning.

The military has been under intense pressure to take whatever measures necessary to suppress the violence, which includes terror tactics like beheadings and attacks on temples widely seen as intended to drive Buddhists from the area. Queen Sirikit, wife of the constitutional monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej — who usually keeps clear of public remarks about matters of state — spoke out several times of the need for protection.

Now, the military says it is adopting less aggressive tactics.

"We are doing much more to reach the people, to get closer to them. We are trying to forge more bonds with the villagers. We use martial law power only when necessary to deal with the insurgents." said Maj. Gen. Saksin Klansnoh, the Pattani task force commander.

He estimated the insurgents numbered only 3,000-6,000 out of a population of 1.8 million, more than 70 percent of them Muslim, in the provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat. These border Malaysia and are about half the size of Israel or New Jersey.

Saksin said violent incidents in Pattani dropped by 40 percent from October 2008 to March 2009, and independent analysts agree that attacks subsided overall last year as the military rounded up suspects and arrested some bomb makers.

But Srisompob Jitpiromsri, who tracks the numbers at Pattani's Prince of Songkhla University, said violent incidents began to rise again this year with some 100 in March — the highest monthly figure since 2007.

Remotely detonated road side explosives, drive-by shootings and, more recently, car bombs target both Buddhist authorities and Muslims suspected of siding with the state, along with innocents of both sides. There were nine beheadings in February.

"This indicates that the military approach failed to win hearts and minds," the political scientist said. "The military can disrupt the insurgents, block their movements, but it cannot fully control the situation. The insurgents can pick and choose their targets at any time, any place."

Even a superb military — and Thailand's southern forces have been widely criticized for incompetence — would find the insurgency a formidable challenge.

Into its fifth year, the insurgency has yet to reveal either its leaders or concrete aims. It appears to operate in small, fluid cells which have little direct contact with leaders of several shadowy organizations, principally the BRN-C, or National Revolutionary Front-Coordinate. Out of either sympathy or fear, the local population rarely points out the rebels to authorities.

"Sometimes we know who the leaders are but we don't have the evidence to bring them in. We have the same problems as the Americans in Iraq — to identify the insurgents from among the majority of people who are good," said Saksin.

Although some of their leaflets are couched in the rhetoric of holy war, the insurgents don't launch suicide bombers, stage attacks outside the south or target foreigners. Their goals appear local and limited.

McCargo cautions against linking the insurgency to al-Qaida and global jihad. That could happen, he says, "but it hasn't happened until now."

Attempts at negotiations have been halfhearted at best. Some Muslims suggest foreign mediation. Others suggest a form of autonomy, noting the region was an independent sultanate until it became part of Thailand in 1902.

Srisompob sees a hope that young, upwardly mobile southerners will moderate the crisis, provided they are allowed to maintain their Islamic traditions.

Worawit Baru, a prominent Muslim senator from Pattani, says the government simply doesn't understand the region's problems.

"This part of Thailand is so very different from all the others," he says. "You cannot deny history, culture. You cannot ignore 100 years, but this they don't understand."

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear my brother and sister in the Southern of YALA! we all in this together, we will continue to fight Thai Gov't abusive, our people deserved to be free and freedom are coming...i say it again and again! we will not quit untill we are free!!!!!


God will show us the victory....

Anonymous said...

To Thai Gov't,
You must let our people free! or we will fight you untill the last drop of YALA blood! my brother and sister are abuse by your government..


Khmer muslim kilo#9 phnom penh...

Anonymous said...

To all my brother and sister in YALA! We will not stop fight Thai abusive! we all continue to strike Thai Gov't untill we are become freedom!!




khmer border Thai/Cambodia

Anonymous said...

Stop abusing my people in YALA! and let my people go!! We will burn Bangkok down to the ground! my brother continue to fight your government, unitll we are free!




khmer muslim border..

Anonymous said...

To brothers in the South rise up, wake up and revolt against the Thai occupation. We need to be self rule and rise up toward independent.

Rise up!!!!!!!!

I hope those Khmer currently living in the provinces near by Khmer border rise up too as well.

It is time for the Thai to crumble.

Rise up!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Let' us all fight Thai Gov't and Thai King, i urge all of my brother and sister in the Southern of YALA! don't stop the fight untill we are free from thai gov't abusive...




khmer muslim phnom penh...

Anonymous said...

Evil minds meet evil religion.

These two evil people should fight until one of them is completely wiped out from this planet.

Anonymous said...

Dear Muslim bros: Let's fight the oppressors until you get your land back.

Khmer bros.

Anonymous said...

To all the Thai people!
Please eradicate all the Thai muslim now before it is too late.If you let the THAI muslim have their way that will spell a big problem for your country in the future , and who know ,the khmer muslim may want to do the same too some day.The world should know that,not all muslims are terrorist but every terrorist are muslims so far.

Anonymous said...

To whom ever mention about the Khmer muslim doing the same.

Khmer muslim is not going to do in Cambodia. They have fled their country which called Chamap in the lower Vietnam. All they will do is retake those land in Vietnam nothing to do with Cambodia. We are appreciated to the Cambodian that allowing us to live in their land. Only Vietnamese is the one we going to fight with. Not with Cambodia. Cause Cambodia is giving the hospitality.


Champa is not in Cambodia. Champa is in the South Vietnam.

Khmer muslim,

Anonymous said...

I said again! let my brother and sister go, and stop abusing our people in the Southern! we will not stop striking your government, untill you let my people fee...



khmer muslim/ kilo#9 phnom penh

Anonymous said...

8:15AM! I'm glad you understood the problem.Because khmer,the mean spirit race will not put up with that whatsoever.

Anonymous said...

In the 70th,Khmer Buddhist and Muslim used to get fired from their back by Thai military at Phnom Dang Rek to push them crossing the mine field back to Cambodia while they were trying to take refuse from war in Cambodia. Thousands of them have been killed and injured. We Cambodian pray that Lord Buddha will help spare Thailand from collapsing. "Bangkok rolom ... roleai,Prei Nokor kchatt kchai sabbai ANGKORWATT !"

Anonymous said...

There will be scare like hell , or fright to death at Angkorwat if Phnom PENH roleay let alone Bangkok rolum and Prey Nokor kchatt kchay.

Anonymous said...

1:08PM is right! let's it happend your way...

Anonymous said...

There will be no peace in Thailand untill my brother and sister in the Southern are free! our people will keep striking Thai Gov't to the end of Thai abusive in YALA!!

Anonymous said...

BANGKOK IS ROLUM AND ROLEAI PHNOM PENH AND ANGKOR WAT SABEI, NEW KHMER EMPIER ARE RISING BACK TO THE TOP!!



LET' BANGKOK BURNS DOWN TO THE GROUND...

Anonymous said...

Last time Thai army were pulled back from Burma and Lao border to support the front line at Khmer border, now these shit nation sent more troops to Muslims side wow, so this mean not much troops in BankCOCK, dear our red shirt please come back and do our last fight to our victory.
And must make yellow shirt to be red like us.

We will support you red.

Anonymous said...

CHAMPA WAS IN CENTRAL VIETNAM NOT IN SOUTH VIETNAM.