Mai Krap

This report can give a great insight into the shift in policy in the south and the implications which are being danced around by Thailand's media about the true nature of things in our own backyard since the story is about the Phillippines, or is it?

AN Asia Times INVESTIGATION

Killing season in the Philippines

By Herbert Docena

MANILA - Political activist Cathy Alcantara was gunned down by unidentified assailants last December 5, outside the resort where she had helped to organize a conference on farmers' rights.

Two months later, the lifeless body of her activist friend, 19-year-old Audie Lucero, was found in a remote rice field. Lucero was last seen surrounded by police officers and soldiers in a hospital lobby, inexplicably crying.

Annaliza Abanador-Gandia, another left-leaning activist, had frequently marched with the two victims, often at the forefront of demonstrations calling for various sorts of political change, including the ouster of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, an end to US military exercises in the Philippines, and overhaul of the World Trade Organization's free-trade policies.

On May 18, it was Abanador-Gandia's turn to die. It's unclear exactly what happened, because she was alone inside her shop that night. Her body was found slumped on a table, eight bullets through her face, chest and stomach. The gunpowder found on her face indicated that she had been shot at point-blank range.

All three victims were active organizers of the Movement for National Democracy (KPD), a left-leaning umbrella grouping of trade unions, farmers' and fishermen's organizations, and women's and youth groups, that has seen two more of its members shot and killed in provincial areas this year.

They are the latest victims in a creeping and escalating killing spree of left-leaning political activists in the Philippines. Over the past two months, at least 18 activists have been murdered by unidentified assailants in various areas of the country - an average of two killings per week. At no other time in the KPD's nearly 10-year history have so many of their members been assassinated.

The KPD is just one of many left-leaning groups now under shadowy assault. UNORKA (Ugnayan ng mga Nagsasariling Lokal na Organisasyon sa Kanayunan, or National Coordination of Autonomous Local Rural People's Organizations), a farmers' group that is part of the "Fight of the Masses" coalition, is now pushing for a "transitional revolutionary government" to replace Arroyo. So far, no fewer than 13 of UNORKA's leaders have been killed. The group's national secretary general was shot dead on April 24.

Task Force Mapalad (TFM), another peasants' group that has been pushing for land reform in Visayas and Mindanao, has seen at least eight of its farmer-leaders killed since 2001, the last one felled in May 2005. Lani Factor, the group's campaign coordinator, refers to the escalating violence against activists as the Philippines' "killing season".

The majority of the victims belong to the Bayan Muna group, which has representation in parliament and which since 2001 counts as many as 95 of its local leaders inexplicably killed. Robert de Castro, the group's secretary general, was quoted saying in the local press that local leaders "are being killed like chickens ... They are dropping dead like flies." [1]

Keeping track of the onslaught has not been easy. Human-rights organizations as a rule only count those cases that are reported to them, and each maintains separate lists. According to a running tally by the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper, the latest killings bring the total number of activists slain since Arroyo seized power in 2001 to 224. The human-rights group Karapatan estimates that figure much higher, at 601. Nearly all of the cases remain unresolved. An additional 140 activists are considered "disappeared" and remain missing. [2] And the number is growing by the week.

Trouble in the provinces

Fallen activist Abanador-Gandia's province falls under the command of Major-General Jovito Palparan, the most controversial military official in the Philippines. Widely dubbed "the executioner" by his critics, Palparan stands accused of perpetrating a rash of killings and disappearances of leftist activists during his previous postings in Samar and Mindoro provinces.

He has consistently denied the charges, saying on record, "I can smile and laugh about it." At the same time, he has also gone on record to say that the extrajudicial killings are "helping" the armed forces of the Philippines get rid of those who instigate people to fight against the government. [3] To him, the deaths of activists are just "small sacrifices" in the military's anti-insurgency campaign. [4]

"We've got to hate the movement," Palparan said in a recent interview with Newsbreak magazine. "We've got to have that fighting stand." [5]

Palparan's provocative statements have caused a lightning rod of criticism. But increasingly, his is not a lone voice in the wilderness. His military superiors have a quiet way of expressing their agreement with Palaparan's tactics: through promotion. Palparan is elevating through the military's ranks and was recently bestowed the Distinguished Service Star medal for his "eminently meritorious and valuable service".

Government executive secretary Eduardo Ermita, himself a former military official, has hailed Palparan as a "good officer", saying his detractors automatically blame him for violent incidents without corroborating evidence.

Yet Palparan's fighting mood reflects a growing edginess in the military. "The enemy that we confronted more than three decades ago is the same enemy that we are confronting today, only more scheming and obviously much more dangerous," wrote Lieutenant-General Romeo Dominguez in his recent book Trinity of War: The Grand Design of the CPP/NPA/NDF (Communist Party of the Philippines/New People's Army/National Democratic Front).

Published by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the book has become one of the military's "know your enemy" guidebooks, as indicated in a recent military Powerpoint presentation produced by the AFP top brass and circulated among soldiers. The volume discusses how the leftist movement has evolved since the late 1940s, how the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) took over its mantle beginning in the 1960s, and how it has morphed and splintered along ideological and tactical lines since the 1980s.

Complete with tables and flow charts, the book includes a comprehensive list of what it calls the "communist terrorists' legal sectoral front organizations" - down to the provincial level - including the names and top leaders of those groups that have broken away from the CPP's mainstream or that have only emerged in recent years.

Despite all the attention given to the Abu Sayyaf rebel movement in past years, "the single greatest threat to the Philippine state continues to come from the CPP/NPA", concludes Zachary Abuza, an expert with the congressionally funded US Institute of Peace, who has studied the various leftist and Moro secessionist groups fighting against the government in the Philippines. [6]

This threat has not been lost on the military and right-wing politicians, who have grown increasingly alarmed by the left's resurgence. The strength of the NPA was estimated at about 25,000 fighters during the martial-law period in the 1970s, dwindled to about 8,000 in the 1990s, and is reportedly on the upswing again.

In recent months, the NPA has launched a series of military offensives across the country. Apart from the NPA, a number of smaller left-wing armed groups operate in remote provincial areas.

The Philippines' right has also been spooked by the left's recent success in democratic elections. When the formal institutions of democracy were restored after the 1986 "people power" uprising, the left was split between those who still saw the armed struggle as primary and those who wanted to contest power through electoral processes. The CPP initially boycotted the general elections that paved the way for Corazon Aquino's presidency.

While carrying on with what it calls the "protracted people's war", the CPP eventually decided to participate after the introduction of the party-list system, a measure that reserved a portion of seats in Congress to under-represented and marginalized sectors of society. Other leftist groups have abandoned armed struggle altogether, choosing to focus on elections and public campaigns to bring about political change.

In the last elections, left-leaning candidates won 11 of the 24 party-list seats filled. Though this proportion represents little more than 5% of the total national vote, the left's visibility in public debates has been disproportionately high compared with their actual number of parliamentary seats. On the streets, where in the Philippines political battles are frequently waged, only the broad left has been able consistently to mobilize people, albeit on a limited scale.

Military official Palparan has promised to "completely clear his area of responsibility of rebels before he retires in September this year". [7] It is a vow endorsed by the country's top civilian defense official, Avelino Cruz, who has also said that the "communist insurgency" can be defeated in "six to 10 years". [8]

Cruz is confident that this goal could be attained through the ambitious Philippine Defense Reform Program, a comprehensive plan to modernize and upgrade the capacity of the armed forces to conduct "internal security operations".

Intensifying its long-running involvement in the Philippines' counter-insurgency campaign, the United States jointly designed the Philippine Defense Reform Program with the Philippine military and is funding half of its $370 million budget. Washington has designated the CPP/NPA and the Alex Boncayao Brigade, a group that broke away from the NPA, as "foreign terrorist organizations".

But while the military has always considered the armed leftist groups to be a major military threat, and offensives and counter-offensives were launched way before Arroyo took office, there has recently been one significant shift in the mindset of key military officials: an increasing refusal to distinguish between armed and unarmed leftists, between those who are in the underground guerrilla movement and those who are in the open legal struggle. The boundary, at least in the eyes of certain military and civilian officials, simply does not exist.

This attitude is best summed up by Palparan's stock reply whenever he's reminded that the activists who are killed are unarmed and participate in legal mass organizations: "They're legal but they're doing illegal activities." [9] The decision to decriminalize the communists in 1994 was a bad idea, says Palparan, adding that he would be "happy" to have it restored. The Trinity of War stresses - in bold typeface - that, while the CPP still considers parliamentary struggles secondary to the armed struggle, both struggles are "complementary, interrelated, and interactive".

Meanwhile, Palparan has said that his anti-insurgency campaign "had not yet gone full blast".

This outlook is shared by the civilian leadership. "We encourage communism as well as socialism as a party just like those in Europe," said presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor. "What we do not want is when they preach armed revolution."

According to National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, "What we are fighting today is no longer the classic guerrilla warfare. They have infiltrated and entered our democratic process." He has railed against how the left's elected parliamentarians are taking advantage of their office to advance the revolution. He has constantly complained about how Bayan Muna members "moonlight" as NPA fighters and how they are, to paraphrase Palparan, straddling both sides of what the government defines to be legal and illegal activities.

'We hate communists'

It's obviously a charge that those who have been killed will not have the opportunity to contest. Most of the victims belonged to legal leftist or left-leaning organizations enumerated in the AFP's list of alleged "front" organizations. As a recent Amnesty International report puts it, "Increased killing in particular provinces were reportedly linked to the public labeling of leftist groups as NPA front organizations by local AFP commanders."

Prior to activist Abanador-Gandia's killing, for instance, police and military officials in Bataan had ominously told KPD members, "We already know who you are. We know who's really behind you. We know all of you."

Other activists belong to organizations that are locked in bitter land disputes with powerful landlords who, aided by the state's tacit consent or lack of political will, have historically used thugs to eliminate peasants pushing for land reform. With their lands now subject to expropriation, these landlords, said TFM campaign coordinator Factor, have been acting like "mad, rabid dogs unleashed".

Most of the killings are concentrated in areas of increased militarization and intensified counter-insurgency operations. In Palparan's Central Luzon, more than 50 leftists have been killed, or nearly a quarter of the total 224 killings compiled by the Philippine Daily Inquirer. In that region, the military has embedded itself in 10-man detachments in various villages, conducting door-to-door interrogations and nightly patrols.

They have even taken to organizing anti-communist workshops and mobilizing protest rallies in support of the military. Participants of these rallies say they were told to make placards saying, "We hate communists." Negros, where a number of the killings are concentrated, is another province where the military has launched what the region's military chief, Lieutenant-General Samuel Bagasin has described as "decisive operations".

The victims are apparently not chosen at random. Almost all of those that have been executed are known leaders or organizers who actively worked on the ground and recruited new members into their organizations. The operations are in most cases surgical and well targeted. And while provincial and municipal-level organizers were being picked off, national leaders are also being persecuted.

Facing rebellion charges, at least one congressman from Anakpawis remains in detention, while five others camped out in Congress for two months to elude arrest. Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales has told them to "go back to the mountains where they belong", [10] an allusion to where the CPP has historically pitched its base camps.

Activist Factor suspects that the calculated elimination of the upper echelons of his organization is an attempt to terrorize members and scare off potential recruits in the hope of slowly debilitating the movement. One local columnist has called it a "kill one, scare 100" tactic. [11] That the activists are not being killed en masse, but rather at a slow-motion rate of one every other day, seems calculated to maximize the chilling effect while also minimizing public outrage.

In a number of cases, witnesses have pointed directly to uniformed soldiers, policemen, or known paramilitary or vigilante groups as the assailants. In many other cases, the victims were shot dead by a pair of motorcycle-riding masked men.

Observers point out that this manner of killing is reminiscent of the period in the late 1980s when, at the height of the "total war" waged by the Aquino government against the left, masked motorcycle-riding men also shot and killed activists across the country. According to the human-rights group Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, up to 585 were killed during that orgy of extrajudicial violence.

Proud human-rights record

Now, the government publicly views the widespread killing of activists as just a sad coincidence. There is no set pattern and the killings are unrelated, officials contend. Accusations against state security officials are routinely shrugged off.

A police spokesman has claimed that if there's any pattern at all, it's just part of the normal crime-rate cycle. "Sometimes it falls, sometimes it goes up," Philippine National Police spokesman Samuel Pagdilao was quoted as saying about the spate of activist killings. [12]

State officials have repeatedly insisted that there's no state-sanctioned crackdown on activists. "We have nothing to hide about, and we are proud of our human-rights record," press secretary Ignacio Bunye recently said. Earlier, Arroyo called accusations of human-rights violations "an insult" to the military.

Other high-ranking officials have claimed that if anyone is to blame, it's the activists themselves. According to this view, the revolution is once again devouring its own children - just as it did in the 1980s when, in an operation that has since been acknowledged by the CPP leadership, at least 2,000 party members were ordered killed as suspected government infiltrators.

But those on the left no longer aligned with the CPP and who have been openly critical of its anti-infiltration campaign have come out to dismiss this charge as both opportunistic and ludicrous. Robert Francis Garcia, secretary general of the Peace Advocates for Truth, Healing and Justice, an organization of survivors, relatives and friends of victims of the CPP's past internal purge, believes that the government is "capitalizing on the issue to hammer down the CPP/NPA".

Garcia points out that the manner by which the CPP's infamous purge was carried out then bears little resemblance to how activists are being killed nowadays. Then, Garcia recalls, suspected infiltrators were arrested, detained and interrogated by party agents - they were not executed summarily in public as is happening now.

Even an officially constituted police task force has recently identified soldiers and paramilitary forces as suspects in at least some of the killings. [13] The normally timid Commission on Human Rights (CHR), an independent constitutional body, has stated that the "pattern of complaints that come to us show members of the armed forces and the PNP [Philippine National Police] as suspects". Assuming that the government is not behind the many unresolved killings, the commission points out that it still has a duty to solve and prevent them.

Unfortunately, for many of the cases, there are no smoking guns, and the masterminds are not in the habit of giving receipts to their hired assassins. But even a cursory survey of the killings over recent months makes it difficult to avoid the conclusion that there is an ongoing systematic and deliberate mission to terrorize - if not exterminate - the left being carried out by those who have both the motive and means to do so.

Even if one assumes that a portion of the killings could be explained away as the result of personal grudges or of turf wars among different armed leftist factions, the vast majority of the cases paint an alarming pattern.

A poor record

Arroyo's administration is turning out to be the most repressive regime in the Philippines since Ferdinand Marcos' corrupt authoritarian rule. According to the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, about 3,400 people were killed and more than 700 disappeared during Marcos' 14-year dictatorship.

According to Senator Manny Villar, citing figures provided by the CHR, Arroyo's five-year term has already eclipsed all three previous presidents' combined 11-year tenure in terms of the number of people executed, tortured, or illegally detained.

This is not to say that all was well before Arroyo came to power. Previous administrations also tallied their fair share of rights violations. But as Max de Mesa, the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates chair and longtime human-rights activist, points out, the total number of cases of rights violations under Arroyo should not be compared as separate from those of her predecessors.

Arroyo's government, he says, is still obliged to resolve those past violations - something her government has so far wholly failed to do. As such, the totals under the previous regimes should be added to that under Arroyo, he contends.

At the beginning of Arroyo's term, most of the victims were Muslim civilians, who were often rounded up and detained in droves, caught up in the government's US-backed "war on terror". In one particularly shocking episode, caught live on national television in March last year, the country's highest-ranking security officials, with apparent approval from the president, supervised the storming of a prison after suspected Abu Sayyaf leaders being held there mounted an uprising.

Despite being unarmed and secured against a wall, 26 detainees were shot dead. Human-rights groups called the incident a "massacre" and the CHR has since endorsed their recommendation to file murder charges against the officials.

In heavily militarized Sulu in the southern Philippines, where the military has been pursuing the Abu Sayyaf group, there have been numerous allegations of serious human-rights violations by the armed forces, including the February 2005 massacre of a family, which finally provoked the Moro National Liberation Front to recommence attacking government forces.

Disappearances, beheadings, and summary executions have once again become the norm in the area. But the government's documented abuses have not been given the same attention as the atrocities committed by the Abu Sayyaf.

Perhaps the clearest demonstration of the government's failure to protect and guarantee civil liberties has been the unbridled killing of journalists. Freedom of the press has never come at a higher price for at least 42 journalists who have been killed since Arroyo took power - or about half of the estimated 79 killed since 1986. This record prompted the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists to rank the Philippines in 2005 as the "most murderous" country for journalists in the world next to Iraq. Some have contested that label, saying the country is in a league of its own; Iraq, after all, is a war zone.

While local bosses and criminal elements, and not state agents, are likely to be behind many of the journalists' killings, the government's tepid response shows its inability - or unwillingness - to protect the press.

Instead of working to bring the killers to justice, Secretary of Justice Raul Gonzales has recently suggested that media practitioners should arm themselves in self-defense. He also implied that the killings may have nothing to do with press freedom. "There are media men killed in drinking sprees or because of a woman," Gonzalez recently said.

While human-rights violations have steadily mounted, the situation has taken a sharp turn for the worse after Arroyo, facing widespread calls for her ouster from across the political spectrum, began to use more brazenly coercive measures to retain her grip on power. For instance, she has banned public demonstrations and authorized the use of force to disperse them. She has gagged public officials from testifying in congressional hearings.

Finally, on February 24, she declared a "state of national emergency". This was interpreted by police and military officials as carte blanche to conduct arrests without warrants and to raid and intimidate media entities. While the "state of emergency" was quickly lifted - and was recently declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court - human-rights violations have not stopped; rather, they have spiked.

Last week, five leaders of the Union of the Masses for Democracy and Justice (UMDJ), a group identified with imprisoned former president Joseph Estrada, were abducted in broad daylight - not in the countryside but in the capital Manila - and were missing for about two days. Pressed whether the military had arrested the UMDJ leaders, executive secretary Eduardo Ermita denied the allegations and emphatically repeated the government's standard line, "They are automatically pointing at the administration as the culprit, which is unfair."

But only two hours later, a military spokesperson confirmed that the five were indeed arrested and detained by intelligence agents. It was the same military spokesperson who, just the day before, also disavowed any knowledge of the five's whereabouts. Accused of being NPA infiltrators plotting to assassinate the president and a number of cabinet members, the detainees were later released because of "insufficient evidence".

Such cases illustrate that the state is conducting commando-style operations against activists and casts doubts on its claims that it has not been involved in unresolved killings and disappearances.

Thinking about a new revolution

In many ways, the recent wave of killings is a tragic reprise of previous episodes in Philippine history. In 1946, leftist legislators were also expelled from Congress and driven to the mountains. Death squads stalked the Philippines' countryside in the early 1950s and late 1980s. Newspaper offices were routinely padlocked by the government during periods of martial law. State-sponsored disappearances gave birth to a generation of orphans and widows.

The escalating repression taking place now in the Philippines is no coincidence. Twenty years since the end of the dictatorship and three "people's power" uprisings later, Philippine society is hugely polarized.

If the recent killing spree signifies anything, it's that the growing coercion and the abandonment of democratic rights portend the fraying of the post-1986 political order, when the dictator Marcos was unceremoniously thrown from power and democracy restored. What will replace those democratic hopes, more than at any time in recent years, is a point of bitter political contention.

The political crisis triggered by charges of electoral fraud and corruption against Arroyo have brought these divisions clearly out in the open. In one camp are those who want to salvage and carry on with what academics like to call "oligarchic democracy" or "low-intensity democracy", where ballots are universally assured but food, jobs and housing are not.

On the other side of the debate are those who are struggling to move beyond limited democracy and are working to change the system from both above and underground. Over the past few months, these two sides have failed to oust Arroyo and now face an impasse.

But as the intensifying militarization and repression signify, another camp has moved to break the stalemate. Those who seek to roll back democracy and push the country toward a more authoritarian, albeit nominally democratic, system are again in the ascendant and clearly on the offensive.

For the ruling elites and conservatives from 1986, the formal institutions of democracy - free and fair elections, a free press, the protection and promotion of civil liberties - were then seen as the most effective way to maintain their hold on power and wealth.

But as the Philippines' massive marginalized population has increasingly employed these institutions to challenge the status quo, sections of the ruling class and military appear to have come to the conclusion that democracy is a double-edged sword. Low-intensity democracy is once again giving way to low-intensity warfare in the Philippines, while being "underground" has taken on its old meaning.

"Nothing has changed," said Lorena Paras, a former guerrilla fighter with the NPA who surrendered to the government in 1997 and now tries to live a quiet life at the foot of the Bataan Mountains. And yet for her, in reality so much has changed: last September, she personally witnessed uniformed military men drag away her husband, also a former NPA rebel.

His name has been added to the new list of the disappeared, and she, most likely, to the list of new widows. Lorena says wistfully that her thoughts have increasingly returned to the revolution she only recently left behind.

Notes

1. Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 15, 2006

2. Associated Press, May 30, 2006

3. Philippine Daily Inquirer, October 28, 2005

4. Philippine Daily Inquirer, June 2, 2005

5. Newsbreak, April 29, 2006

6. Zachary Abuza, "Balik-Terrorism: The Return of the Abu Sayyaf", Strategic Studies monograph, September 2005

7. Newsbreak website, May 31, 2006

8. Reuters, May 18, 2005

9. Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 21, 2004

10. Philippine Star, May 9, 2006

11. Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 26, 2006

12. Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 25, 2006

13. Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 16, 2006

Herbert Docena is with Focus on the Global South, a research and advocacy organization

Mai Krap, unless you are entrenched in Pattani or Yala or Naratiwat investigating what's going on down there right now, I have to say that your credibility is hardly any better than Zachary Abuza's. Hence your purely arm chair speculations about who did what down there can only be taken with a grain of salt. It's kind of ironic really to see you trying to discredit a speculator, when you yourself are also one.

As it happens I do not even own a couch nor arm chair and I have spent the last 4 years investigating Muslims in Southeast Asia from on the ground where one can see more clearly. I was in Hat Yai before the first action ever took place (The raiding of the armory) and I have direct communication with Muslims on the ground throughout the troubled provinces. Since half of my Thai family is Muslim and the other half are Buddhist I would say I'm right in the middle of all this. If you wish you could say I don't even have a ringside seat I'm more of a referee in the middle of the ring and that is my position on calling Dr. Abuza Foul. It is my understanding Dr. Abuza did spend one month on the ground in Mindanao embedded with American soldiers which translates to he sat around the base asking questions to the people who were the outsiders pointing guns into the faces of locals which is not a realistic approach to understanding any situation. I guess I have him trumped there to since I was in the Philippines during the height of Abu Sayaf and their kidnapping of Jeffry Shilling and I know the case quite well since I too was one of the only Americans south of Manila during this time period.

So you clearly do not have any idea of who I am nor what I do so please restrain yourself from your ignorant posting about what I know, Thank you? Mai Krap!

By the way I have already been turned into the American Embassy for being a terrorist by a couple idiots, I had a good laugh about that. Another paranoid idiot even thought some of my family members wanted to kidnap them when all they wanted to do was sell him some fruit in broken English, now thats what I call ironic, need I say more?

33 suspected insurgents arrested after enforcement of curfews

Col. Shinawatra Mandech, the Commander of the 1st Special Task Force of Yala, says officials have arrested 33 suspects who could be involved with the southern unrest after the army has imposed curfews in Yala’s Yaha and Bannang Sata districts. He says the suspects could be insurgent leaders or perpetrators.

Col. Shinawatra had a meeting with Yaha District-Chief Officer Supanat Sinranthawineti, at the Special Task Force of Yala Headquarters. They discussed the unrest situation in the last five days after the enforcement of curfews.

Col. Shinawatra says the arrested suspects may be involved in the recent passenger bus massacre in Yala. He says the suspects are now being interrogated by the officials at the 4th Army Area Headquarters in Pattani province. He says some of them have already confessed that they were behind the violence in the deep South.

The Commander of the 1st Special Task Force of Yala says the officials will continue to suppress the movements of southern insurgents and look after the people’s safety. However, he would like public members to cooperate with the officials in their areas by keeping a close watch of the situation and environment. They can inform the officials about any suspicious activity immediately.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 20 March 2007

Or they could be the ones who are just going about the normal course of their lives who suddenly find themselves the scape goats or flavor of the day all be it artificial.

Thanks Jai Dee for the updates. I won't (or the authorities won't) get an aswer to my question.

I've lived in war zones before and I am familiar with the 'blame' game. In a situation like the current one, I doubt that insurgents would kill there own, directly. Remember, they are killing future 'recruits.' They are also NOT killing infidels.

Very organized groups might do such a thing, but most lowly foot soldiers don't have much of a stomach for killing their own.

It's not beyond the realm of possibility that the insurgents themselves might have done it. They might wanna use fears to rule all the Muslims in the areas.

Insurgents strike fear into hearts and minds

In addition to the broadened targeting of women, children, monks and the de facto ethnic cleansing that has transpired, the Islamist agenda is manifest in other ways. They are not out to win hearts and minds: they are thuggish and brutal and are imposing their values on the community. Over 50 per cent of their victims have been fellow Muslims. They have a broadened their definition of collaborator to include Muslims who reject militant values and seek accommodation with the Thai state. They have killed moderate clerics and warned others to not perform funerals for the Muslims they kill and deem not to be real Muslims, the Wahhabi practice of "takfiri". They have shuttered businesses on Fridays and killed Islamic teachers who teach at schools that receive government funding and teach mixed curricula.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/03/20...on_30029731.php

Go figure, Thaigoon qoutes from the nation whos source is none other than the American Jackass Zachary Abuza,,,,,,,, Picture below,,,,,,

Funny thing about Dr. Abuza is he was a expert on Vietnam until he suddenly became a expert on Al Queda and Islam in 2003. I guess nobody is interested in paying for experts on Vietnam who do not speak Vietnamese nor live there. He brings the same hi standards to his understanding of Muslims in Southeast Asia which are, read a few reports, make a few phone calls, Google up some references, hype up some details, do a lot of finger pointing, paint Muslims as devils, call yourself a man of peace and publish, then sit back on your haunches and collect the pay checks. Let us not forget that idiots like Dr. Abuza are the same bunch who have the United States going broke in a sandbox. Can Thailand afford to listen to the advice or pondering as such men as himself who are simply academic analyst and have never spent any time on the ground with nor does he even know any of the people of whom he writes.

Zachary Abuza specializes in Southeast Asian politics and security issues. He received his MALD and PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

He is the author of Uncivil Islam: Muslims, Politics and Violence in Indonesia (Routledge, 2006), Conspiracy of Silence: The Insurgency in Southern Thailand and its Implications for Southeast Asian Security (US Institute of Peace Press, 2006), Militant Islam in Southeast Asia (Lynne Rienner, 2003) and Renovating Politics in Contemporary Vietnam (Lynne Rienner, 2001). He has also authored two studies for the National Bureau of Asian Research, entitled Funding Terrorism in Southeast Asia: The Financial Network of Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya, NBR Analysis (2003) and Muslims, Politics and Violence in Indonesia, NBR Analysis (2004). His monograph, Balik Terrorism: The Return of the Abu Sayyaf Group was published by the US Army War College's Security Studies Institute in 2005. He is currently undertaking a major study of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front under support from the United States Institute of Peace and the Smith Richardson Foundation. Professor Abuza authored the Vietnam chapters in the 2004 and 2006 Countries at the Crossroads annual reports for Freedom House; and from 2001-2003 he served as Vietnam country advisor for Amnesty International (USA).

In 2006-07 Professor Abuza will be on sabbatical and will be working on a regional security assessment, as part of a global five-year assessment of the war on terror. Dr. Abuza consults widely and is a frequent commentator in the press. He is a visiting guest lecturer at the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Dept. of State, and at the Dept. of Defense's Joint Special Operations University.

In 2005 he was a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace.

Vigilante law: Firearms are placed on tables before a gathering of about 300 Buddhists at the community auditorium of Songkhla’s Saba Yoi district yesterday. The Buddhists said they could ‘no longer stand’ the frequent insurgent attacks on Buddhists and would ‘deal with the problem themselves’ if the authorities fail to do so.

Source: The Nation - 20 March 2007

How soon we forget, Does not anyone on this forum remember the front page pictures of firearms training taking place on the grounds of Wat's last year. I for one do not believe anything written in the news concerning the south, We cant even get a straight story in Bangkok so how in the helll does anyone expect to get a straight story from the south.

Lets see, A rouge element of the Army puts on turbans and hand grenades boys sleeping in a school and then blame their fathers and family for blowing up their own kids. Let us not forget the details here that the closest Army post was attacked one night by small arms fire according to reports but not grenades. Then a few hours later this action takes place at a Madrases Islamic School in a red zone Muslim village, One of those same villages that by all accounts completely supports the insurgency.

There were no guns fired at Tak Bai either, just check it out on YouTube which by the way was blocked for a few days last week.

Look for the Sigma DP1 that will be released this summer, Its a point and shoot with a 14 mega pixel SLR size sensor with a 28mm equivalent wide angle lens.

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The only decent guys I know living in the PI married girls long ago when they were stationed there. Last year I got into a argument with a guy who thought living in Angelos City was "Living The Dream", his words. I found him to be a complete idiot on living in Asia. When Clark was open there were valid reasons for Americans and other retired soldiers to be there and retire there, medical being one and having access to the PX another. With Clark now gone I cant imagine living there, its filthy and horrible in general. Trying to compare Angelos City with Pattaya disqaulifies one from being human, you will never see the horrors of the PI lived out in Thailand. Its all real simple to understand when you see Filipinos coming to Thailand to work. Has anyone ever heard of Thais going to work in the PI? I dont thank so.

Can anyone ever Imagine a Sky Train being built in Manilla? I have a friend who over sees offices in Thailand, Cambodia, Siagon, Bangkok, and Manilla, 50% of his time is spent trying to keep the Manilla office sorted. The only good thing is many government papers are written in English. For anyone who thinks crime is bad in Thailand they should have a go in the PI, Unless you are a total piss artist I dont see any reason to go or live there. In my oppinion it is the worst Southeast Asia has to offer and well below even Cambodia.

When I was living there years ago A man who owned a resort payed a girls father to bring her for daily visets for guess what. Yes the girl was underage and there is no excuse for the action as it was entirely criminal and the guy deserves to be in jail. The events surrounding what happend have left dumbfounded to this day. After a few weeks the girl who was I believe 15 and the father were told their services were no longer needed. I guess the guy found a new girl or whatever, I have no idea but heres what followed. The father went to to the police station and filed rape charges against the man. For those who dont know underage sex and rape in PI can lead to the death penalty. The man had a entire list of charges brought against him and the father of the girl who acted as her pimp was never charged with any crime. He even went as far as freely admiting he prostituted his daughter and was viewed as some kind of hero locally. The media had a feild day with all this and as far as I know the man in question is still imprisoned in the PI.

Living the dream? I say living the nightmare, I would never consider living there unless I was given a choice between a Supermax, hel_l, and Cebu, then I would need to think about it.

There are reports coming out of Laos that poultry sales are being banned in and around Vientiane. They have began mass cullings of poultry most of which are waterfowl "Ducks and Geese". In the last week there have been two deaths but it is unclear what the true numbers of death may be since their is no accounting for such things in Laos. What has not been widely publisized is that at least one of these deaths occured in Thailand in Nong Kai as the unfortunate child who became ill was brought to the hospital there. This is posing a very large problem to Thailand as it trys to improve its bird facilities yet a short flight away there is still a remaining culture of open bird farming. As people become sick they are being brought to Thailand for treatment and the scariest aspect of all is the sell of chicken meat. It is well known that in recent years when pork meat was considered contaminted and banned from sales in Thailand it was dumped on the market in Laos. We could have a repeat of this as chicken sales are banned in Laos those who do not see the danger of the current crises will try and place their poultry onto the market in Thailand.

HEALTH-LAOS:

On the Bird Flu Map

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Mar 11 (IPS) - A spell of good fortune that South-east Asia's poorest country enjoyed for three years ran out this month. Laos has become the 11th country in the world to record a human death from the bird flu virus.

The reaction from Vientiane, soon after the death of a 15-year-old girl from a suburb of the Laotian capital, suggests that this fatality may not be the last, since the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus is reported in four areas, and spreading.

''The government is enforcing immediate and stringent interventions such as culling of all infected poultry, strengthening hospital surveillance and carrying out intensive information campaigns to educate people,'' Health Minister Dr. Ponmek Dalaloy said Thursday.

To achieve that, the government in the one-party communist state announced a list of preventive measures. It urged the public to wash hands regularly with soap, eat properly cooked chicken meat and avoid ‘'any contact with sick or dead poultry'' and report ‘'any sick or dead poultry to local authorities.''

‘'The virus is really unpredictable. The government is doing all it can to ensure the country's health system is prepared,'' Dida Connor, spokeswoman for the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s Laos and Vietnam office, told IPS from Vientiane. ‘'The existing public awareness campaigns have to be intensified.''

The teenage victim who had been hospitalised in the Thai town of Nong Khai, located on the Thai-Laos border and across Vientiane, was living in a suburb of the Laotian capital where the deadly virus had infected the poultry population in January. She died on Mar. 7 after being hospitalised for 19 days.

Tests are continuing to confirm if the death of a 42-year-old Laotian woman last week was also linked to avian influenza. But while they wait for answers, public health authorities in Thai provinces that border Laos have sounded the alarm for greater vigilance, since the border is porous and is separated in some parts by the waters of the Mekong river.

‘'Preventive measures along the Thai-Lao border need strengthening,'' Dr. Itthipol Sungkhaeng, Nong Khai's public health chief, told the state-run Thai News Agency this week. ‘'All hospitals and health centres along the border have been instructed to closely watch their patients.''

He called for extra precautions, since the prevailing dry season in this region results in the Mekong's water level becoming ‘'shallower and hence more convenient for informal boat crossings.''

The other regions in land-locked Laos where the H5N1 strain of the virus have been reported include Suwanna Khet and Champasak, both towns located close to the Thai and Cambodian border. Laos is surrounded by China to the north, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west.

To date, 168 people have died due to bird flu and 275 have been infected by the virus. Till this month's death, Laos had remained a mystery in a region that was combating a virus spreading far and wide and leading to mounting human fatalities. Vietnam has recorded 42 deaths, Thailand 17 deaths and Cambodia has seen six deaths from bird flu. South-east Asian giant Indonesia has been the worst hit with 63 human fatalities from avian influenza virus out of 81 reported cases.

Over 50 countries across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe have had poultry populations affected by the virus since the current outbreak began in the winter of 2003.

Concerns about poverty-stricken countries like Laos having difficulty to cope with the challenges posed by this deadly virus have dogged international public and animal health experts since South-east Asia emerged as the epicentre of the H5N1 strain. After all, the WHO had warned that the virus could mutate into a flu that is easily passed between humans, triggering a pandemic that could kill millions.

These uncertainties were addressed at a major international donor conference in Beijing in January last year, where countries led by the United States pledged 1.9 billion US dollars to combat the spread of bird flu across the globe. The amounts promised by Washington, 330 million dollars, and the European Union, over 250 million dollars, bettered the expectations of the World Bank, which had asked donors for 1.5 billion dollars to wage a global campaign to defeat the virus.

Laos was guaranteed 5.5 million dollars of that purse for one- and three-year projects, of which 1.5 million dollars have been spent. ‘'The funds were needed because animal health services had not enjoyed the support they required,'' says Robyn Alders, technical advisor at the Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) Asia-Pacific regional office. ‘'The country lacked trained veterinary staff.''

The injection of international aid has helped to train local veterinarians to build urgently needed surveillance systems and laboratories to track the virus, she added in an interview. ‘'The government has responded quickly to these new challenges.''

The long run of luck that Laos had enjoyed stemmed from the communities in a country with a 5.4 million population being spread out over a vast rural area and having limited contact, according to the food agency. It had one bird flu outbreak in March 2004 and a second one in July 2006.

The outbreak that began in January confirms a pattern in Laos in which sick poultry are detected in places with large concentrations of people.

‘'The recent outbreaks have spread along roads and in urban areas, where you have a high concentration of people and poultry,'' says Alders. ‘'Both free-range chickens and poultry at commercial sites have been affected.'' (END/2007)

I was offline a few days but my wifes mother recently called us and said that a young woman and her 9 to 10 year old girl were found murdered and disimbowled at Nonsaart village, Ampur Bandung, Changwat Udon Thani. I cannot confirm this but I can say the story has spread like wild fire. It could be explained as a horrible and grusome murder but it has been told as a case of organ harvesting throughout the villages. The police have been looking for a white van in connection with the murders. I at first wrote it off as just another story as I hear many, Im now doing a rethink and believe that at least there was a case of murder but Im having a hard time believing a case of random organ harvesting in such a isolated location, It would be so much easier to do in a city like Bangkok. I will not speculate further but I would be interested to hear from a member in Bandung if they know or have heard anything.

Insurgents ambush couple, man killed

(BangkokPost.com) - In Pattani’s Yarang district, separatists ambushed a couple when they were riding a motorcycle to work at a construction shop Wednesday morning.

The husband was killed while the wife was critically injured.

The attack took place on a road linking between Pattani and Yala.

The man, identified as 25-year-old Chachawan Arsaiphol, attended the cremation of his brother only yesterday. His brother was also killed by insurgents on this same road.

John, Are you trying to get to the bottem of this? Are you at all interested in knowing the subject at hand or do you just intend to take a piss on Southern Muslims and Muslims in general? Have you ever sorted through the crime scene pictures or the facts of the Kru Sae Massacre? Have you ever viewed the film footage of the Tak Bai Massacre where by local accounts there are still over 200 missing including women?

Maybe you should use your google more often or go over to Youtube and check out all the videos and there are many. Why dont you do a little report for us and let us know how many Muslims have dissapeared in the south and please dont use that tired old excuse that they just went on holiday to Malaysia. If you want to paint a black picture please do it with equal strokes of the brush.

Also another thing that bugs me and I wanna get out of my chest is that, no Buddhism has absolutely nothing with why some Thais drive crazy. It's all up to the individual. If someone is a stupid and reckless individual, then he/she will dive stupidly and recklessly. It's got nothing to do with Buddist teachings. In fact, if that person is actually a decent and practicing Buddhist, he/she should realize and know how much Buddhism treasures life(all kinds of life too) and he/she will not do anything that potentially could harm other people's lives.

The way some farangs tried to associate Buddhism with some reckless driving behaviors in Thailand has really dumbfounded me. And they spoke as if they knew Buddhism too.

Once again Thaigoon completely misses the mark on a post. I guess he has never ridden in the back of truck that has a munk in the passengers seat, talk about your invincible drivers, thats as good as it gets! Happened to me on Mittrapop Highway and man did we fly, me and the poor canon fodder in the back were left with dirty droors and white knuckles after a very intense ride.

A 3x4 feet drain cover has been missing for 2 days near here, right on an unlit corner and you know how Thais love to cut corners when driving, be it motorcycle or car. Has anyone bothered doing anything about it? Nope. "I,m moving forward , therefore I can't see it anymore and it's no longer my problem".

I just rode by , stopped and at least stuck a wooden pole with a plastic bag in it.

A few years ago in Savannaket there was a giant hole in the middle of the road. Me and a friend walked up and looked into it to see a 4ft x 4ft sign laying in the bottem which said, "Warning, Hole!" Ive been laghing about that one ever since. I couldnt begin to say how many dangers Ive seen on the roads here where pipes have caved in and roads have just washed away. All I can say is, if you see tree limbs on the road, hit the breaks, there is danger ahead.

Not even worth an answer, but check Iraq, Philippines, and a few other places or go back to my old posts. All the same goals, all the same battle cries, and seemingly all the same religion. Some news clipping suggest some of Osama’s people are now active in the south so it is one big happy pack of animals here. That is why I was not limiting my comments to just Thailand you need to look at the bigger picture.

Kayo I am not bashing him, I am just trying to keep him from wandering off what I am saying and trying to change the intent of my post. I do agree with him on some points, but it seems to be like walking a dog on a long leash, tends to wander off a bit. My whole contribution to this thread was to the tragedy and human nature.

So now youre trying to add Osama Bin Laden into the mix of southern troubles? Youre trying to make the southern issue part of the global war on terrorism, are you not? This thread is about attacking children is it not? Your posts are condeming the act of attacking children is it not? I suggest you do your homework and try to figure out how many Muslim children have died in the so called war on terrorism since 2001 verses how many non muslim children have died and then get back to us.

While its true that people get themselves into trouble here I still have to call bullshitt on the mentioned article. Thailand has no system in place to protect anyone. The roadways are a prime example, speeding tickets and other fines are just a form of harassment and illbegotten earnings for law enforcement officers. I have seen to many total nutters loose on the road systems with no fear of ever being confronted for outrageous driving for the simple lack of highway police. Dont get me started on the useless motorcycle police who putt around town skemeing on whiskey and women.

If anything Thailand has a system of revenge that can be used by those with power but civic virtue imposed by those powerful enough to commit acts of revenge is in no way represenative of justice. The power of revenge in no way protects the poor Thais, refugees, non-national workforce, nor does it protect tourists who have no ideas about the rules of the road or just how things go here.

So is Thailand safe for tourism, far from it, sometimes you have to protect people from themselves but in this situation if you invite people to your country the way Thailand does when it advertises itself throughout the world as a paradise you need some checks and balances in place to deal with invited and welcomed guests. It would be great if some of the govermental powers that be gave a damm about their own people too.

Lets face it, murder is murder. The way its handled by the authorities does not matter. Its Thailand, and as long as you are a "white boy" or a farang who cares? They could care less as long as we are dumb eneough to keep pumping money into this third world dump, they will keep on taking our money. I know that all those "I have lived here for a 100 years, blah, blah, blah farangs" can't beleieve what happens here and bury thier heads deeper into the sand evrytime something ugly happens in the "Amazing Thailand". Live with it, they are corrupt and as ruthless as anywhere else, civilised people? I don't think so.

Niether I nor any of the people I call friends have their heads in the sand. Humans are violant by nature, you do not need a paticuler language nor culture nor ethnicity to commit murder. Your post is complete nonsense on many levels and basicly you have your story inverted. The people who have been here the longest know full well the things that happen when the news is not watching. Its those who have been here the least who are the ultimate apologists when it comes to making the undigestable and somtimes violent reality into something they can stomach. It is those apologist tourists go stumbling around Thailand high on whatever who tend to walk past the bodies as they never look down until they step upon a corpse, only then do they stumble back into reality.

It seems your the one living a fantasy where you believe there is justice in Yankee land, please dont get me started on that. Bitch about the police and foerensics all you wish but lay off Thailand and Thai Culture as you know nothing of it from your posting.

Does anyone know of a good hotel in Trat?? Not the island's but Trat The Town.....................Thank You

Just wondring why if you live in Chantaburi you would want a hotel in Trat but I guess its none of my business. If you know the area you will know the hotels in Chantaburi are far superior to anything in Trat (Built for westerners). Trat Hotel is horrible and the rooms face the markets which begain unloading seafood at 2AM. Pop Guest is OK but there are many snakes around there as the klong borders the mangrove swamp and Im talking King Cobras a meter long. One poped up under our table and sent me and the family scattering one evening, exciting though. Try S.A. Hotel as its the only place in town thats just a basic hotel and normaly clean and quiet, Its nothing to brag about though.

As far as those slagging off on Trat I would suggest you dont know much about the place. The food there is outstanding if you know where to look. There are soft shell crabs, tiger shrimp, and all the fresh fish one could ever want from 3 kilo grouper to sea bass. They are in no way set up for tourists but it is a beutiful and very exotic place if you know how to enjoy Thailand, have your own transpertation, and speak the language.

It amazes me how some long-time farangs living in Thailand still don't understand that "face" is very important to many Thais. I think these girls caused the chair vendor to lose face EARLIER in the evening. He obtained a gun, perhaps his own or borrowed; and came back and shot them when very few other people were around.

Remember the traffic cop in Chiang Mai a couple of years ago? In the early morning hours (around 8am if memory is correct) a Thai driver yelled at him causing him to lose face. He promptly shot the driver, driver's wife, young teenager (girl) riding with them (she was on her knees begging not to be shot), and then he shot himself. Four dead in a few seconds over a loss of "face". Yet many posters on this forum poo-poo face as if it doesn't exist.

Russian mafia?

You're confused between face and mental health here...

I had a look at the murder site whilst riding by today. Loosly cordened off with tape and unguarded. Still a beer bottle and glass left there, but put down on the floor. There were NO holes on the deck chairs that I could see (possible I missed it, but I don't think so). I doubt a shot came from behind and I doubt anything can be used from the crime scene in future as anyone could tamper with it easily.

Ever noticed the usual stampede around a Thai crime scene? A real joke. Journalists paying tea money to get a few pics, onlookers, 60 policemen not related to the investigation, a brass parade of officers wanting to look good, not counting the dozens of unwanted rescue workers.

<deleted> are the chairs still doing there if they have been shot while sitting in them? Why is the crime scene not covered with a shelter, exposed to weather and public.?

You've brought into play a very good point. Why was the area not blocked off and covered with a tent? If anything we can all agree that Thais love to put up tents and I cannot believe they have not caught onto this yet. Im trying to avoid humor here but it is a little ironic to say the least.

The forensics in Thailand outside of Khunying Porntip of whom I have a great respect for is an absolute joke. The Pattaya MIB would be better served to just hire a couple piss artists that have been pissing it up through a few years of CSI or find some old fart that watched every episode of Quincy before they expatriated! You have a major ffffing problem when you do not even bother to cover the hands till you can get them to a lab and check the fingernails. On a sidenote how many reading this believe they would have been thouroughly checked for male DNA to see who they might have been having sex with to find a witness or suspect? I can just hear the explanation,"this murder, no rape, no check sex."

2 girls are dead and nobody knows why? As usual we have the odd mix of women haters and Thai haters posting crazy and inflamitory comments pointing the finger at the group they assumed was evil before this event took place. To be honest its a bore to see the same piss artists type away at thin air. For the guys trying to remain sensible and those who are just not bothering to comment, good for you.

How many snake stories do you guys want to hear? I could wear out my keyboards withem. The scarriest is running over a largish (3 meter +) king cobra on a honda wave at 40 KPH on the wet pavement at Koh Chang, that caused major shringage. Fortunately I got the breaks locked and stopped the time a reticulated python shot out into the road, it would have wrecked me for sure. Ive ran over about a dozen nameless one meter types and stoped or shot around a few dozen more ( Cobras, Russles vipers, banded kraits, Malaysian kraits, and 5 or more types of green snakes ), all in a days fun.

Thailand: Possible Bombings in Bangkok and the Real Threat

February 23, 2007 19 59 GMT

Summary

The Australian, Canadian and British governments issued warnings to their citizens Feb. 23 about possible militant attacks in Bangkok, Thailand. The move followed a wave of bombings in Thailand's southernmost provinces and a Thai defense minister's warning of a security threat to the capital from militants based in the region. Although a meaningful threat from southern militants is unlikely, the possibility does exist of attacks in Bangkok by rival political factions.

Analysis

Warnings of militant attacks in Bangkok issued by Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom on Feb. 23 came a day after Thai Defense Minister Gen. Bunrod Somtad warned that insurgents in Thailand's four southernmost provinces might extend their attacks into the capital. While the possibility exists of bombings in Bangkok, they likely would be the result of an ongoing power struggle between rival political factions in the wake of the September 2006 coup that deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The Australian warning specifically stated that attacks on transportation targets and crowded areas would occur Feb. 23. The head of Thailand's Special Branch police division, Lt. Gen. Thiradet Rodphothong, said there was no specific intelligence suggesting that attacks will take place Feb. 23 in the capital, but rumors to that effect circulated throughout the city. The U.S. government did not issue a specific warning, leaving its standing advisory about security in Thailand unchanged (which essentially is to avoid nonemergency travel to the southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala and Songkhla).

The warnings in Bangkok come amid a wave of militant violence in the southern provinces. On Feb. 21, suspected insurgents burned down the largest rubber warehouse in Thailand's Yala province. On Feb. 18, more than 30 bombing attacks against schools, karaoke bars and power stations killed eight people in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces. While roots of the insurgency in the south are varied and complex, the insurgents have not demonstrated the ability or desire to hit targets in Bangkok or Thailand's lucrative tourist industry. Bombing attacks have occurred in Bangkok -- most notably the New Year's Eve bombings in December 2006 -- but these attacks probably were related to internal political friction in Bangkok and not the insurgency in the south.

Currently, the competing elements of the military junta running Thailand are using the violence in the south and the threat of violence in Bangkok to discredit one another. Some of these officials are Thaksin loyalists, which adds to the schism, and the factionalization has made it hard for the ruling junta to get anything done since Thaksin's overthrow. Demonstrating progress in resolving the issues in the south would give credibility to whatever faction is able to accomplish it. A rival faction, on the other hand, would get credit for making it appear that problems in the south not only are not being solved but also are actually getting worse -- and are spreading to the capital. By making very public statements about potential militant bombings in Bangkok, a rival faction could be turning up the heat on those responsible for securing Thailand's political and economic center.

This infighting can be seen in the contradictory statements coming from the rival factions. The day after Bunrod warned foreign embassies in Bangkok about possible attacks by southern militants, Thai Interior Minister Aree Wong-araya said he believes the southern insurgents will not extend their campaigns to the capital.

Either way, the threat of bombings, wherever they originate, gives each side a pretext to bring more security forces into Bangkok. Briefing foreign diplomats on the security situation in the capital, Bangkok police outlined heightened security measures that would be put in place, including more police checkpoints and more active intelligence gathering. These precautions might be intended to thwart militant attacks, but they also could be used to keep tabs on rival factions.

As internal battles in Thailand's post-coup government continue, more small-scale political bombings could occur in the capital over the next few months, but they are likely to have more to do with Thai politicians than Muslim separatists.

My wife and I go to a Muslim food restaurant here in Patong Beach about once a week. The Khao Mok Gai and Khao Mun Gai are the best in Phuket. I have never seen another farang there. Strange, but everything is written in pseudo Farsi and the Islamic Star and Crescent are large and imposing enough I suppose...

We usually have conversations there with a guy that says he goes to the restaraunt (Lahn ahahn Musaleem) virtually every morning, a Thai trucker by trade, and a Thai Muslim by faith. He reads the newspaper and drinks 'Oliang' and chats with everybody naturally. At times we have talked about the problems in the south, and he doesn't seem to care that it's a touchy subject at all. In fact, he starts it up.

Today we talked about the rubber factory and the loss of money and life. We also talked about the possibility of real civil war sparking in Yala or Pattani, and I made mention of the fact that everybody that lives in Phuket knows that if the extremists set off even the tiniest little bomb here in Patong Beach, the economy and lifestyle, as we all know it here, will end... instantly.

The answer and reply from the Thai trucker? (I understood it the first time, but had my wife translate it one more time just to be sure.) He said, "If those people do anything to touch the lives of my family, I will go kill them all." Well, I was more than a little shaken by the strength of his statement, and of course he could just been blowing smoke to peacock to the waitresses. But, I really got a sense from him of the feeling here in Phuket, when he literally said the words "those people". There is something deeper going on here. I don't think that the normal Thai Muslims are going to stand for the brand of religious fanaticism being played out in the deep south.

Apparently in successful Phuket, the sympathies are not with the fanatics. Or maybe they just know what side of their mahtaba is buttered.

Youre onto something that flys over the heads of most of the posters on this subject. Not to many on the forum follow the basic rule of "write about what you know", Nice to see that you do.

I live in Brisbane Australia, my Thai wife is in Pattaya but will be joining me here soon.

I look at news items like this and wonder if Australia will eventually head down the same path.

I cannot remember who said it the other day, but a visiting professor said that we need to close the migration door to Islamics and Muslims for fear that they will unite, organise and turn on us.

We had riots in Sydney NSW 2 years ago that basically isolated 3 or 4 suburbs because of the street riots, burning cars, mobs attacking Australians and property of anyone else that voiced an opinion against them.

News reports showed muslims openly stating (quote) "We may live here but we don't live by your laws"

Australian Women have been raped, the rapists protected by their families and by the muslim community with the attitude of,......."They deserved it, asked to be raped by the way they dressed, short skirts skimpy tops or on the beach......bikini's "

I am NOT racist, I have no ill feelings toward any race creed or colour, HOWEVER I do believe, if you live in a certain country, learn the language, adopt the language, the culture, the laws and blend your beliefs with that of the country you have chosen to live in.

AND if you don't believe in their laws, don't like their laws, their culture go back to your own country, run for parliament and change the things the citizens of your birth country do not like.

Let everyone live in peace together, we can all learn a lot from each other, I have learnt many interesting things about Thailand, about the culture the religion and have met some beautiful gentle people who although poor and without much food, always amazed me by putting a glass of scotch in one hand, a plate of food in the other and told me to join them if they saw me walking up the street in my wifes village

Maybe you can explain to us exactly when and where that rape is justified by any religion? The reality is that although rape is forbiddon in Christianity it is historicaly the religion that has provided the world with the most rapest. Your qoute reminds me of a place I once lived in America where a white woman falsly blamed a black man of rape and the majority white population went on a murder spree. Now that I think of it I lived in 2 places where that happend.

It seems the white men of the world fear the rape of their women by the dark and non christian men of the world and somehow strangly forget their own sorted history on the matter. I guess plantation owners never raped their slaves nor did colonial white armies that invaded Africa and Asia ever rape? Maybe you can point out where any of this is relevent to southern Thailand. Is there now a great fear Thai Muslims will come to Austrailia and rape white women? Maybe southern Muslims will come to Bangkok and rape white women? Well thanks for the diversion anyway, I was not at all aware of the problem of Muslims invading Christian countries to rape their women, I guess Im still not.