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Indonesians may have trained Thai jihadis in continuing brutal tactics
Separatist insurgents on Monday shot dead a Thai-Buddhist couple working as fruit pickers in the majority-Muslim area of Bannang Sata, Yala provine and injured their three-year-old daughter, police said. After gunning down Praphan Ponlarak, 36, and his wife Chaddakan, the assailants decapitated Praphan, making him the 29th victim to be beheaded in Thailand's troubled deep South since the region's separatist insurgency took a turn for the worse in January 2004. Their daughter was admitted to Bannang Sata hospital, 780 kilometres south of Bangkok, for treatment Fighters from Indonesia may have trained southern Thai Muslims in terrorism, said army spokesman Col Acra Tiproch. The Indonesian Islamists also have used video clips of beheadings in the Middle East available on the Internet as part of their training of Thai militants in jungle camps. "You really need to know certain bones of the necks to behead someone and Thais don`t really know how," Col Acra said. "You need someone to be trained overseas or foreign trainers to teach them how." The interrogation of captured insurgents suggested that foreign trainers, suspected to be Indonesian, were present in Thailand giving training through translators, he said. Also on Monday, two Thai-Muslim labourers were gunned down in Kabang district, Yala, killing Luesong Hayiwale, 50, and seriously injuring Mahamu Samae, 41. On Sunday the bullet-riddled bodies of a Thai-Muslim couple working in a Bannang Sata rubber plantation were found by police. "The insurgents are trying to sow hatred between Thai-Muslims and Thai-Buddhists and terrorize the area," said Bannang Sata Police Sub-Lieutenant Than Serikan. Despite the near daily killings in the region, Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont on Sunday reiterated his pledge to resolve the conflict through peaceful means during a visit to Yala with several cabinet ministers over the weekend. Thus far the change of tactics have failed to end the near daily killings in the region, though Surayud has won international praise for adopting a conciliatory approach to the insurgency. Police also found the bodies of a Muslim couple who had been reported missing three days ago. The remains of Romueree Sueni and his wife Royima Saleh were found in a remote area. Another Muslim man was found dead in the same district, apparently shot and killed by insurgents. Meanwhile officials uncovered unexploded explosives on the Kehrow -Raman Road in Yala province. Demolition teams destroyed the explosives. Posted by: ryuge 2007-05-14 |
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