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Vow to prevent Thai split
[Straits Times] THAILAND'S army chief vowed on Wednesday to prevent the restive Muslim-majority south splitting from the Buddhist kingdom as tensions remained high after an attack at a mosque that left 11 people dead.General Anupong Paochinda reiterated that he believed separatist militants had carried out Monday's assault but said he would not increase the number of security personnel deployed across the three southernmost provinces. There are already 66,000 security forces members in the area, he said. 'The army has a duty not only to prevent violence but also to keep the southernmost provinces from splitting (from Thailand),' Gen Anupong said. 'The shooting was carried out by a group who have been operating for two or three years, who have changed their mode of attack,' he added. Masked gunmen stormed the mosque in Narathiwat province during evening prayers and sprayed worshippers with bullets, killing 11 people and wounding 12. It was one of the worst episodes of violence in a five-year insurgency that has left 3,700 people dead. The government blames the violence on shadowy Islamist separatists. Gen Anupong on Tuesday denied local villagers' claims that security forces were behind the mosque carnage. Earlier Wednesday, a Thai Buddhist woman was shot dead in what appeared to be a revenge killing for Monday's attack. Police said four suspected militants travelling by motorbike had opened fire on the 25-year-old as she sat at lunch with two male colleagues in Yala province. The gunmen left two hand-written notes on the ground, police said, that read in Thai: 'You have killed innocent people so I have to kill in revenge.' The woman's two colleagues were taken to hospital for emergency surgery to serious gunshot wounds. The southern region was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until Thailand annexed it in 1902, provoking decades of tension. Most of its 1.8 million inhabitants are Muslim, ethnic Malay and speak a Malay dialect. A flare-up in unrest over the past week has left 28 people dead, including the woman killed on Wednesday. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva agreed with his Malaysian counterpart during a visit to Kuala Lumpur on Monday to step up cooperation in education and the economy in a bid to solve the region's troubles. The two countries have often been at loggerheads over the issue in the past. Posted by: Fred 2009-06-11 |
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