Feature

Volunteer medics on frontline of Thai south insurgency

by Aidan Jones

BANNANG SATA, Thailand, Nov 8, 2012 (AFP) - They are rubber tappers by trade but every week are summoned to the scene of beheadings, bombs and shootings as volunteer medics dealing with the fallout from Thailand's southern insurgency.

Violence strikes with grim regularity in the lush, forested hills of Bannang Sata, a militant stronghold -- or "red zone" -- in Yala province, where locals are caught between the warring militants and security forces.

"It's hard to collect a body when they have been burnt, beheaded or hit by a bomb blast," said father-of-three Madanee Duereh.

"But it's our duty to help the people... to help them bury their dead the right way," he said, referring to Islamic rites decreeing that the full body must be buried -- a challenge when corpses have been torn apart by bombs.

Like many Hilal Ahmad Foundation volunteers he makes a living in the rubber plantations that dot the Muslim-majority Thai south, draining and collecting the milky-white sap from the trees.

Drawn from the remote communities they serve, the volunteers provide a safety net of sorts in an area stalked by fear as the eight-year insurgency grinds on.

The Islamic charity, started seven years ago with a handful of volunteers now runs teams across all the restive provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. It also has its own "1669" hotline, which villagers dial in the event of an attack.

"They are our first call," said 60-year-old Daliya Doloh, lifting his wrapped-cloth "sarung" to show where a bullet smashed through his knee when unknown gunmen opened fire on a teashop in his hamlet last year.

Volunteers recalled a hellish scene of bullet-riddled bodies and blood-splattered walls when they responded to the attack that killed four -- including a child -- and wounded several others.

Regular ambulance teams from the provincial capital of Yala are reluctant to travel into the remote hills, especially at night or dawn when the militants target security forces with ambushes and roadside bombs.

So villagers and local police turn to the foundation.

"They take care of everything. Without them we are on our own," said Doloh, explaining that the rescue team dressed his bullet wounds and whisked him to the provincial hospital for surgery.

More than 5,300 people -- the vast majority of them civilians according to analysts Deep South Watch -- have died in an eight-year conflict in Thailand's border region, with little sign of it ending.

The near-daily attacks are blamed on a web of militant groups seeking greater autonomy for the southernmost provinces, although the groups have few stated aims.

Attacks by militants -- known locally as "the movement" -- have surged since the summer, with a litany of shootings and increasingly spectacular bomb attacks indicating peace with the Thai state remains a long way off.

Most Muslims in the deep south are fiercely proud of their culture, Malayu language and religion, which distinguishes them from the rest of predominantly Buddhist Thailand.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2012-11-08

The INSURGENTS are in control and they are going to stay in controlf, until the Military keeps sweeping the area with one force sweeping from the inside out, while the other foreces sweep from the outside in on a daily basis with squadrens of Helicopter Gun Ships flying over head

for both groups simultaneously, and outside the range of enemy fire.

and If they capture any in the process, they need to killem right then and there; no rehab ivory tower bullpucky...

TAKE NO PRISONERS.

I cannot imagine what it would be like to pick up body parts in such gruesome circumstances. I also think it sad that people have to live under these conditions of misery and fear. Why they can't solve the problems internally by ratting out these insurgents is a little hard to swallow. They or their friends must know who they are but unless the 'bent' ones are removed, nothing is going to change. A good start will be the Imams preaching these killings are justified in the name of Jihad and Infidel other than Muslims.