Villager Killed, Monk Wounded In South Blast

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(BangkokPost.com) - Insurgents attacked a security unit escorting monks for morning alms in Pattani on Saturday morning, killing a villager and wounding two soldiers and a monk.

Insurgents blasted the group comprising of six soldiers and two monks when they were walking on Pak Nam road in Muang district at around 7.30am. The blast, hidden under a marble chair in front of a shop, instantly killed a female shop owner.

Police have blocked the area as they feared that there might be more bombs hidden around there.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/b...s.php?id=121095

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Insurgents kill woman teacher, torch schools

Attacks seen as acts of revenge against arrests

POST REPORTERS

Pattani _ A female teacher was shot dead in Pattani's Sai Buri district yesterday, as insurgent groups appeared to focus their attacks on teachers and schools in the area. Kesini Pipemtep, 42, was gunned down by two assailants on a motorcycle while she was walking into Sasanasuksa school, police said.

She died on the way to hospital.

The murder followed a wave of arson at four schools in two districts.

Authorities believed the attacks were carried out in revenge for the recent arrests of 10 suspected insurgents in those areas.

Attacks occurred before dawn and appeared to be coordinated.

The arsonists broke into Ban Buereh school in Sai Buri district, and Ban Karubi and Ban Pomoh schools in Kapho district, and set books, tables, and chairs on fire.

Later in the morning insurgents also torched Ban Plonghoy school in Kapho district. The fire partly destroyed a kindergarten building.

Ban Buereh school suffered the most severe damage, losing three classrooms and the library. Several rare books were lost in the fire, teachers said.

In Yala province, two bombs exploded in front of Ban Phapu Ngoh school in Raman district early yesterday, police said.

They believe the first bomb was exploded to lure security forces to the scene before the second was detonated. There were no reports of casualties.

The school director closed down the school yesterday for safety reasons.

In Songkhla, ice cream vendor Roheem Doloh was shot dead in front of Ban Kok Tok school in Saba Yoi district.

In Narathiwat's Sungai Padi district, suspected insurgents killed community leader Maleh Niheng, 28, and injured Mayuha Mayuso, 40, a member of the municipality of tambon Paluru.

Human Rights Watch will today release a report on the violence in the deep South, in which it condemns southern insurgents for killing civilians.

In the 104-page report, entitled No One is Safe: Insurgent Attacks on Civilians in Thailand's Southern Border Provinces, the human rights group says there have been more than 2,400 deaths in the violence in the troubled region.

The report details human rights abuses and violence committed against civilians by separatist militants in the predominantly ethnic Malay Muslim provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla from January 2004 to July 2007.

The report is based on interviews with eyewitnesses, families of the victims, academics, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders and state officials.

''After decades of low-intensity insurgency, Thailand's southern region is becoming the scene of a brutal armed conflict,'' said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

''Separatist militants are intentionally targeting both Buddhist and Muslim civilians in shootings, bombings and machete attacks.''

Village-based militants called Pejuang Kemerdekaan Patani (Patani Freedom Fighters) in the loose network of the BRN-Coordinate (National Revolution Front-Coordinate) had now emerged as the backbone of the new generation of separatist militants, the report says.

The separatists seek to forcibly liberate what they call Patani Darulsalam (Islamic Land of Patani), from what they call a Buddhist Thai occupation.

The report says that separatist militants carried out more than 3,000 attacks on civilians from January 2004 to July 2007.

During the same period, there were around 500 attacks targeting various military units and their personnel, and a similar number of attacks targeting police units and their personnel.

Of the 2,463 people killed in attacks during the past three-and-a-half years, 2,196 (or 89%) were civilians.

Buddhist Thais and ethnic Malay Muslims were killed by bomb explosions, shootings, assassinations, ambushes and by assailants wielding machetes.

Sunai Phasuk, Human Rights Watch's representative in Thailand, said it was saddening that the southern insurgents did not show any sign of regret for the civilian deaths.

There were signs of efforts by the interim government to readjust its attitude and its actions.

''A fundamental principle of the law of war is the distinction between civilians and military groups,'' he said

http://www.bangkokpost.net/News/28Aug2007_news05.php

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Imam killed, 5 wounded in bombing

Narathiwat - A Muslim religious leader was gunned down and five people were wounded in a bomb attack in the southern border provinces Wednesday.

Imam Wae-asae Madeng, 68, was shot several times while he rode his motorcycle to sell fruit at market in Narathiwat's Sungai Padi district Wednesday morning. Imam Wae-asae died immediately at the scene.

In Yala, a bomb blast wounded five people, including a 14-year-old girl and a nine-year-old boy at a grocery in the Bannang Sata district. The victims were rushed to hospital but their condition was unknown.

Three other bombs were detonated in Yala, but no one was wounded.

The first exploded in a grocery opposite Yaha's municipality office, and the two other bombs were hidden under a pick-up truck and a car belonging to government officials in two separate locations in the municipality. Two of the bombs malfunctioned.

Meanwhile, Pol. Gen. Sereepisuth Temeyaves, acting national police chief, and Pol. Lt-Gen. Adul Saengsingkaew, assistant national police chief, visited police in Yala's four districts to inspect their operations in tackling violence and listened to their problems.

They will stay overnight in Bannang Sata district during their trip to this southern-plagued province.

Meanwhile, about 71 schools in four Pattani districts -- Saiburi, Maikaen, Kapo, and Tungyangdaeng districts -- have temporarily closed for the third consecutive day on Wednesday to facilitate officials' operations to track and arrest militants, said Saman Boonranun, Deputy director of Pattani Education Area Zone 3.

Schools in the four districts are expected to remain closed this week, he added. (TNA)

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