Author:
Publication: CNN News
Date: April 29, 2004
URL: http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/04/28/thailand.violence.blame/index.html?headline=Thailand~split~over~deadly~attacks
Authorities in Thailand are bracing
for possible revenge attacks after police killed more than 100 assailants
in the predominantly Muslim south.
Many of those killed were buried
on Thursday with some relatives accusing police of using excessive force.
"These people only had machetes,"
Wahah Chemu, a relative of one of those killed, told the Associated Press.
"The authorities should not have
retaliated with weapons of war."
A split emerged between the country's
prime minister and his security forces over who was primarily responsible
for Wednesday's deadly attacks.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
is placing the blame for the violence -- which saw as many as 107 people
killed -- on criminal gangs trying to protect their illegal activities.
But his own defense minister and
military top brass appear to contradict him, linking the attacks to Islamic
separatists angry over their treatment in the predominantly Buddhist nation.
Vithaya Visetrat, a prominent Islamic
cleric in the provincial capital of Pattani, said the crackdown could widen
the scale of the conflict.
"It is the beginning of the people's
war," he told The Associated Press.
Shinawatra said on Wedesday that
the attackers were motivated by crime.
"We will uproot them, depriving
them of a chance to allude to issues of separatism and religion. In the
end, they were all bandits," he told reporters.
But Thai Defence Minister Chettha
Thanajaro said the attacks were carried out by Muslim separatists, adding
that they may have received assistance from abroad.
He described the attackers as "well
trained" and said that worse was yet to come.
Thailand's 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.
And one of Thaksin's own security
advisers said the attacks could have been coordinated by separatists.
"The incidents were pulled together
by separatist movements and gangs of drug dealers and contraband smugglers,"
Lieutenant-General Kitti Ratanachaya told Bangkok television.
Gangs of machete-wielding youths,
clad in black and wearing headbands, stormed 15 police and security bases
or checkpoints at dawn on Wednesday in three Musln- dominated southern
provinces -- Yala, Pattani and Songkhla.
Police and security -- who are believed
to have received a tip-off the raids were going to happen -- opened fire
on the attackers.
It is believed the raids were an
apparent bid to seize weapons and ammunition.
Thai government spokesman Jakrapob
Penkair said the attacks were the work of gangs, including drug smugglers,
trying to cover up their illegal activities.
"It looks like political maneuvering,
[rather] than religious or ideological," Jakrapob said.
"Because the Muslims [in southern
Thailand] are and have been very peaceful and moderate.
"They have no tendency of linking
... themselves and the so-called Muslim extremist groups outside Thailand."
"Local people trained to do these
attacks and fighting, but we are seeking to find out who are the masterminds
behind all this," Jakrapob said.
Others disagree.
While the southern region of Thailand
region is a hotbed of crime, feeding off a lucrative cross-border smuggling
trade with neighboring Malaysia, analysts say that does not explain why
so many of Wednesday's attackers were young, Muslim and appeared ready
to die.
"Those who died must have believed
they were dying for their religion," Ahmad Somboon Bualang of Pattani's
University of Prince Songkhla told Reuters.
"They must have had an ideology
beyond separatism, otherwise why would they attack with their bare hands
and swords?"
More than 150 people have died since
unrest began in early January in Thailand's restive Muslim-dominated southern
provinces, but Wednesday's violence is the worst single incident to date.
Bangkok has been facing mounting
criticism over its handling of the violence amid fears that outside terrorist
forces could be stirring the trouble.
Last week, 50 government buildings
were torched in a single night and fears are growing that Thai citizens
may soon become increasingly drawn into the violence.
-- CNN Producer Narunart Prapanya
and Correspondent Stan Grant contributed to this report
