Buddhist Monk Is Killed in Thailand

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP)--A Buddhist monk was hacked to death Thursday while begging for food, an attack the police chief said was aimed at inciting religious unrest in the Muslim-dominated south.

Thailand's southernmost provinces have been tense since Jan. 4 when suspected Muslim separatists torched 21 government-run schools and raided an army camp in Narathiwat province, killing four soldiers and stealing hundreds of rifles.

The monk was collecting food from followers in Narathiwat's Bachor district when an unidentified man approached him on a motorcycle and chopped him to death with a machete, national police chief Gen. Sant Sarutanond said.

Walking from house to house to accept donations is a daily morning ritual for monks. About 90 percent of Thailand's 63 million people are Buddhists.

``We believe the Buddhist monk was killed by a group of men who mean to fuel the situation. The attackers want to create more misunderstanding and mistrust among the local people,'' Sant said.

Muslim leaders in the south condemned Thursday's attack, Sant said.

Police regard Bachor as a hotbed of anti-government violence. The sometimes heavy-handed government efforts to track down the perpetrators of the Jan. 4 attacks have irritated local Muslims, who are traditionally suspicious toward local officials appointed by the central government.

Buddhists are a minority in the southernmost provinces but tend to be wealthier than the majority ethnic Malay Muslims there who regard the ethnic Thais as outsiders. Buddhists hold most of the top civil service and police posts in the area, which can put them at odds with the populace.

However, sectarian violence is rare anywhere in Thailand, and the monk's killing was the first such attack in the south for several years.

--AP 2004-01-23

Muslim leaders in the south condemned Thursday's attack, Sant said.

Oh yes!

What kind of a religion is that? Teaching people to kill innocent people everywhere in the world in the name of God!

XXXX it!

that news makes me really sick, i have the highest respect for monks.

those bastards responsible will have a nice afterlife in ###### someday. what i really want to say in detail would be deleted by an admin.

the dirty bastards!!!,,, killings Thai monks!!!,,,,,,,keep it up and you will have the whole world against you and then where will you hide!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! bastards all bastards!!!!!!!!

what other religon calls on its followers to commit suicide by strapping a bomb to their bodies, walking into a crowd of women and children and then setting the bomb off, hacking to death of a Thai Monk,,,, you are less then the scum of this planet,,,,,,,,,,, woe be unto you!!!!!

They are basically just cowards. Cutting up a Buddist Monk, that is about the most chicken s*$% thing that can be done. It give moslems a terrible name. They used to torch themselves to causes, so the monk probably stood there and took it like a man rather than cry and beg for mercy. The Muslims in Sri Lanka thought the Buddists were wimps until they got they're asses kicked there. Another example is like the Indonesians settling cocky, mouthy,"moolie" madura islanders on Dyak lands in Borneo. The Christian Dyaks reverted to their head hunting ways and chopped 2,000 moolie heads off. The Indo govt was scared of these indigenous peoples and offerred to just evacuate the madura moolies out rather than face a fight. IT HAPPENDED!! Do a search and read about it. The pics of the beheaded women and children are all gone now.

Buddism, and b'hai are about the only religions that have not slaughtered people for fun.

I hate to say it, but Christians hold the record for wholesale killings per capita, and that was even with the "athiest" (but were they?) Stalin Era Soviets.