SOUTHERN VIOLENCE : Yala trader knifed to death

Published on November 04, 2004

Gunmen steal shotgun; driver injured, woman killed in separate shootings A Yala trader was slashed to death on Tuesday, the same day a deputy village chief was beheaded in Narathiwat, police said yesterday.

Nguan Jewton, 62, was found dead in a rubber plantation in Yala’s Betong district on Tuesday evening, said Lt-Colonel Narin Busaman, an inspector at Betong district police station.

The man’s neck was almost completely severed and his body bore more than 10 knife wounds, police said.

The murder might be related to the political violence that has rocked the deep South since the beginning of the year, Narin said. However, a personal conflict could not be ruled out as many men in the village had sought to marry the man’s wife, he added.

Earlier the same day, Jaran Tulae, deputy head of I-teelung village in neighbouring Narathiwat province, was beheaded in apparent retaliation for the October 24 crackdown on protesters in Tak Bai distict that left 85 Muslims dead.

In Pattani’s Yaring district, meanwhile, two gunmen stole a shotgun from the house of a village defence volunteer yesterday. The gunmen, who arrived on a motorcycle, stormed the house of Jehso A-wae, 27, and seized a shotgun that authorities had given to the man for use in his work as a defence volunteer. Jehso was not at home at the time and his sister Maesong A-wae was unable to prevent the gunmen from entering the house, police said.

In the same district, a driver working for a construction company was shot and wounded while riding a motorcycle to work yesterday morning. Wichian Wongchan, 45, was struck three times in the body when a gunman opened fire on him.

In another violent incident yesterday, gunmen on two motorbikes opened fire on a woman and her son in Narathiwat, killing the mother, Mae-ngor Saedeng, and injuring her son Prasert. The motive for the attack was unclear, police said.

An official of the province’s Paluru sub-district was slightly injured in a separate gun attack yesterday. Lek Upakwan, 54, was shot once in the right arm and later admitted to hospital.

Authorities are struggling to contain the violence in the South, which has claimed more than 400 lives since the beginning of the year.

and people say it wont effect tourism to places like Phuket, my mother had a hotel booked there which she has now canceled in favour of not traveling further south than samui