SOUTH CRISIS
Bombing toll in deep South reaches 320
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- AS MANY AS 320 bomb attacks have hit Thailand's deep South during the past year. As of Sunday, 105 explosions had erupted in Pattani, 69 in Yala, 129 in Narathiwat, and 17 in Songkhla.

Just last Saturday, three bombs exploded in Songkhla's Sadao district, injuring 27 people. Many victims sustained serious injuries.

Kaycha Benjakarn, mayor of Tambon Samnakkham Municipality, yesterday lamented that one of those bomb attacks should have been prevented given that a local vendor had alerted police about a suspicious pickup near the Oliver Hotel hours before the truck proved to be a vehicle bomb and blew up.

"She called police in the morning," the mayor said. It then took about an hour before police arrived and checked the vehicle. They then simply told the vendor that the pickup was being used by someone going to Malaysia to buy cheaper petrol.

"Those policemen then left the scene. The bomb exploded, injured people and caused property damage," Kaycha said.

Sadao Police Station superintendent Colonel Paipana Petchyen admitted that a police captain and a second lieutenant had inspected the truck but failed to recognise it as a vehicle bomb. "They were too inexperienced. It's because no violent incident had happened in Sadao district before," Paipana said.

Provincial Police Region 9 chief Lt-General Pisit Pisuthsak said the recent incidents signalled that insurgents were trying to expand their violence to new areas. Initially, only four districts of Songkhla - Saba Yoi, Tepha, Chana and Na Thawi - had been struggling with unrest the way Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani provinces have.

In fact, concerns about Sadao have emerged since Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) - which has engaged in a peace dialogue with Thai authorities - began mentioning the district in its demands earlier this year.

The government has tried to defuse the unrest in the deep South via various means, including the peace dialogue with BRN.

Colonel Pramote Phrom-in, spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command Region 4 Forward Command, said the government's approach, especially the peace dialogue, had received praise from participants at the 40th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

The session ran from December 8-11 in the West African nation of Guinea.


-- The Nation 2013-12-26

Come on Yingluck.... Don't you have any comment on the situation here?

Not even a single word in your entire term?

You and your supporters constantly accuse the Dems and their supporters of ignoring issues in the north, while you ignore these issues in the south. It won't go away, terrorists by their nature want to be heard, and the more you ignore them, the more they will step up their campaigns.... it's what they do.

Do you even know about the pickup truck bomb found in Phuket?

Does that not even start to register the slightest alarm bell in your tiny brain?

You are leaving these insurgents with limited places to go with their terror campaign, I would stop and look at it before it is too late and the attention shifts to targeting tourists. Then you WILL be in the deep <deleted> with potential losses of trillions of baht from the economy.

Open your eyes.... Kissing ass in the north on your publicly funded election campaign is not as important as people's lives and the future of the country..... open you eyes <deleted>!

And it's all swept under the carpet !!! ............. Disgraceful !

320 nearly one per day, luckily they dont have powerful device as they do have in Iraq...

But something, that i dont understand, its why these people deep south didnt export their war in the whole country.

oops just remember that Suthep did hire his yellow thugs amongs south people terrorists...

What a shame that Yingluck has been so pre-occupied this year with getting amnesty for her brother and the rice scam and the multiple trillion baht 50 year loans, that she's devoted so little time for at least attempting to deal with the Deep South.

This headline is misleading implying the "toll" or deaths. The real number of the death toll is reported to be about 6,000 by a number of news reports and organizations during the past 12 years.

"Sadao Police Station superintendent Colonel Paipana Petchyen admitted that a police captain and a second lieutenant had inspected the truck but failed to recognise it as a vehicle bomb. "They were too inexperienced. It's because no violent incident had happened in Sadao district before," Paipana said"

OIC. A police captain and a second lieutenant were too inexperienced. Incredible explanation, and laziness.

Attending seriously to this problem is far more important to Thailand as a sovereign nation that the rantings of Il Duce Suthep in Krung Thep.

It's the tolerant " Religion of pieces " in action ,stupids ! islam is on the rise , watch it !

It amazes me that the South of this country is essentially at war yet nothing is ever mentioned about it by government. The Phuket truck bomb barely even made the news.

thai cambodian problems, deep south problems, political problems, corruption problems, falang problems, rah rah rah, etc etc etc

It amazes me that the South of this country is essentially at war yet nothing is ever mentioned about it by government. The Phuket truck bomb barely even made the news.

Wake up folks ! Nothing amazing about it ,the entire muslim world is and has been at war with all unbelievers overtly and covertly ,for quite some time, about 1400 years now , just about everywhere,that's a long time to keep a grudge LOL ...and we still keep our eyes closed to whom by whom and why this is happening .

Of course this couldn't have anything to do with certain teachings contained in a certain book..no no no no .

We need to face up to certain truths and stop being so PC and get the old head out of the proverbial sand ,some religions are peaceful and some are just not that peaceful !

It's all in the book ,take the time to read it.

Remember Adolph?He wrote a book too ..Good thing we got to him on time !

I'm at a loss for words after reading that section about the police. My god. So much wrong.

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