Author: AFP
Publication: www.channelnewsasia.com
Date: April 28, 2004
URL: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/82257/1/.html
Clashes between security forces
and suspected Muslim rebels in southern Thailand left 112 dead in the bloodiest
day in the history of the troubled region, officials said.
The authorities said police and
soldiers battled armed groups who launched coordinated dawn attacks at
10 police stations and security checkpoints in the provinces of Yala, Pattani
and Songkhla near the Malaysian border.
Officials said the attackers were
mostly teenagers, poorly equipped with only machetes and a few guns. Television
footage showed their dead bodies being lifted from pools of blood and thrown
unceremoniously into trucks.
The last battlezone was at a mosque
outside Pattani provincial town, where 32 rebels who had holed up there
were killed when troops stormed the mosque -- one of the most important
in the region -- to end a six-hour standoff.
Army commander General Chaisit Shinawatra
said 107 attackers were killed in total, six were injured and 17 were arrested
while two soldiers and three police were killed and another 15 security
forces injured.
The attacks were the latest in a
series of bombings, raids and murders in Thailand's southern provinces,
which in the past four months have claimed the lives of some 65 security
forces, government officials and Buddhist monks.
Deputy Director of the Internal
Security Command, General Panlop Pinmanee, said it was "absolutely certain"
Wednesday's raids were mounted by separatists and that they were trained
by militant groups operating in the south.
Thaksin said the raiders were attempting
to steal weapons, and that he believed they were linked to a group which
carried out a January 4 attack on an army depot, killing four soldiers
and making off with hundreds of rifles.
"The purpose of the raid was to
steal weapons from government security forces which would then have been
sold," he said.
A prominent Thai human rights activist
told AFP on condition of anonymity that there were fears the government
spread false information about the checkpoints being unprotected in order
to lure the rebels out.
"In fact they were very well protected,"
he said.
Government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair
said authorities had not set out to commit "mass murder" but that they
had to deal decisively with the unrest.
"The government does not consider
this a victory and it is not happy about the large number of people who
died. No matter what side they were on they were all Thais," he told reporters.
However, Defence Minister Chettha
Thanajaro put a positive spin on the events and the deaths of so many rebels,
saying they "would be a positive factor as it could lead to an end to all
the turmoil".
And he confirmed the militants "complacently"
believed security forces were otherwise occupied guarding schools which
had come under attack last week.
Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist
nation but about five percent of the population is Muslim, and most live
in the five southern provinces bordering Malaysia.
The tranquil tourist islands of
Phuket and Samui are also in the south, but far from the border region
that has been plagued by separatist activity for four decades.
A separatist movement raged here
until the 1980s, but trouble flared again in recent years, sparking fears
militants have been mobilised by foreign terror groups like Osama bin Laden's
Al-Qaeda.
Islamic leaders said they feared
Wednesday's unprecedented violence would spark a major deterioration in
the south where resentment of central authority already runs high.
"The incident will definitely affect
Muslim people's feelings. They will have bad feelings towards authorities
and the turmoil will continue," said Abdul Rosue Aree, deputy chairman
of the Islamic Council in Narathiwat.
"I am really concerned that the
problems in the south will escalate even further."
