More Killings In Southern Thailand

[Mai Krap]

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.

[Jai Dee]

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

[ThaiGoon]

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.

[Mai Krap]

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.

[John K]

Insurgents burn school, bomb police

(BangkokPost.com) - Insurgents set fire to a school in Yala province, and wounded a policeman when they denotated a roadside bomb against a patrol early Tuesday.

Ban Bayor school in Yaha's district of Yala, which is currently under curfew, was set on fire at around 2 a.m. but police did not go to investigate until this morning for fear that insurgents might use this arson attack to lure police out and ambush them.

Patrol police from unit 4402 responded to the scene at around 7.30 a.m. When their pick-up was still two kilomotres from the school, insurgents detonated a roadside bomb, damaging the vehicle and injuring a police officer.

The blast also blew a hole of about a metre deep and three metre wide, police said.

After the blast, police arrested five to seven teenagers whom they thought might be responsible for the blast. The men, however, claimed that they were rubber tappers and were simply working at a plantation near the blast. They are being interrogated by police.

The fire damaged two pavilions and eight classroom doors. Police said the damage was not great because a security squad and villagers helped put out the flames.

Police found many footprints at the scene, and believe several insurgents must be involved in the arson.

[ThaiGoon]

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.

Mai Krap is relentless with his arm chair speculations. I'm impressed.

[Jai Dee]

Insurgents set fire to school and triggered car bomb in Yala

The insurgents in Yala triggered a car bomb after luring the officials to inspect the school that they set fire to. The blast injured one official.

The attack took place at around 8 AM today (Mar 20) in Ban Bayor School in Yaha district of Yala province. The insurgents initially set fire to the school, but the local residents were able to extinguish the fire on time. The school received little damage from the fire.

Following the fire incident, eight officials arrived at the school to inspect the damage, and during the inspection, the insurgents planted a car bomb under the officials’ vehicle. The officials then returned to their vehicle after the inspection, and the bomb exploded later, causing an injury to one official identified as Mr. Jongkol Phromkanan.

Officials are now hunting down the responsible culprits in the area.

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

[Jai Dee]

Yala insurgents burn school and ambush response units

Yala insurgents set fire to a school, then ambushed peacekeeping forces conducting inspection of the crime scene.

Authorities report that at about 2:00 AM this morning (March 20), suspected insurgents set fire to a school in Ban Bayaw (บ้านบายอ) in Yaha (ยะหา) district of Yala province. The fire was put out by local residents, while security forces from the Border Patrol Police unit 4402 arrived to conduct investigations at 8:00 AM.

As investigators were leaving the school campus, insurgents in the area triggered a hidden bomb, causing a police vehicle with 8 officers aboard to overturn. Pol Sen Sgt Maj Chongkol Phromkanan (จงกล พรมขนาน ) was injured in the incident. The area was eventually secured when security reinforcements arrived.

Authorities believe that the insurgents planned both fire and bombing incidents, in order to lure officials to the scene and attack them. Security forces are currently in pursuit of suspects.

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

[Jai Dee]

Yaha District Chief Officer reports on curfew effects

The District Chief Officer of Yaha (ยะหา) district in Yala province reports that local residents are overall satisfied with curfew measures implemented by authorities.

District Chief Officer to Yaha (ยะหา) district, Yala province, Supanat Siranthawinate (ศุภณัฐ สิรัญทวิเนติ ), said that surveys of local residents and religious leaders in the district revealed a general level of satisfaction and acceptance with curfews declared in the area by authorities. Mr. Supanat told community members that households lacking food, and consumer goods can submit a list to the district office for assistance.

The Yaha (ยะหา) District Chief Officer said local residents have reported threats from insurgent elements who routinely coerce them into providing supplies and money. Mr. Supanant said the curfew has alleviated these incidents somewhat.

Meanwhile Yaha district local resident, Ms. Theerawnee Saleh (ตีรอนี สาและ), said that the curfew did not alter the lifestyle of the local community to a great extent, as in the past Yaha residents did not normally venture out after dark due to fears for their personal safety. Ms. Theerawnee added that authorities should declare curfews in other areas in order to decrease violent incidents in the province.

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

[Mai Krap]

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?

[Jai Dee]

Thai army to explain regulations of curfew to people

Army Spokesperson Col Akara Thiparote (อัคร ทิพโรจน์) says the army will be dispatched to explain the regulations of the curfew implemented in the Deep South. Col Akara said that people still do not have the right understanding of the curfew implementation and have caused some havoc in the community.

As for the possible announcement of curfew in other areas, Col. Akara says it depends on the degree of the violence and people’s need.

Col. Akara says special conditions will be given to residents who cannot follow the regulations of the curfew. He says if people have doubts or queries about the matter, they can ask for details from the office of Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) in their province.

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

[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

[Jai Dee]

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?

<snipped for brevity>

Interesting article Mai Krap... but how can you relate it to Thailand?

[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?

<snipped for brevity>

Interesting article Mai Krap... but how can you relate it to Thailand?

Well the executions of Somchai and a few hundred other Muslims by the Police and Military in the south would be good for starters. If 2500 extra judicial killings happened during the drug war how many extra judicial killings have taken place in the south, we know its happening and I hear many stories and reports of it. In the Muslim community in the south most believe there are still 200 missing dead from the Tak Bai incident alone which included young women. Anyone who is familiar with the incident and was a witness to the first reports and then later watched the videos which if you remember were made completely illeagle and just having them could land you in prison know the official version is Krap. As I said there are some of the videos currently on Youtube but youtube was blocked last week by the government. I believe we will be seeing more videos coming out soon concerning theses things.

The current situation in the south is one where the life of a Muslim is worth less than the life of a dog in Thailand. If a Muslim dies for any reason at the hands of the Army or Police it cannot even be investigated or they charged with a crime even if it is the murder of unarmed civilians, this according to the law in the south but it works the same way in Bangkok. Now on the other hand if a dog or even chicken is somehow killed the owner can ask for compensation. Who is fooling who here? We have seen the 2000 dead number thrown around all over the news but who were these people? Were not the majority of them Muslims? Has the insinuation not been Muslims kill Muslims to this point? If you go to the south or just call on the phone and ask some people they will tell you about non Muslims dressed as Muslims murdering Muslims. The funny thing is most of the time when Muslims bomb places and shoot it out with the police and things they are usually wearing regular street type clothes not turbans nor Osama wear. Just the opposite is true when Muslims are murdered in tea shops in broad daylight, its the turban wearing mystery men, Maybe we should call them MIT for men in Turbans, funny how they always miss the call to prayer unlike real Jihadist who see prayer as one of the five pillars of Islam and even pray right on the battlefield during war.

On many levels things said in that article could easily be transfered to the situation here. Not the least of which is extra judicial killings and corruption by self serving government officials. If you want you could just rewrite it and replace NPA, New Peoples Army with Muslims and give it the geographical location and government of your choice for a exercise. I don't see the story being out of place at all, just the opposite, news blackouts, extra judicial killings, secret police, peasants seeking land reform, ruthless politicians, Poor people branded as devils for political and financial gain, flag waving heroes who can do no wrong, I guess its the story of Southeast Asia played all over again. Now all we are missing is the Napalm we have plenty of white people sitting behind desks who don't know shitt already.

[beammeup]

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?

<snipped for brevity>

Interesting article Mai Krap... but how can you relate it to Thailand?

Well the executions of Somchai and a few hundred other Muslims by the Police and Military in the south would be good for starters. If 2500 extra judicial killings happened during the drug war how many extra judicial killings have taken place in the south, we know its happening and I hear many stories and reports of it. In the Muslim community in the south most believe there are still 200 missing dead from the Tak Bai incident alone which included young women. Anyone who is familiar with the incident and was a witness to the first reports and then later watched the videos which if you remember were made completely illeagle and just having them could land you in prison know the official version is Krap. As I said there are some of the videos currently on Youtube but youtube was blocked last week by the government. I believe we will be seeing more videos coming out soon concerning theses things.

The current situation in the south is one where the life of a Muslim is worth less than the life of a dog in Thailand. If a Muslim dies for any reason at the hands of the Army or Police it cannot even be investigated or they charged with a crime even if it is the murder of unarmed civilians, this according to the law in the south but it works the same way in Bangkok. Now on the other hand if a dog or even chicken is somehow killed the owner can ask for compensation. Who is fooling who here? We have seen the 2000 dead number thrown around all over the news but who were these people? Were not the majority of them Muslims? Has the insinuation not been Muslims kill Muslims to this point? If you go to the south or just call on the phone and ask some people they will tell you about non Muslims dressed as Muslims murdering Muslims. The funny thing is most of the time when Muslims bomb places and shoot it out with the police and things they are usually wearing regular street type clothes not turbans nor Osama wear. Just the opposite is true when Muslims are murdered in tea shops in broad daylight, its the turban wearing mystery men, Maybe we should call them MIT for men in Turbans, funny how they always miss the call to prayer unlike real Jihadist who see prayer as one of the five pillars of Islam and even pray right on the battlefield during war.

On many levels things said in that article could easily be transfered to the situation here. Not the least of which is extra judicial killings and corruption by self serving government officials. If you want you could just rewrite it and replace NPA, New Peoples Army with Muslims and give it the geographical location and government of your choice for a exercise. I don't see the story being out of place at all, just the opposite, news blackouts, extra judicial killings, secret police, peasants seeking land reform, ruthless politicians, Poor people branded as devils for political and financial gain, flag waving heroes who can do no wrong, I guess its the story of Southeast Asia played all over again. Now all we are missing is the Napalm we have plenty of white people sitting behind desks who don't know shitt already.

I live in the deep south myself and I dont think its as simple as you say. You seem to be pointing your fingers at the Thai government for everything. "Poor people branded as devils for political and financial gain" where did you get this from? Nobody thinks like that. If you have spent as much time down there as you say, you should know that there are many sides to this problem not just 2.

"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."

The raid of the armory was not the first action! PULO have been setting of bombs for many many years. Why dont you ask someone in Hadyai how many times there train station has been bombed?

[blaze]

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?

<snipped for brevity>

Interesting article Mai Krap... but how can you relate it to Thailand?

Well the executions of Somchai and a few hundred other Muslims by the Police and Military in the south would be good for starters. If 2500 extra judicial killings happened during the drug war how many extra judicial killings have taken place in the south, we know its happening and I hear many stories and reports of it. In the Muslim community in the south most believe there are still 200 missing dead from the Tak Bai incident alone which included young women. Anyone who is familiar with the incident and was a witness to the first reports and then later watched the videos which if you remember were made completely illeagle and just having them could land you in prison know the official version is Krap. As I said there are some of the videos currently on Youtube but youtube was blocked last week by the government. I believe we will be seeing more videos coming out soon concerning theses things.

The current situation in the south is one where the life of a Muslim is worth less than the life of a dog in Thailand. If a Muslim dies for any reason at the hands of the Army or Police it cannot even be investigated or they charged with a crime even if it is the murder of unarmed civilians, this according to the law in the south but it works the same way in Bangkok. Now on the other hand if a dog or even chicken is somehow killed the owner can ask for compensation. Who is fooling who here? We have seen the 2000 dead number thrown around all over the news but who were these people? Were not the majority of them Muslims? Has the insinuation not been Muslims kill Muslims to this point? If you go to the south or just call on the phone and ask some people they will tell you about non Muslims dressed as Muslims murdering Muslims. The funny thing is most of the time when Muslims bomb places and shoot it out with the police and things they are usually wearing regular street type clothes not turbans nor Osama wear. Just the opposite is true when Muslims are murdered in tea shops in broad daylight, its the turban wearing mystery men, Maybe we should call them MIT for men in Turbans, funny how they always miss the call to prayer unlike real Jihadist who see prayer as one of the five pillars of Islam and even pray right on the battlefield during war.

On many levels things said in that article could easily be transfered to the situation here. Not the least of which is extra judicial killings and corruption by self serving government officials. If you want you could just rewrite it and replace NPA, New Peoples Army with Muslims and give it the geographical location and government of your choice for a exercise. I don't see the story being out of place at all, just the opposite, news blackouts, extra judicial killings, secret police, peasants seeking land reform, ruthless politicians, Poor people branded as devils for political and financial gain, flag waving heroes who can do no wrong, I guess its the story of Southeast Asia played all over again. Now all we are missing is the Napalm we have plenty of white people sitting behind desks who don't know shitt already.

I live in the deep south myself and I dont think its as simple as you say. You seem to be pointing your fingers at the Thai government for everything. "Poor people branded as devils for political and financial gain" where did you get this from? Nobody thinks like that. If you have spent as much time down there as you say, you should know that there are many sides to this problem not just 2.

"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."

The raid of the armory was not the first action! PULO have been setting of bombs for many many years. Why dont you ask someone in Hadyai how many times there train station has been bombed?

What's your take on the problem? To what extent is it fueled by international events? Do you accept the suggestions that 'disappearances' are a military tactic? Do you accept the accusations made by Muslims who have 'escaped' into Malaysia of torture by gov't forces? Is there a sense among the Muslim populations of Yala, Pattani and Narrathiwas of persecution? What is the employment situation for young Muslim men? Was there a noticeable shift in attitude and procedures 'on the ground' after the coup and the adoption of the so called 'soft line' by the gov't? Is there an identification with Palestine- a Moslem population dominated by an 'alien' government? With the Iraqis? If you don't know the answers to these, would locals feel confident in honestly discussing them with you?

I don't know- these are sincere questions.

[Mai Krap]

This is just in from todays paper,,,,,,,,,,

HRW: Investigate disappearances

The military-installed government has failed to stop the use of "forced disappearances" as a tool against suspected Muslim militants in the deep South, a New York-based human rights group said yesterday.

In a 69-page report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) detailed 22 cases of unresolved disappearances in which evidence strongly indicated that government security officials were responsible.

Most of the suspected killings took place during the reign of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, it said.

The report is based on interviews with dozens of witnesses, families of victims and Thai officials since February 2005.

"While most of the 'disappearances' took place during Thaksin's rule, many of the senior military and police officials who carried out this policy remain on active duty," said Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW.

"Thaksin acknowledged these abuses in 2005, yet nothing has been done to stop or punish those responsible."

Abductions by armed forces go back to the early days of Thaksin's rule. A tough policy to tackle violence began in January 2004 when a militants' camp in Narathiwat was stormed. Five days later, Sata Labo disappeared.

His sister told HRW that police searched her house on January 8, looking for weapons stolen from a Narathiwat army base. Nothing illegal was found during the search. The following day, just before his disappearance, Sata called his sister via his mobile phone to say he had been stopped by a group of police.

"Around noon, I received a phone call from my brother. He told me that he had been stopped by policemen. Those policemen searched his car and told him to go to Narathiwat police station. That was the last time I heard from him. Sata never came back home," his sister was quoted as saying in the report.

After the coup last September, the interim government noted that problems in the southern border provinces were rooted primarily in a lack of justice. New Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont vowed to introduce a more conciliatory approach than the heavy-handed policies of his predecessor Thaksin.

But the new regime has been unable to translate these promises into action, HRW said. State agencies - particularly the police, the Justice Ministry's De-

partment of Special Investigations, the National Human Rights Commission and the newly reinstated Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre - have also failed to carry out full and impartial investigations. The police and the Army have taken no steps to prosecute personnel responsible for "forced disappearances" and other rights violations.

Most of the 22 families that Human Rights Watch interviewed in the report said they had received Bt100,000 in financial assistance from the government. All of them, however, told the organisation that they did not believe the compensation was a substitute for serious investigations to determine the whereabouts of their fathers, husbands or sons, or for appropriate prosecution of those responsible for the abuses.

"Offering money and apologies to victims' families does not absolve the Thai authorities from their responsibility to prosecute those responsible for these crimes," said Adams.

"General Surayud vowed to make justice a priority, but his government still fails to hold officials accountable for these crimes."

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation

[ThaiGoon]

I was in Hat Yai... half of my Thai family is Muslim and the other half are Buddhist

Right, Mai Krap, that makes you know exactly every single thing that's going on in the South. Right.

And this part, " I have direct communication with Muslims on the ground throughout the troubled provinces." is quite laughbale really. Yeah, we believe you.

Edited March 20, 2007 by ThaiGoon

[ThaiGoon]

Also you are right. The gov't is always wrong and responsible for everything. The Muslim insurgents are right and moral and never do anything wrong. It's all the gov't's faults. You are right of course, because half of your Thai family is Muslim.

By the way, I went to Satit Pattani from grade 7 to grade 9. I hope you know the school since you are regularly in contact with "Muslims throughout the troubled provinces."

Edited March 20, 2007 by ThaiGoon

[mogoso]

And eventually, muslims will win : all the boudhists civilians will leave the south.

Do you really think they'll stop at the south. Been an awful lot of northern movement as far as muslim population is concerned. No they might end up with the south short term but thats not the true objective, which is a total Islamic state, then the world. Its been the objective for 1300 years, and when/if obtained what a stale barbaric planet we will become.

[Mai Krap]

More fresh perspective from American Jackass Zachary Abuza. Is it just me or is this the same type of paranoid escalation rhetoric that was used by the neocons to f up Iraq? Does this man have any clues about what he is even talking about or did he simply read the Bangkok Post for the last twelve months and is now commenting for the nation? Many of the readers and posters on this forum are much more knowledgeable on these matters than this man yet he is a so called expert. He is correct on one thing and that is we are at a breaking point, The thing is we can all see that clearly. His suggestion of doubling the troops or dire consequence is the same mentality that got Thailand into this crises. Sending pissed off and pissed on Military into a police zone is far from the correct answer, Sonthi is correct in his action on this matter. Highly trained and level headed police would be another matter but there are no such forces as this in reserve within Thailand. Some how and some way the government and the locals must find a way to deescalate but I'm at a loss as to how to force this to happen with both sides believing they are correct in their actions.

Southern crisis reaching point of no return

There were high expectations that the coup leaders would do a better job in tackling the deep South than the Thaksin administration.

General Sonthi Boonyaratglin and Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont announced a two-pronged strategy for dealing with the insurgency: a plan to win back the support of moderates and to improve the capacity and inter-agency relations of the security service. The former included a public apology by Surayud for the Thaksin administration's policies; the dropping of charges against 58 Tak Bai protesters; a renewed pledge to solve the disappearance of human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaichit, now labelled a "murder"; the abolition of blacklists, ending the culture of impunity; and promises to adopt Malayu as a working language. The latter included reinstating the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SPBAC), having more consistency in personnel and policies, and improving coordination with Malaysia.

Yet, in six months, little of those promised initiatives have been implemented. Malayu is still not a working language. While pledging to punish abuses of power in the future, there is still immunity for security forces and none have been punished for the excesses of Krue Se and Tak Bai. The SBPAC remains under-staffed and under-resourced and managers from every security service have related that inter-agency competition and the hoarding of intelligence remains as bad as ever. Public trust towards the government is non-existent.

Sonthi and Surayud must do three things immediately: First, double the number of troops. There are under 25,000 troops in the area, not enough to be on constant patrols or setting up effective checkpoints, let alone go on the offensive. The recent decision by General Sonthi to not dispatch two infantry battalions to the South because they were needed for the "security of Bangkok", shows how divorced from reality he is. The people need to be given a sense of security and assurances of their and their family's safety if they are to provide critically needed intelligence.

Second, they must demand greater coordination of intelligence agencies. Agencies do not trust one another, and there is not a central repository of information. There are nearly a dozen agencies in the South. It is not just competition between the Army, police, Interior Ministry, Special Investigations Department and the National Intelligence Agency - any given agency, such as the police and military, has competing actors. The Australian government is funding a bomb-database, under the police force; will the Army contribute to it in terms of data collection or manpower? They must be given joint ownership or else the information will not be shared.

Third, they must begin reforms to the police force. To date, there have only been two successful convictions of insurgents. Very simply, the courts are throwing cases out and freeing suspected militants because of shoddy investigations and a lack of forensic evidence. This has enraged the military, which has stopped turning over many suspects. The military is not putting suspected militants on trial, holding them indefinitely, and thus further aggravating the sense of injustice felt by the broader Muslim community.

Barring these changes, the situation in the South, already grim, is going to get much worse this year. Based on trends from the first 10 weeks, we can expect several things in 2007:

First, there will not only be an increased number of attacks, but there will be a much higher death toll. In 2006 the average size of improvised explosive devices was under 5 kilograms; today 15 kg bombs are used regularly.

Second, expect the attacks to be far more provocative, such as the attack on the minivan last week. In 2007, there have already been three attacks on members of royal entourages. There have been four beheadings - one tenth of the total number - in 2007, alone.

Third, teachers and schools, those vulnerable agents of secularisation and assimilation, will be targeted in larger numbers.

Fourth, there will be more sectarian violence and ethnic cleansing. There have been stepped up threats and more leaflets left by insurgents to intimidate the local Buddhist population.

Fifth, there will be more concerted attacks on economic targets: we have already seen this in attacks this year on the ethnic Chinese community on the Lunar New Year, on banks and on automotive dealerships. Attacks on rubber factories and murders of rubber tappers have led to a 15-per-cent decline in rubber production, the driving force of the economy. The attack on the minivan threatens to hamper all travel and commerce, of an already economically fragile region.

Sixth, there will be a large increase in the number of civil disobedience cases generally involving women and children. In the past they would march on police stations demanding the release of suspects. Authorities tended to acquiesce for fear of a violent confrontation. Insurgents will use these encounters to provoke a violent response that will further discredit the security forces.

The situation in the South is at a critical juncture. If the government does not quickly dedicate the necessary resources there will be an increase in Buddhist vigilante justice, creating an irreversible cycle of violence. At the same time, a larger percentage of people will begin to support the insurgents, for no other reason than the government is unable to remedy the pervasive sense of insecurity. And yet, the government is not likely to do so, remaining complacent that the violence remains contained in the four southern provinces, far away from the petty political squabbles in Bangkok.

Zachary Abuza

Special to The Nation

Boston

Zachary Abuza is a professor of political science at Simmons College, Boston. He is the author of the forthcoming book on the insurgency, "Conspiracy of Silence".

[Mid]

Toy sellers killed in front of hundreds

(BangkokPost.com)

Gunmen shot and killed a Muslim couple selling toys just outside a wedding ceremony late Tuesday night, police said.

Vendor Edin Lade and his wife Rosamariya Bula were selling toys before a wedding ceremony in Cho Ai Rong district of Narathiwat.

.......... ................... ..................... ..........................

Police claimed to be hunting for the killers.

so sad

[John K]

Thai militants adopting Al-Qaeda tactics: general

Islamic separatists in the restive South are adopting Al-Qaeda's tactics, a top Thai general said Wednesday after a wave of gruesome beheadings and seemingly random attacks on civilians.

The increasingly bloody violence shows the growing Islamic influence on the separatists, General Watanachai Chaimuanwong said in an interview at his office in the prime minister's Government House compound.

The Muslim-majority region along Thailand's southern border with Malaysia has suffered outbreaks of separatist violence ever since Bangkok annexed the area a century ago.

But Watanachai, the top security adviser to army-installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, said that while previous generations of rebels were mainly motivated by nationalism, today's militants showed a greater tendency toward religious extremism.

"This is a group of young-turk militants who want to challenge the old groups. Their operations are more gruesome and more violent because they have imported those techniques from Al-Qaeda and the Taleban, with the goal of creating a pure Islamic state," he said.

"They want to create a state called Pattani Darusalam" which would include Thailand's Muslimmajority South and two northern states in Malaysia, he said.

Agence France-Presse

[John K]

I don’t know if this is true or just talk. Al-Qaeda tactics are killing a lot of people at one time, and not this one or two person thing. Truck bombs, are more their style.

[blaze]

I don’t know if this is true or just talk. Al-Qaeda tactics are killing a lot of people at one time, and not this one or two person thing. Truck bombs, are more their style.

I'm sure the general is familiar with the modus operandi of Al Qaeda. So why would he say it if it isn't true?

[John K]

Unless I am missing something they go for the high body counts and grande attacks, and not what has been going on with bombs just big enough to wound people. Plus they would stand and fight and not run if I am following the news correctly in other parts of the globe. If I am wrong please correct me.

[Jai Dee]

Unidentified murdered victim packed in a sack in Yala

Police inspect the corpse of an unidentified male stuffed in a sack at the shoreline of Pattani River in the City Municipality of Yala province.

At 9 AM today (Mar 22), villagers in the City Municipality of Yala found the body near the canal and reported the sighting to the police. Later, Pol. Col. Bhumiphet Piphatphetbhumi, the Superintendent of Yala Provincial Police, and a team of officials inspected the scene. Inside the sack, the victim’s body was wearing a sarong and a bag plastic bag was covering his head. The body is now at Yala Hospital for the officials to perform autopsy.

Police believe the victim was previously murdered in Bannang Sata district or Krong Pinang district of Yala, and the culprit packed him inside a sack and threw him into Pattani River. Police assume the victim was killed for at least three days. Police are coordinating with the local police stations to check the victim’s history while waiting for his relatives to identify him.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 22 March 2007

[Jai Dee]

Suspected insurgents gathered in factory in Betong

Pol. Col. Songkiet Watakul, the Superintendent of the Betong precinct, together with Army Capt. Torpong Matapithak and teams of army and police officials, inspected a lumber processing factory in Betong district of Yala province following the report from the security intelligence that the factory is a gathering place for many insurgent teenagers.

After the inspection, officials found many types of narcotics such as marihuana. Officials said the insurgents usually do drugs before performing violent activities. In addition, officials also found a number of teenagers from other areas in the factory, but they all claimed that they were only working in the factory. Even though arrest warrants have not been issued, officials recorded their profiles.

According to the report from the security intelligence, groups of teenagers from Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat are gathering in Betong. Officials inspected the factory as they feared that the teenagers could plot unrest activities in the area.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 22 March 2007

[Mid]

Suspected insurgents = bored teenagers ?

[Jai Dee]

2 Muslims killed in southern Thailand

Suspected separatist rebels have killed two Muslim men in Thailand's restive south, police said Thursday, as concern grew about escalating sectarian tension in the region.

A villager, 67, was shot dead late Wednesday when militants broke into his house in Pattani, one of three southern provinces where more than 2,000 people have been killed in separatist unrest that erupted in January 2004.

On Thursday morning, the decomposed body of a Muslim teenager was found floating in a river in Yala province. Police are investigating, but said they suspect the young man was also killed by Islamic insurgents.

The attacks come at a time of increasing tension in the region bordering Malaysia, with protests flaring after the massacre of nine Buddhists on a bus last week and the shooting of two Muslim schoolchildren at the weekend.

The National Intelligence Agency said Tuesday that Islamic separatists have stepped up their attacks in Thailand's Muslim-majority provinces in the hope of sparking a broader sectarian and ethnic conflict.

The military has imposed a curfew on parts of the region, where violence has surged despite a raft of peace-building measures proposed by Thailand's military-backed government.

Source: The Nation - 22 March 2007