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Angry non-Muslims parade remains of Buddhist woman
Around 200 people paraded the charred remains of a Buddhist woman through the streets of Yala town Wednesday, April 11, to protest the unending violence in Thailands restive Muslim-majority south. The 26-year-old woman was shot Monday and her body then burned beyond recognition in an attack blamed on Islamic militants who have fought the government for three years in this region on the Malaysian border. The villagers wrapped her body in a white cloth and placed it at the staircase leading into a government building where General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, a Muslim who heads the ruling military junta, was meeting with local leaders. Angry residents of the murdered womans village said they wanted to show Sonthi how gruesome the attacks have become and to demand protection for the Buddhist minority in the province, one of three along the border hit by the unrest. Eight Buddhists have been killed and burned like this on the same road. All the victims were from our village, one of the victims relatives told reporters. A 19-year-old Buddhist man was also killed Wednesday in Yala in a drive-by shooting that also left his 47-year-old mother seriously wounded. Ten other people were killed on Monday alone, including four Muslims shot dead while returning from the burial of a bombing victim. In nearby Pattani province, five officials from the Revenue Department were wounded Wednesday when a roadside bomb exploded near their van, police said. Posted by: ryuge 2007-04-12 |
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