The Nation - Story Disappears Into Thin Air -

[bulmercke]

Military abused us, say fleeing Muslims

A group of 24 Muslims from Narathiwat have fled to Malaysia to escape alleged intimidation by the military, a report said yesterday.

The story which alleged poisonings, beatings, torture, killings, intimidation, hararrassment and other gross violations (concerning family members of those who have fled) has been mysteriously pulled from The Nation's website.

When you click onto the aforementioned story this is what greets you:

"Warning: mysql_connect(): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (11) in /backup/content2/nationmultimedia/libs/classes/db/Db.Class.php on line 42

Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (11)"

[endure]

It's just worked OK for me.

[bulmercke]

It's just worked OK for me.

That's good.

But I'm a True user and I have tried half a dozen or so times to bring up the page and it ain't there anymore for me.

endure - if you don't mind - could you please save a copy of the story and PM it to me - many thanks -

Edited March 18, 2007 by bulmercke

[endure]

On the way.

[bulmercke]

On the way.

"Military abused us, say fleeing Muslims - The Nation -

A group of 24 Muslims from Narathiwat have fled to Malaysia to escape alleged intimidation by the military, a report said yesterday.

The group complained that they have been beaten and that their sons have been missing or detained since 2005, Malaysia's Sunday Star newspaper said.

They arrived in Rantau Panjang village in Malaysia on Saturday through an illegal crossing.

A 55-year-old spokesman for the group of new arrivals said a bomb attack on a mosque in his village had made it difficult for Muslims to pray.

"Last week after the bomb blast, which injured scores of my neighbours, Thai soldiers came and simply arrested the local youths," he said.

He said that since the arrest, many youths were missing and some died after they were allegedly poisoned during detention.

The group said they were not seeking political asylum in Malaysia, but wanted Malaysia to help stop the bloody violence that has claimed at least 2,000 lives in the three Muslim-majority provinces in southern Thailand since January 2004.

An informed source said that the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs was investigating the report and, if it is confirmed, it would try to assist the group.

The latest incident follows the flight of 131 Muslims from southern Thailand in 2005. They are being held in a Malaysian immigration depot. Last December, a second group of 20 Thai Muslims entered the country.

"

[ZhangYimou]

"The group said they were not seeking political asylum in Malaysia, but wanted Malaysia to help stop the bloody violence that has claimed at least 2,000 lives in the three Muslim-majority provinces in southern Thailand since January 2004."

Why not confront their own people who are causing the problems?

[bulmercke]

THAILAND: The struggle for rationality over barbarity

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AS-052-2007

March 16, 2007

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

THAILAND: The struggle for rationality over barbarity

These are sad times for Thailand. Amid all the confusion and uncertainty at the national level, the violence in the south has gone from bad to worse with the killing of nine minivan passengers on March 14. The incident has rightly shocked the nation and has been widely condemned.

At such times special attention is needed to see that sensible debate is not imperilled. After the incident, even well-respected national news outlets emitted vitriol. "It is pointless for the authorities to talk peace with these killers who have no desire to co-exist harmoniously with their countrymen... It is time for government forces to bring the war into the insurgents-infested [sic] territories", wrote one. Others concurred that reconciliation is finished and now is the time for an all-out battle. Protestors in a part of the country hanged and burned effigies.

Vindictive responses to wanton brutality, although unsurprising, are deeply regrettable. Similar expressions have been heard in Thailand at other times of death and tragedy, such as during the Ratchaburi hospital siege in January 2000--where all ten perpetrators were shot dead--and the October massacres decades earlier. They serve only to the advantage of the protagonists. The challenge for all other persons should instead be to ensure that reasoned debate continues and bombast is defied.

The consequences of irrational voices shouting down sensible discussion at times like these are all too apparent. Sri Lanka is an example of a country where the exchange of views has so degenerated over years that there is now very little left other than the trading of chauvinist insults amid utter disarray. All parties to the conflict recognise that the other is a fraud, but all persist with the pretence of being something that they are not. None sincerely expect to find a way out. The only contributors, while pretending to offer solutions, provoke new problems. State and society are equally demoralised and hopeless.

Right now, people in Thailand are disorientated. But disorientation is not an overwhelming handicap; by contrast, psychological disintegration is. A psychologically-disintegrated nation cannot solve its problems; a disorientated one can. By avoiding degenerate and primitive expressions, and by working with diligence and caution, it is possible to resist psychological disintegration and ultimately recover.

The Asian Human Rights Commission urges the people of Thailand not to respond to barbarity by abandoning their dignity and sense of basic human decency. Refrain from primitive utterances and vengeful pantomimes, and demonstrate that tolerance can overcome cruelty. Struggle for rationality over barbarity: the survival of the country depends upon it.

# # #

About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

[mogoso]

"The group said they were not seeking political asylum in Malaysia, but wanted Malaysia to help stop the bloody violence that has claimed at least 2,000 lives in the three Muslim-majority provinces in southern Thailand since January 2004."

Why not confront their own people who are causing the problems?

From what I've read, the vast amount of specificly targeted persons aren't Islamic. Miscellaneous bombing are indiscriminate and kill or injury those caught in it. If Islamic and you die you become a martyr and have a special place with Allah. So why are they running away to Malaysia, if they die they get to paradise quicker, if they leave is their faith very strong? or are they trying to gain sympathy from non Islamics? Its all very confusing, do they really believe or is it a publicity trip.

[Axel]

Got the story and I am on true

[dr_Pat_Pong]

and me too.

[TAWP]

The error-message would indicate a temporarly problem with the DB. A pulled/blocked post wouldn't have those returned errors.

A lot of hot air over nothing.

[A_Traveller]

The error-message would indicate a temporarly problem with the DB. A pulled/blocked post wouldn't have those returned errors.

A lot of hot air over nothing.

Um not necessarily, I recall an article on the Nation site re Thaksin early last year which displayed almost exactly these symptoms prior to re-emerging with a very different 'perspective'. As you say this is indicative of a DB error, but as with many things here, execution of processes can be partial

Regards

[TAWP]

I doubt it would be the same error-message since it clearly stated that there was a connectionproblem against the DB.

""Warning: mysql_connect(): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (11)"

Unless their MO would be to kill/de-link the DB-server while trying to figure out what to do...

[jackspratt]

If Islamic and you die you become a martyr and have a special place with Allah.............. Its all very confusing, do they really believe or is it a publicity trip.

Not so confusing if you are able to let go of your prejudices for a couple of minutes.

Perhaps they do not want to become martyrs, and that is why they have gone to Malaysia.

[sbk]

The error-message would indicate a temporarly problem with the DB. A pulled/blocked post wouldn't have those returned errors.

A lot of hot air over nothing.

Um not necessarily, I recall an article on the Nation site re Thaksin early last year which displayed almost exactly these symptoms prior to re-emerging with a very different 'perspective'. As you say this is indicative of a DB error, but as with many things here, execution of processes can be partial

Regards

Well, it is alot of hot air over nothing if other users in Thailand aren't blocked from seeing the same article. I am on maxnet and pulled up the article with no problem.