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| Southeast Asia |
| Ten killed by suspected rebels |
| 2009-04-29 |
| [Straits Times] SUSPECTED Muslim rebels killed 10 civilians in a flurry of attacks in insurgency-plagued southern Thailand, the army said on Tuesday on the fifth anniversary of a bloody assault by security forces against militants at a mosque. In the deadliest incident, at least six gunmen in a pickup truck stormed into a house in Yala province late Monday, opening fire on a Muslim family of five, army spokesman Col. Parinya Chaidilok said. Four people were killed. Parinya said two Muslim rubber plantation workers were later found dead in the compound of a nearby mosque. Thai security officials blamed Muslim insurgents bent on stirring up communal tension between Buddhists and Muslims. The incidents came ahead of the fifth anniversary of the April 28, 2004, assault on the Krue Se mosque by Thai security forces, in which 32 insurgents were killed. Other clashes the same day between Muslims and government forces resulted in the deaths of a total of 107 people at the hands of security forces, turning the mosque attack into a symbol of the heavy-handed tactics of Thai authorities. The International Commission of Jurists and four Thai human rights groups issued a joint statement Tuesday asking Thailand's Attorney General for a public explanation of his decision not to prosecute certain officers involved in the assault on the mosque. The groups said they were 'deeply concerned that the Attorney General's decision will undermine the prospects for peaceful resolution by furthering the perception that the Government is unable or unwilling to apply the rule of law in cases of alleged violation by security forces.' The Krue Se killings fueled a nascent insurgency that has claimed more than 3,400 lives in Thailand's three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat and some parts of neighboring Songkhla. In the latest attack, a Buddhist government official was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting Tuesday in Pattani, Parinya said. In a separate incident Monday evening, gunmen fatally shot a Muslim who served as a government-hired security volunteer in Yala province. Another Muslim man was killed in a drive-by shooting in the same province Monday evening. In another district of Yala province, suspected militants fatally shot a Buddhist rubber plantation worker Tuesday. |
| Posted by:Fred |