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| Southeast Asia |
| Acquitted JI suspect wins Thai senate seat |
| 2006-04-23 |
| Last year, Waemahadee Waeda-oh, 43, was on trial, accused of being a member of Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian terrorist network believed linked to al Qaeda. Last week, he was elected to Thailand's 200-member Senate from one of the three Muslim southernmost provinces where more than 1,100 people have been killed in two years of separatist violence. The Muslim doctor, eventually acquitted of charges of belonging to Jemaah Islamiah and planning bomb attacks on western embassies, attributes his victory to his ordeal. “I used to live in fear and suspicion," Waemahadee, who alleged he was abducted, tortured into a confession and then denied bail during an almost two-year trial, told Reuters. “People here are in a similar situation, so they looked for a person who could reflect their frustration,” he said. He won 100,000 votes, three times more than any other candidate in his area, where most ordinary people are caught between government security forces and the militants. The last time separatist violence flared in the region, a former Muslim sultanate annexed by overwhelmingly Buddhist Thailand a century ago, militants took to the jungle. “Now they are living in the village,” Waemahadee said. “Apparently the government is trying to win people's hearts and minds, but villagers whose relatives have been harassed by officials in the past are still skeptical. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |