There's A Secret War In Thailand No One's Talking About

[webfact]

There's A Secret War In Thailand No One's Talking About

David Eimer, The Telegraph

Dispatch: not far from Thailand's tourist beaches, Muslims and Buddhists are locked in a struggle in which thousands have died. David Eimer reports.

NARATHIWAT:-- The young father walked slowly down the road, his face expressionless, as a light rain fell. In his arms he held the lifeless body of his 11-month-old daughter, killed just hours before when the tea shop in his village was sprayed with automatic gunfire that left six people dead.

Fellow residents of the Muslim Damabuah Village in Thailand’s Narathiwat Province walked behind in silence, while men and women from the security forces lined the road clutching rifles.

A few minutes later, the infant was laid to rest in a shallow, muddy hole under a mangosteen tree in the village cemetery, beside the newly dug graves of two other victims of the tea shop shooting.

Infami Samoh’s death, a couple of hundred miles from the tourist playgrounds of Ko Samui and Phuket, was shocking only because of her age. The 11-month-old was one of the youngest of nearly 5,400 people who have been killed in the three southernmost provinces of Thailand in the past eight years. [more...]

Full story: http://www.businessi...g-about-2012-12

-- BUSINESS INSIDER 2013-01-01

[noitom]

Despite questionable facts, such as the number of deaths, it is a good thing to see at least an article written by the foreign press. It would be great to see more of such articles and articles that represent the Pattani separatist's background issues and point of view. Something that the Thais squash and ignore.

The way that this "Thai south" thing will come to an end will be after more and more journalists break the truth. When the non-Thais in the southern provinces establish a visible presence in world media things will start to change. Thais will lose their grip and control. Eventually, the Thais will just "walk out." No other choice really.

[gatorsoft]

Since I started becoming interested in Thailand and its news, I have been continually shocked at how reports of shootings and bombings in the south seem to occupy a secondary spot in the news. It's as if what happens in the south is unimportant to the rest of Thaialnd.

[chooka]

It's ashame that the rest of the world turns it's back on this conflict and refuses to even discuss it. There is nothing to be gained by outsiders so nothing will be done to help. Before the compassion and humanity hats are put on terms have to be negotiated.

[chainarong]

In some political quarters, described as the forgotten war, has Thailand ask for assistance, yet ?? Have they asked the UN, that toothless tiger for help?? Me thinks not. End of sob story.

[clockman]

The ruling class are only concerned about Bankok, anywhere else is not important!

[OzMick]

There is nothing secret about the war, nor is it confined to southern Thailand. It is just another battlefield in the Muslim Expansion, and there are many other fronts marked by lower level violence and slow invasion by immigration and out-breeding.

[chainarong]

Unfortunately, more and more conflicts around the world have that common denominator.......muslim.

Need I say more?

This is war being prompted from the side lines by the Bashir crowd from Indonesia, their belief is for a secular state btwn Malaysia and Thailand, that's a cause of concern

[JDGRUEN]

As far as this situation not being talked about... at least in the U.S. the lack of news coverage is mostly due to 'myopia' of our news media... We have nothing in the U.S. that covers international news like the BBC... American news producers want to SELL - get advertising money - try to prosper or just stay afloat. By in large the American population is not interested in what goes on around the world... Most people I run into think Thailand is Taiwan... It is a combination of disinterest, ignorance (mostly willful) and a money focused news media - that only sells what the public will sit still to hear - most of it fluff...

[aussiebebe]

I wish these news articles on Thai Visa didn't just use the headline from the western newspaper, I was expecting to read something interesting but no, it's the southern insurgency .... again..... so the headline doesn't make any sense on this forum - any time a southern monkey get's haemorrhoids it's reported. Yawn.

[robblok]

The muslim guy, they are taught about Budism, but we are Muslim. Crazy, if you have so little faith in your own religion it must not be strong. Never knew that Budism was a subject on Thai schools.

Mind you not all Muslims are like this but there are some real crazy brainwashed types around. Abuse of power and such, yes i can understand that you fight against that, but not by targeting innocents. But fighting purely for religion when Buddhism isnt even promoted that much is crazy. Its been hundreds of years since they were an own state, give it up live in the present.

Fight it an other way, political like normal people do, even those Irish gave up.

[KKvampire]

The thai government. if such a thing exists,wants no international coverage of the massive internal violence.As with most problems in the country it deems it "no one elses business",but please continue to come on holiday and invest in Thailand.

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[ratcatcher]

The ruling class are only concerned about Bankok, anywhere else is not important!

Are you saying that Ms Yingluck and her government (presently ruling) don't care about the southern conflict, even after the Man for All Reasons was put in charge?

Edited January 1, 2013 by ratcatcher

[KKvampire]

As far as this situation not being talked about... at least in the U.S. the lack of news coverage is mostly due to 'myopia' of our news media... We have nothing in the U.S. that covers international news like the BBC... American news producers want to SELL - get advertising money - try to prosper or just stay afloat. By in large the American population is not interested in what goes on around the world... Most people I run into think Thailand is Taiwan... It is a combination of disinterest, ignorance (mostly willful) and a money focused news media - that only sells what the public will sit still to hear - most of it fluff...

You so right.The only Americans with any knowledge of world issues are those who are widely travelled.the rest of them are fed a diet of ilinformed nonsense and the majority are too lazy to use the internet to educate themselves beyond websites which enforce their narrow minded view of life outside their county or state.

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[mccw]

The Thai (and all other nations) Muslim youth going to religious schools in Pakistan is a dangerous thing. The exporting of Arab imams around the world is spreading extremism also. In Britain the governments now attempting to set up training for them in the UK because its recognised those travelling or coming from the Islamic heartlands are basically terror promoting lunatics; preaching all non Muslims are sinful infidels worthy of death along with any Muslims not extreme enough for thier tastes.

[culicine]

The ruling class are only concerned about Bankok, anywhere else is not important!

But the so-called 'ruling class' is not running the country....and for a short stint, haven't done so for the last decade.

[dcutman]

As far as this situation not being talked about... at least in the U.S. the lack of news coverage is mostly due to 'myopia' of our news media... We have nothing in the U.S. that covers international news like the BBC... American news producers want to SELL - get advertising money - try to prosper or just stay afloat. By in large the American population is not interested in what goes on around the world... Most people I run into think Thailand is Taiwan... It is a combination of disinterest, ignorance (mostly willful) and a money focused news media - that only sells what the public will sit still to hear - most of it fluff...

You so right.The only Americans with any knowledge of world issues are those who are widely travelled.the rest of them are fed a diet of ilinformed nonsense and the majority are too lazy to use the internet to educate themselves beyond websites which enforce their narrow minded view of life outside their county or state.

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I am not disagreeing, but do you think the Americans are the only ones lazy to educate themselves on world issues? Or are the only ones with a narrow minded views what goes on outside their own countries?

[noitom]

Muslims... Bringing peace by slaughtering people for 1400 years!

Christianity, 2000 years of much the same.

The good news is that the atheists are winning. Polytheism is dead, only one more god to go.

Atheists - those are the folks who deny the existence of whatever it is that gives them the right to deny its existence.

[SteeleJoe]

The muslim guy, they are taught about Budism, but we are Muslim. Crazy, if you have so little faith in your own religion it must not be strong. Never knew that Budism was a subject on Thai schools.

Mind you not all Muslims are like this but there are some real crazy brainwashed types around. Abuse of power and such, yes i can understand that you fight against that, but not by targeting innocents. But fighting purely for religion when Buddhism isnt even promoted that much is crazy. Its been hundreds of years since they were an own state, give it up live in the present.

Fight it an other way, political like normal people do, even those Irish gave up.

Couple things:

1) Buddhism is taught in Thai schools.

2) If you don't think Buddhism is promoted much in Thailand, you are not thinking clearly.

3) If someone doesn't believe in a religion, I don't think it odd that I'd not want that religion taught to my child - especially if I was a devout believer in a religion that was inherently mutually exclusive with another religion. If that religion would be the very fundamental basis of my culture and way of life, that would be quite natural.

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa ap

[robblok]

The muslim guy, they are taught about Budism, but we are Muslim. Crazy, if you have so little faith in your own religion it must not be strong. Never knew that Budism was a subject on Thai schools.

Mind you not all Muslims are like this but there are some real crazy brainwashed types around. Abuse of power and such, yes i can understand that you fight against that, but not by targeting innocents. But fighting purely for religion when Buddhism isnt even promoted that much is crazy. Its been hundreds of years since they were an own state, give it up live in the present.

Fight it an other way, political like normal people do, even those Irish gave up.

Couple things:

1) Buddhism is taught in Thai schools.

2) If you don't think Buddhism is promoted much in Thailand, you are not thinking clearly.

3) If someone doesn't believe in a religion, I don't think it odd that I'd not want that religion taught to my child - especially if I was a devout believer in a religion that was inherently mutually exclusive with another religion. If that religion would be the very fundamental basis of my culture and way of life, that would be quite natural.

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa ap

I am an Atheist, i would not want any religion taught to my children (if i had any) But i knew of many of other atheists that had kids on a christian school because it was the only option at that time. At home they would explain why they did not believe in religion to their kids. The kids were of course never forced to go into temples.

Are Thai kids forced to go to tempels and pray or not ? Or is it just education about the religion ?

[JDGRUEN]

I post this for information purposes... http://www.cfr.org/thailand/muslim-insurgency-southern-thailand/p12531

I don't have sympathy for the Muslims in this situation even though they have been the indigenous people of that area for a very long time (this is fairly unique) I am not sympathetic primarily because of the cultural attitude they display that 'we can kill you and it is okay - but if you kill back - we are outraged... This enraged illogical craziness is going on in Gaza, the West Bank, in Western Burma, in a dozen countries in Africa, in India, China, much of Western Europe, Russia, the U.K. and many other places. Not all these countries have gratuitous violence going on - but the strategy is much the same. Establish a presence, increase the numbers, become outraged at every 'slight' that comes about as done by a non believer, insist on isolation from the greater community, insist on their own laws, etc. Then scream out that everyone else is the problem.

[robblok]

@steelejoe,

Are Muslims not allowed to have their own schools if they give the same subjects and live up to the same standards as normal schools ? If not i can understand part of their frustration not that it is worth bombing and killing over. I am however not a believer in strict Muslim (or any other religion) schools (when they promote intollerance).

[BlackJack]

its a simple logic being used

target the teachers and the schools

torch them kill the teachers scare everyone with psychological terror

then build a mosque

i know

i lived there and saw it

[SteeleJoe]

The muslim guy, they are taught about Budism, but we are Muslim. Crazy, if you have so little faith in your own religion it must not be strong. Never knew that Budism was a subject on Thai schools.

Mind you not all Muslims are like this but there are some real crazy brainwashed types around. Abuse of power and such, yes i can understand that you fight against that, but not by targeting innocents. But fighting purely for religion when Buddhism isnt even promoted that much is crazy. Its been hundreds of years since they were an own state, give it up live in the present.

Fight it an other way, political like normal people do, even those Irish gave up.

Couple things:

1) Buddhism is taught in Thai schools.

2) If you don't think Buddhism is promoted much in Thailand, you are not thinking clearly.

3) If someone doesn't believe in a religion, I don't think it odd that I'd not want that religion taught to my child - especially if I was a devout believer in a religion that was inherently mutually exclusive with another religion. If that religion would be the very fundamental basis of my culture and way of life, that would be quite natural.

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa ap

I am an Atheist, i would not want any religion taught to my children (if i had any) But i knew of many of other atheists that had kids on a christian school because it was the only option at that time. At home they would explain why they did not believe in religion to their kids. The kids were of course never forced to go into temples.

Are Thai kids forced to go to tempels and pray or not ? Or is it just education about the religion ?

I am an atheist. I want my children taught about religions because unfortunately they play a huge role in the world around us. But that's not my point: if you are a devout believer ( especially in an Abrahamic theism), then regardless of the pleasant sounding tolerance some believers may espouse, the fact is your belief in your religion means that another religion can NOT be the truth - and if you are devout, it's not unusual that you'd not want anyone telling your kids that there are other "truths".

Forced? Only in the sense of social opprobrium ( which should not be discounted). Why do you ask?

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[SteeleJoe]

@steelejoe,

Are Muslims not allowed to have their own schools if they give the same subjects and live up to the same standards as normal schools ? If not i can understand part of their frustration not that it is worth bombing and killing over. I am however not a believer in strict Muslim (or any other religion) schools (when they promote intollerance).

Yes, they are allowed to have their own schools.

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[robblok]

I am an atheist. I want my children taught about religions because unfortunately they play a huge role in the world around us. But that's not my point: if you are a devout believer ( especially in an Abrahamic theism), then regardless of the pleasant sounding tolerance some believers may espouse, the fact is your belief in your religion means that another religion can NOT be the truth - and if you are devout, it's not unusual that you'd not want anyone telling your kids that there are other "truths".

Forced? Only in the sense of social opprobrium ( which should not be discounted). Why do you ask?

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa ap

I don't see their point them, they are too crazy and then id support the Thai government. They are allowed to have their own schools, but are worried about other truths.

Anyway like you being taught about other religions is one thing being taught an other religion is a whole different thing. Of course i as an atheist learn about other religions, but they are not forced upon me.

If you can't accept stuff like this (not talking about you) then i feel the Thai government is right in this case.

[JDGRUEN]

As far as this situation not being talked about... at least in the U.S. the lack of news coverage is mostly due to 'myopia' of our news media... We have nothing in the U.S. that covers international news like the BBC... American news producers want to SELL - get advertising money - try to prosper or just stay afloat. By in large the American population is not interested in what goes on around the world... Most people I run into think Thailand is Taiwan... It is a combination of disinterest, ignorance (mostly willful) and a money focused news media - that only sells what the public will sit still to hear - most of it fluff...

You so right.The only Americans with any knowledge of world issues are those who are widely travelled.the rest of them are fed a diet of ilinformed nonsense and the majority are too lazy to use the internet to educate themselves beyond websites which enforce their narrow minded view of life outside their county or state.

Sent from my LG-P350 using Thaivisa Connect App

I am not disagreeing, but do you think the Americans are the only ones lazy to educate themselves on world issues? Or are the only ones with a narrow minded views what goes on outside their own countries?

(In my opinion) I don't think Americans are particularly narrow minded in their views and they are not particularly lazy ... They mainly just don't care - the world in their head is small . The USA is huge - spread out... we have two oceans and at least one friendly country surrounding our borders. In a odd way we are isolated from the world - so other people's problems are other people's problems. The media distorts the news and a low percentage of the population watches the news anyway. We have an enormous number of adult Americans who are low information voters who get their news - even political news from T.V. late night talk shows, and comedy shows. So we are what we are.. .There are of course millions of exceptions to my description - but we have 310 million people - so the dilution factor is high.

[Pimay1]

As far as this situation not being talked about... at least in the U.S. the lack of news coverage is mostly due to 'myopia' of our news media... We have nothing in the U.S. that covers international news like the BBC... American news producers want to SELL - get advertising money - try to prosper or just stay afloat. By in large the American population is not interested in what goes on around the world... Most people I run into think Thailand is Taiwan... It is a combination of disinterest, ignorance (mostly willful) and a money focused news media - that only sells what the public will sit still to hear - most of it fluff...

You so right.The only Americans with any knowledge of world issues are those who are widely travelled.the rest of them are fed a diet of ilinformed nonsense and the majority are too lazy to use the internet to educate themselves beyond websites which enforce their narrow minded view of life outside their county or state.

Sent from my LG-P350 using Thaivisa Connect App

I am not disagreeing, but do you think the Americans are the only ones lazy to educate themselves on world issues? Or are the only ones with a narrow minded views what goes on outside their own countries?

(In my opinion) I don't think Americans are particularly narrow minded in their views and they are not particularly lazy ... They mainly just don't care - the world in their head is small . The USA is huge - spread out... we have two oceans and at least one friendly country surrounding our borders. In a odd way we are isolated from the world - so other people's problems are other people's problems. The media distorts the news and a low percentage of the population watches the news anyway. We have an enormous number of adult Americans who are low information voters who get their news - even political news from T.V. late night talk shows, and comedy shows. So we are what we are.. .There are of course millions of exceptions to my description - but we have 310 million people - so the dilution factor is high.

Good description of the ones we left behind in the USA.

[SteeleJoe]

I am an atheist. I want my children taught about religions because unfortunately they play a huge role in the world around us. But that's not my point: if you are a devout believer ( especially in an Abrahamic theism), then regardless of the pleasant sounding tolerance some believers may espouse, the fact is your belief in your religion means that another religion can NOT be the truth - and if you are devout, it's not unusual that you'd not want anyone telling your kids that there are other "truths".

Forced? Only in the sense of social opprobrium ( which should not be discounted). Why do you ask?

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa ap

I don't see their point them, they are too crazy and then id support the Thai government. They are allowed to have their own schools, but are worried about other truths.

Anyway like you being taught about other religions is one thing being taught an other religion is a whole different thing. Of course i as an atheist learn about other religions, but they are not forced upon me.

If you can't accept stuff like this (not talking about you) then i feel the Thai government is right in this case.

I think you are oversimplifying what is a very complex situation and one in which there is much blame to go around on all sides.

Personally I can't support the killing of innocents and I can't see how the state can submit to violent extortion or allow succession. But there are legitimate grievances -- historical and contemporary -- held by the Muslim community and this along with a largely inept and often unjust response from the government has allowed for and encouraged people whose motives are political at least as much as spiritual (and arguably far more so).

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[ggold]

The ruling class are only concerned about Bankok, anywhere else is not important!

Are you saying that Ms Yingluck and her government (presently ruling) don't care about the southern conflict, even after the Man for All Reasons was put in charge?

Well, putting him in charge guarantees a resolution within 3 months! Now wheres my ear medicine?

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Edited January 1, 2013 by ggold