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3 Buddhist Women Slain in Thailand
SABAYOI, Thailand: Suspected Muslim separatists shot and killed three Buddhist women involved with a project for victims of Thailand's insurgency Monday, just two days after three Muslim children were killed in an attack on a boarding school.Increasing violence that has targeted children, commuters and other innocent bystanders is raising fears that the insurgency, in which more than 2,000 people have been killed, could erupt into open combat between the Muslim and Buddhist communities in provinces along the Malaysian border. Thailand is overwhelmingly Buddhist, but the country's far south is predominantly Muslim, and residents of the region have long felt that they are treated like second-class citizens. The latest victims were headed to work at a farm project funded by Thailand's Queen Sirikit in the Nong Chik district of Pattani province, said police Lt. Phuen Khongdee. The 'model farm' project was one of several in the area set up to help women, including some widowed by the ongoing violence. It teaches them to grow vegetables, fruit and other basic necessities. On Saturday evening, attackers hurled explosives and opened fire on a dormitory at an Islamic boarding school in the southern province of Songkhla. Three young teenagers were killed, police said. Though Buddhist teachers have been targeted by the violence that flared three years ago, schoolchildren have largely been spared. Police said they believe Muslim insurgents staged the attack on the Bamrungsart Pondok school in an attempt to convince villagers that authorities were responsible and win them over to the insurgents' cause. Villagers, however, refused to believe Muslims were behind the violence and blamed government security forces. Buddhists and Muslims staged separate protests Monday in the district of Sabayoi, where the school is located. About 500 Buddhists gathered peacefully in front of the district chief's office to protest against the ongoing violence. "We can't handle this anymore," said Somchai Chuebumrung, the protest leader. "If the authorities can't do anything to make it safer here, the village elders may have to take the matter into their own hands to protect ourselves." About 100 Muslim women and children led a separate protest outside the school where the attack took place, about 6 miles from the Buddhist protest, blocking police and military from entering the site to investigate. The protesters dispersed peacefully in the evening but the police and military authorities have not gained access to the site. "Soldiers killed the children. Don't come into our village," the women shouted. "We don't want any help from you Buddhists." Police Gen. Paithoon Pattanasophon said that the protest heightened authorities' suspicion that villagers or the school itself had something to hide. "They use women and children to prevent us from investigating the crime, making us believe that they have illegal activities inside," Paithoon said. He said authorities believe some key members of the separatist movement lived in the village. The southern Muslim provinces have hundreds of religious Islamic schools, and authorities have accused some of them of harboring insurgents and serving as a training ground for violence. In the latest case of violence Monday, five Muslim civilians were injured in Narathiwat's Sisakhon district when an unknown number of assailants opened fire on their pickup truck with assault rifles, police said. Posted by: anonymous5089 2007-03-19 |
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