Thai separatists offer assassination bounties

Agence France-Presse

Saturday, November 27, 2004

BANGKOK An outlawed Thai separatist group is offering bounties of up to $2,250 for killing governors and senior government officials in the country's south, its Web site said Friday.

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The group, the Pattani United Liberation Organization, is offering the highest sums for governors in the three Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, which are at the heart of an insurgency that has left more than 550 people dead this year.

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It also offers cash for other governors, deputies, senior police and district officials in the region. The pictures of five governors were posted on the Web site.

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The bounty was offered for the two months that started Monday, a day before a deputy governor of Pattani, with a price of $890 on his head, or 35,000 baht, was shot and wounded while inspecting the scene of another shooting.

.

The government said it was an accident caused by a member of his security detail but has not identified the gunman. It plans its own series of "most wanted" posters offering rewards of up to five million baht for the capture, dead or alive, of 30 suspected separatists and their leaders. Posters were to be distributed soon around Thailand's south.

.

Tensions have risen sharply in the region since the death of 87 Muslim protesters on Oct. 25 at Tak Bai in Narathiwat Province, near the border with Malaysia. Most of them died through suffocation after being piled into army trucks.

.

After the deaths, the Pattani United Liberation Organization vowed on its Web site to get revenge and said Thai cities would "burn." It warned visitors to avoid key tourist destinations.

.

The Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, dismissed the threat Friday. "It's ordinary," he said in Bangkok. "They are barking all day long."

.

Concern over the unrest is expected to be an issue when Thaksin and other Asia-Pacific leaders meet in Laos on Monday and Tuesday. Thaksin has warned he will walk out if leaders raise the Tak Bai case.

.

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BANGKOK An outlawed Thai separatist group is offering bounties of up to $2,250 for killing governors and senior government officials in the country's south, its Web site said Friday.

.

The group, the Pattani United Liberation Organization, is offering the highest sums for governors in the three Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, which are at the heart of an insurgency that has left more than 550 people dead this year.

.

It also offers cash for other governors, deputies, senior police and district officials in the region. The pictures of five governors were posted on the Web site.

.

The bounty was offered for the two months that started Monday, a day before a deputy governor of Pattani, with a price of $890 on his head, or 35,000 baht, was shot and wounded while inspecting the scene of another shooting.

.

The government said it was an accident caused by a member of his security detail but has not identified the gunman. It plans its own series of "most wanted" posters offering rewards of up to five million baht for the capture, dead or alive, of 30 suspected separatists and their leaders. Posters were to be distributed soon around Thailand's south.

.

Tensions have risen sharply in the region since the death of 87 Muslim protesters on Oct. 25 at Tak Bai in Narathiwat Province, near the border with Malaysia. Most of them died through suffocation after being piled into army trucks.

.

After the deaths, the Pattani United Liberation Organization vowed on its Web site to get revenge and said Thai cities would "burn." It warned visitors to avoid key tourist destinations.

.

The Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, dismissed the threat Friday. "It's ordinary," he said in Bangkok. "They are barking all day long."

.

Concern over the unrest is expected to be an issue when Thaksin and other Asia-Pacific leaders meet in Laos on Monday and Tuesday. Thaksin has warned he will walk out if leaders raise the Tak Bai case.

.

BANGKOK An outlawed Thai separatist group is offering bounties of up to $2,250 for killing governors and senior government officials in the country's south, its Web site said Friday.

.

The group, the Pattani United Liberation Organization, is offering the highest sums for governors in the three Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, which are at the heart of an insurgency that has left more than 550 people dead this year.

.

It also offers cash for other governors, deputies, senior police and district officials in the region. The pictures of five governors were posted on the Web site.

.

The bounty was offered for the two months that started Monday, a day before a deputy governor of Pattani, with a price of $890 on his head, or 35,000 baht, was shot and wounded while inspecting the scene of another shooting.

.

The government said it was an accident caused by a member of his security detail but has not identified the gunman. It plans its own series of "most wanted" posters offering rewards of up to five million baht for the capture, dead or alive, of 30 suspected separatists and their leaders. Posters were to be distributed soon around Thailand's south.

.

Tensions have risen sharply in the region since the death of 87 Muslim protesters on Oct. 25 at Tak Bai in Narathiwat Province, near the border with Malaysia. Most of them died through suffocation after being piled into army trucks.

.

After the deaths, the Pattani United Liberation Organization vowed on its Web site to get revenge and said Thai cities would "burn." It warned visitors to avoid key tourist destinations.

.

The Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, dismissed the threat Friday. "It's ordinary," he said in Bangkok. "They are barking all day long."

.

Concern over the unrest is expected to be an issue when Thaksin and other Asia-Pacific leaders meet in Laos on Monday and Tuesday. Thaksin has warned he will walk out if leaders raise the Tak Bai case.

.

BANGKOK An outlawed Thai separatist group is offering bounties of up to $2,250 for killing governors and senior government officials in the country's south, its Web site said Friday.

.

The group, the Pattani United Liberation Organization, is offering the highest sums for governors in the three Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, which are at the heart of an insurgency that has left more than 550 people dead this year.

.

It also offers cash for other governors, deputies, senior police and district officials in the region. The pictures of five governors were posted on the Web site.

.

The bounty was offered for the two months that started Monday, a day before a deputy governor of Pattani, with a price of $890 on his head, or 35,000 baht, was shot and wounded while inspecting the scene of another shooting.

.

The government said it was an accident caused by a member of his security detail but has not identified the gunman. It plans its own series of "most wanted" posters offering rewards of up to five million baht for the capture, dead or alive, of 30 suspected separatists and their leaders. Posters were to be distributed soon around Thailand's south.

.

Tensions have risen sharply in the region since the death of 87 Muslim protesters on Oct. 25 at Tak Bai in Narathiwat Province, near the border with Malaysia. Most of them died through suffocation after being piled into army trucks.

.

After the deaths, the Pattani United Liberation Organization vowed on its Web site to get revenge and said Thai cities would "burn." It warned visitors to avoid key tourist destinations.

.

The Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, dismissed the threat Friday. "It's ordinary," he said in Bangkok. "They are barking all day long."

.

Concern over the unrest is expected to be an issue when Thaksin and other Asia-Pacific leaders meet in Laos on Monday and Tuesday. Thaksin has warned he will walk out if leaders raise the Tak Bai case.

.

Doesn't this belong in the jobs forum?

Doesn't this belong in the jobs forum?

Maybe in the "Pets" forum?

"The Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, dismissed the threat Friday. "It's ordinary," he said in Bangkok. "They are barking all day long."