Thai editorial: When security forces can't be trusted

[webfact]

EDITORIAL
When security forces can't be trusted
The Nation

A spike in violence in the deep South can be traced directly to the Army's rough reactions to events

BANGKOK: -- The Army's so-called "Tung Yang Daeng model" - an effort to integrate the operation of the military, villagers and local security into one cohesive unit - is facing a severe test in that Pattani district after back-to-back incidents that illustrated the vulnerability of security units in remote areas.

The first incident came in mid-July, with some 40 insurgents surrounding a police substation and sparking an intense exchange of gunfire.

Road spikes, felled trees and a roadside bomb stalled the reinforcements and an Army helicopter had to be dispatched to the scene. The attack left two soldiers seriously wounded and several more with severe burns after the station was set aflame and razed.

In a routine response, a group of young men from nearby Islamic boarding schools were rounded up and interrogated. Locals said the way they were mistreated set the stage for the second attack, in which insurgents burned down six public schools on October 12, apparently to demonstrate their disapproval of the authorities' tactics.

The Army billed the arson attacks as a response to its recent arrest of key figures in the insurgency, though no names were mentioned.

In a bid for damage control, "the Tung Yang Daeng model" was conjured up. How this differs from previous attempts to outsource security work to local residents - or try to get villagers involved in security details - is anybody's guess. It has strong echoes of the so-called "Pentagon II initiative" concocted after a truckload of insurgents killed four soldiers patrolling on motorbikes in Pattani's Ma-Yor district in July 2012.

That incident was caught on CCTV and broadcast all over the social media. The government of Yingluck Shinawatra had to give the impression that it was in control of the situation, and so units, agencies and people were shifted around to create Pentagon II. And yes, the policymakers said more or less the same thing about how they were going to step up coordination among the security agencies.

This time around, the Army is counting on village protection units as part of the line-up. But the military has tried handing off security duties to the villagers before and knows the results can be disastrous.

Witness, for example, the protest in Tak Bai in October 2004 that led to what many now call a massacre. The protesters were calling for the release of a group of village-defence volunteers who had been accused of handing their weapons to insurgents. The volunteers had said they surrendered the weapons to avoid being slaughtered by a superior force. The military opened fire on the demonstrators and then stacked the survivors in trucks, resulting in 85 deaths, mainly from suffocation.

For some reason the Army continues to believe that residents in the Muslim-majority deep South are obligated to put their lives on the line for the nation, despite the fact that authorities often fail to respect their cultural difference and address their historical grievances.

Perhaps the military needs to look closer to home when it comes to accountability and responsibility for security.

The killing of a Malay Muslim child, 14-year-old Muhammad-Azuwan Sohoh, by a paramilitary Ranger in Narathiwat's Sri Sakorn district on August 21 is a case in point.

Muhammad-Azuwan's case deserves attention because investigators discovered that the Ranger involved, Aekapot Samansuan, had shot the boy and then placed a pistol in the victim's hand to disguise him as an insurgent.

Then, just a week ago, Marines opened fire on a pickup truck at a checkpoint in Hutaeyulo in Narathiwat's Bacho district, killing 10-year-old Hizula Taemoh and wounding her mother and younger sister. The family was heading to market to sell coconuts.

Once again, the military unit involved tried to portray the victims as insurgents. But this time around, eyewitnesses spoke out and revealed the truth.

Human Rights Watch called on the government to "wake up to the fact that attempts to cover up misconduct of its security units and protect them from criminal responsibility fan the flames of violent reprisals".

"Insurgents have repeatedly used the impunity of government forces to

justify brutal attacks on civilians," it said.

Thai security forces in the South must clean up their own house before they can expect others to join in efforts to keep the peace.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/When-security-forces-cant-be-trusted-30246621.html


-- The Nation 2014-10-31

[WitawatWatawit]

How about that for plain English, general?

[BSJ]

The army is always at a disadvantage because the government flounders around so much. A shoot to kill policy should be enforced in a 20km buffer zone along the border. Troop numbers should be increased in the buffer zone. An Isreali type security fence built and increased coastal patrols. Anyone in Thailand who wishes to leave should be allowed to. After a certain date anyone in Thailand who commits terrorist acts, supports terrorists or fails to identify terrorists should be terminated.

[Commerce]

Terminated, for failing to identify terrorists? You gotta be kidding?

What if you don't know your neighbour is a terrorist, does that per-determine failing to identify a terrorist, and thus being terminated?

[cloudhopper]

The army is always at a disadvantage because the government flounders around so much. A shoot to kill policy should be enforced in a 20km buffer zone along the border. Troop numbers should be increased in the buffer zone. An Isreali type security fence built and increased coastal patrols. Anyone in Thailand who wishes to leave should be allowed to. After a certain date anyone in Thailand who commits terrorist acts, supports terrorists or fails to identify terrorists should be terminated.

Regardless of strength the army will always be at a disadvantage whenever they are enforcing a religiously-biased or any other morally compromised government policy.

[bangkokfrog]

The army is always at a disadvantage because the government flounders around so much. A shoot to kill policy should be enforced in a 20km buffer zone along the border. Troop numbers should be increased in the buffer zone. An Isreali type security fence built and increased coastal patrols. Anyone in Thailand who wishes to leave should be allowed to. After a certain date anyone in Thailand who commits terrorist acts, supports terrorists or fails to identify terrorists should be terminated.

What a ridiculous, extreme, inhuman suggestion that shows no understanding of the background to the problems in the South. If the government try to implement an "Israeli" type solution, all they will do is create a more organized and better funded "hezbollah" type opposition. Respect the people of the South's cultural identity rather than thinking the "Thai" way is superior and the problems will be greatly reduced.

[lomatopo]

The army is always at a disadvantage because the government flounders around so much. A shoot to kill policy should be enforced in a 20km buffer zone along the border. Troop numbers should be increased in the buffer zone. An Isreali type security fence built and increased coastal patrols. Anyone in Thailand who wishes to leave should be allowed to. After a certain date anyone in Thailand who commits terrorist acts, supports terrorists or fails to identify terrorists should be terminated.

Bad idea. You'd have suicide bombers paralyzing Bangkok.

[jcisco]

Wow the signal to noise ratio of this editorial is exceptionally good, I straight the point, factual and crystal clear. It would appear that the media found some balls, may they find them more often.

I half expect yet another initiative to tighten the media up further if continued swipes are made at the government and its agents. But to be speaking truth and making well balanced arguments, should be defended and not silenced and it will be yet another moment where Thailand makes the wrong step and everyone now watching will be there.

The lack of improvement in the deep south is stunning, anyone familiar with the whole history know what the government has conceeded if anything to this region. Or is it still centrally administrated us and them Thainess all the way>?

[Robby nz]

While the Army and police have made mistakes it cant be easy to deal with people who use something that happened 10 years ago as an excuse for indiscriminate bombing, shooting and burning.

You have to remember that many of those targeted have been teachers and health workers of all faiths who have only been doing their best to help people. Others have been bombs planted in markets and other places with the intention of indiscriminately killing and maiming as many people as possible.

We have seen when one of them has been killed in a shootout with the police or army that were trying to arrest them they come back and attack and kill someone completely unrelated and call it revenge for one of theirs being killed.

People who would do these things and hide behind some agenda are in fact nothing less than brutal murderers and need to be treated as such.

[sletraveler]

The army is always at a disadvantage because the government flounders around so much. A shoot to kill policy should be enforced in a 20km buffer zone along the border. Troop numbers should be increased in the buffer zone. An Isreali type security fence built and increased coastal patrols. Anyone in Thailand who wishes to leave should be allowed to. After a certain date anyone in Thailand who commits terrorist acts, supports terrorists or fails to identify terrorists should be terminated.

Ya dem damn terroristas are everywhere ain't they. It's the favorite term of the fear mongers. All part of the march to a global Orwellian state. Led by USA and the Brits.

[axact]

The army is always at a disadvantage because the government flounders around so much. A shoot to kill policy should be enforced in a 20km buffer zone along the border. Troop numbers should be increased in the buffer zone. An Isreali type security fence built and increased coastal patrols. Anyone in Thailand who wishes to leave should be allowed to. After a certain date anyone in Thailand who commits terrorist acts, supports terrorists or fails to identify terrorists should be terminated.

Go run your dictatorship elsewhere. Are you a security expert with specialist skills around the problems in South Thailand ? I suspect not & feel you should be terminated before some idiot takes up your idea.... "fails to identify terrorist should be terminated' Lets hope someone holds a gun to your family so you can understand how grassing up terrorists is very bad for ones & ones families health.

[Acharn]

The thing is, there's a hidden ideological component to this that can't be openly addressed. After the Revolution of 1932, Colonel (later Field Marshall) Plaek Phibulsongkhram appointed a "cultural minister" whose name I don't recall at the moment. This minister was responsible for various "cultural decrees," like ordering people to wear shoes and socks, men to kiss their wives goodbye in the morning before going to work, etc. He was responsible for various plays, newspaper articles, and movies that glorified militaristic nationalism. Many of the ideas actually derived from the historical need for the Thai kings to unify the country under a central government, with a common language, common subjects in the schools, common ritual in the temples, etc., but taken to an extreme on the Japanese model from the 1930s. One of the important topics was the need to "recover the lost lands." In maneuvering to prevent the French and English from actually invading Siam, the kings had conceded areas formerly considered Thai to the British and especially to the French. The kingdom of Viang Chan (French spelling: Vientiane), had been considered tributary to Bangkok, but the French claimed it as part of Laos. Similarly with Cambodia. In addition, there was a very virulent campaign against "foreign" influences, which promoted the theme, "To be Thai, you must be Buddhist." This became ingrained in the Army, and I think still exerts strong influence to this day. I don't know any high ranking military officers, so I can't ask them about it, and they may not even be consciously aware that this old attitude influences them, but I believe it's there and is an important reason they can't make progress.

[Acharn]

The army is always at a disadvantage because the government flounders around so much. A shoot to kill policy should be enforced in a 20km buffer zone along the border. Troop numbers should be increased in the buffer zone. An Isreali type security fence built and increased coastal patrols. Anyone in Thailand who wishes to leave should be allowed to. After a certain date anyone in Thailand who commits terrorist acts, supports terrorists or fails to identify terrorists should be terminated.

So you're proposing a return to the anti-Communist tactics initiated by Sarit and used until Prem became Prime Minister and finally solved the insurgency problem? May I point out that they didn't work then. I think they need to go back and re-read the order Prem sent to Gen. Chawalit and think about how to implement that in today's environment. One problem with that is that the Communists had a centralized organization, and the current rebels seem not to.

[rickirs]

The "Tung Yang Daeng model" is just the recreation of the FAILED USA’s pacification of Vietnam villages in the late 1960's to win the "hearts and minds" of the South Vietnamese villagers through establishment of security zones. Or as the Marine's slogan called it, "Get 'em by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow."

What both programs fail to realize is that villagers did not share the military's sense of culture, religion, and ethnicity. The US military focused primarily on village security while ignoring the insurgents who were an integral part of the village dynamics. In South Thailand, this disparity is even greater than that between the South and North Vietnamese as the Muslim Thais do not have a common sense of the Buddhist religion, the Siam Kingdom, Thai social behavior, or even ethnic make-up (ie., Thai tribal origins) as the rest of the Thai nation.

The Thai military is essentially acting as a foreign military occupation to force political indoctrination of the South through the mere force of its presence. What is needed are social, economic, and diplomatic solutions that seem beyond the understanding of the Thai military as evidenced by the 10+ years of insurgency in the South that seems to be growing in violence out of frustration with little or no progress at the peace table where the military sets inflexible pre-conditions.

“Peace in our time” doesn’t seem very near for Southern Thailand.

[simple1]

The thing is, there's a hidden ideological component to this that can't be openly addressed. After the Revolution of 1932, Colonel (later Field Marshall) Plaek Phibulsongkhram appointed a "cultural minister" whose name I don't recall at the moment. This minister was responsible for various "cultural decrees," like ordering people to wear shoes and socks, men to kiss their wives goodbye in the morning before going to work, etc. He was responsible for various plays, newspaper articles, and movies that glorified militaristic nationalism. Many of the ideas actually derived from the historical need for the Thai kings to unify the country under a central government, with a common language, common subjects in the schools, common ritual in the temples, etc., but taken to an extreme on the Japanese model from the 1930s. One of the important topics was the need to "recover the lost lands." In maneuvering to prevent the French and English from actually invading Siam, the kings had conceded areas formerly considered Thai to the British and especially to the French. The kingdom of Viang Chan (French spelling: Vientiane), had been considered tributary to Bangkok, but the French claimed it as part of Laos. Similarly with Cambodia. In addition, there was a very virulent campaign against "foreign" influences, which promoted the theme, "To be Thai, you must be Buddhist." This became ingrained in the Army, and I think still exerts strong influence to this day. I don't know any high ranking military officers, so I can't ask them about it, and they may not even be consciously aware that this old attitude influences them, but I believe it's there and is an important reason they can't make progress.

Thailand’s national identity is predicated on the pillars of Nation, Religion and King as represented by the Thai Flag.

Have a read of a Thai miliary officers' analysis (2012) of the conflict at:

http://www.defence.gov.au/adc/docs/Publications2012/SheddenPapers12_120306_ConflictinThailand_Nurakkate.pdf

Edited October 31, 2014 by simple1