Thailand: Protesters' deaths raise fears
of attack By David Fullbrook
BANGKOK - Deaths of scores of Muslim protesters
while in the hands of security forces in southern
Thailand on Monday night after their arrest at a huge
demonstration in Narathiwat that day has driven yet
another wedge between Muslim Thais and the government,
heightening fears that militants will strike back in
spectacular fashion.
Police and soldiers arrested about 1,300
protesters among an agitated mob of 3,000 at Tak Bai
district police station demanding the release of six
village defense volunteers held on charges of stealing
government weapons. Crowded into tarpaulin-covered army
trucks, 78 protesters died after waiting inside the
trucks for at least six hours to be driven to a military
base in neighboring Pattani, 120 kilometers from the
station.
Respected pathologist Dr Pornthip
Rojanasunant, deputy director of Thailand's Forensic
Science Institute, inspected the corpses, attributing
80% of the deaths to suffocation and heat stroke, the
rest to convulsions. She said most of the dead perished
immediately behind each truck's cab. Many were already
weak from fasting in observance of Ramadan.
Officials only announced the deaths late Tuesday
afternoon as rumors swirled, despite the deaths
occurring late Monday.
Manit Suthaporn, justice
deputy permanent secretary, said a shortage of transport
vehicles forced troops to overload the trucks. It is
unclear, however, why the 1,000 troops and police
present did not detain the protesters until more trucks
arrived.
Also on Monday, security forces fished
three more people out of the Tak Bai river. Another six
protesters were found dead after security forces moved
to disperse the protest using water cannons, tear gas
and firing shots, which, they claim, were fired only
into the air.
Pornthip said 16 protesters were
hospitalized with critical gunshot wounds, despite
government officials insisting police and troops did not
fire at the protesters.
Security forces said the
protest was well organized and directed by the shadowy
militants behind April's siege at Narathiwat's Krue Se
Mosque. Troops stormed the mosque, disobeying orders not
to from Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, a
retired general, killing 32 inside, some of whom were
armed.
In this latest encounter, police and
troops found four M-16 and three AK-47-type assault
rifles, plus a pistol, 14 machetes, ammunition and four
hand grenades around the Tak Bai police station.
Incompetence and disdain appear to have caused
the deaths rather than any conscious decision, which is
perhaps even more worrying as it suggests a callous
disregard on the part of security forces, more so given
that this occurred during Ramadan, which ends with Eid,
Muslims' equivalent of Christmas.
Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra remains unbowed - apparently
unwilling to countenance subtler, softer strategies -
backing his troops wholeheartedly. "If we're soft,
they'll think we're caving in. I won't have it," said
Thaksin, as reported by the Bangkok Post. "They did a
great job. They have my praise."
Islamic leaders
fear repercussions. "I was totally shocked. The number
of people who were reportedly killed initially was only
five or six. Now it is 78. This is totally insane.
Certainly, this will escalate further and who knows what
will happen next," said Abdullahman Abdulsomat, chairman
of Narathiwat provincial Islamic committee, according to
the Bangkok Post.
"The situation down here will
definitely turn much bloodier. Those militants who were
responsible for trouble in the area will fight back
harshly with suicide attacks," warned Nideh Waba,
chairman of a private Islamic schools association in the
three Muslim-majority provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani
and Yala.
Efforts to build trust and bridges
between Muslim Thais and the state since the storming of
the Krue Se Mosque are for naught now, worried the
Bangkok Post in an editorial: "The tragedy on Monday
might deal a serious blow to the government's efforts to
win back the trust and confidence of our southern Muslim
brethren. Trust is vital in the war against Islamic
militancy bent on creating an Islamic state in southern
Thailand."
Meanwhile, The Nation, Thailand's
other English-language daily, feared that the deaths
will delay reconciliation and presage more trouble.
"What happened in the province provides a cruel picture
of the nation's future: the deep south will continue to
burn. All the efforts - utmost or misguided, sincere or
political - are now in danger of going down the drain.
We have found ourselves in the most precarious state yet
as far as the troubled region is concerned."
Elsewhere in Narathiwat, gunmen shot five people
on Tuesday, killing one. Such hit-and-run attacks,
usually by two people on a motorbike targeting security
forces or state officials, are daily occurrences in the
Muslim-majority provinces.
After a few quiet
decades, unrest began growing in southern Thailand in
2002, triggered, some say, by the US-led invasion of
Afghanistan and a perception of worldwide harassment of
Muslims. This was coupled with a feeling of abandonment
by the state, busy focusing its development efforts on
Buddhist areas of Thailand.
While these factors
may play some minor part in the recent violence,
behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing by business
cliques, including police, soldiers and politicians
battling for turf, recognition from Bangkok, and more
padded contracts have also played a part. Regardless, it
is a dangerous game, one that may well be spiraling out
of control.
With each major incident fears grow
of a major attack, possibly one involving a car bomb or
suicide bombers, designed to embarrass Bangkok, scare
off tourists and undermine the kingdom's reputation for
public safety. Inevitably, such attacks require dozens
of innocents caught in the wrong place at the wrong time
to die.
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spectacular fashion.
