Thailand Crisis

In the face of on-going deep-South violence, public health workers, police officers, soldiers and teachers are all suffering from constant stress.

“They feel something can happen at any time,” Mental Health Department director general ML Somchai Chakrabhand says.

From January last year to March this year, there have been almost 1,400 incidents involving violence in the region. They have claimed the lives of 735 people and injured 2,763.

Somchai was speaking at a three-day national seminar tackling the crisis at Songkhla. (Nation)

This can be seen as the success for the insurgents. The terror campaign is probably not -just- a matter of body count… but rather a mean to spread fear… leading the thais, officials (”teachers are fleeing“) and civilians… to just leave the battleground.

Eventually, it’s easy to think that… “ethnic cleansing is going on“.

Exactly when there is a censure debate at the Parliament and when the Interior Minister says that the level of violence in the South is decreasing (which is true)… the violence starts again.

SATURDAY
Insurgents wearing military fatigues attacked a Sungai Kolok-Yala train. They shot at SRT employees, including railway police, when the train reached Narathiwat’s Rangae district. Four people were killed.

MONDAY
A fierce jungle gunbattle Monday between Thai forces and suspected separatists left seven insurgents dead and four security personnel wounded in the southern province of Yala, police said.

TUESDAY
Four soldiers and six local residents were injured when the bomb, weighing about 15 kilogrammes, went off at a pork stall at the Pimonchai market. (Yala province)
A witness said a man in his thirties parked a bicycle there and that a bomb placed on the bike was remotely detonated when a group of soldiers were passing the place.

The good point with generals -whatever their country, their side, their time- is that when they are loosing… they often react in the same way, with the same words.

Take for instance General Anupong, the Army Chief.

In a very bold move, he has set up a deadline.

He has set the army an ambitious target of quelling the southern violence and bringing the area under control by next year, an army source said yesterday (Bangkok Post)

Hum. Now, that’s impressive. Since 4 years, the thai security forces are ridiculed, a total of 2 700 people were killed, 8 000 wounded… but the General Anupong wants to solve the issue in one year.

One question arises : why one year ? What are the operational datas/informations that allow General Anupong to set such deadline ?

According to the source, Gen Anupong’s timeline announcement is part of a strategy to strengthen soldiers’ motivation and change their current mindset, which is that the situation cannot be improved for the time being and will take decades to solve.

”Despite the tough task, it is necessary to set the troops a goal,’‘ the source said. ”Otherwise they will lack a sense of purpose under the mistaken impression the violence will drag on without any effective remedy for a couple more decades.

”It is important to set deadlines so that the soldiers reach the desired goal within a fixed timeframe.”

It’s useless to comment furthermore…

With such generals in their tight uniform….the separatist, rebels, terrorists in the South (whatever you wish to call them)…. have indeed a rozy and bright future.

Five construction workers were shot dead and one wounded when gunmen opened fire in Pattani’s Yarang district as the crew were heading to work site, police said.

Authorities blamed the attack on Malay separatists in the restive region where about 3,000 have been died since January 2004.

A pedestrian from Yala on his way to Pattani said traffic was held up for several hours as soldiers launched a massive man hunt for the gunmen and remove the spikes on the road scattered by the insurgents as they were fleeing.

In a separate incident, a roadside bomb went off, injuring two soldiers conducting foot patrol with his unit in Narathiwat’s Joh I Rong district. Investigating officers who arrived at the scene were also lured by a mysterious about 300 meters away near a local train stop. The box was a fake bomb, a popular tactic employed by insurgents to divert authorities’ attention and slow down their work. (Nation)

You’ll notice the striking expression “malay separatists” ! I never read this in Nation.

What an irony… A few years ago… the “malay separatists” were “mafia“, “criminals“, “drug dealers“. After, they were upgraded to “terrorists“, then “insurgents“, “rebels“…

It’s interesting to follow the evolution of the words used by officials and the press.

That tells a lot.

Last point : the tactic of the secondary -but fake- explosive devices. Before, after a first bomb attack, a second bomb exploded after the arrival of security forces on the site, in order to create maximum chaos.

Now that the army knows this tactic… the insurgents (sorry the malay separatists)… do the same… but with fakes ! Must be a terrible fight of nerves.

Suphawit Mitjan, 26, was ambushed Wednesday night while driving to a shrimp farm in Nong Chik, Pattani.

The victim was first shot with a M-16 rifle and then decapitated with an axe, said Colonel Akkara Thiproj, spokesman for the southern region command.

Suphawit was the 37th decapitation recorded in the deep South, comprising Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala provinces - since the region’s long simmering separatist struggle took a turn for the worse over the past four years, said Akkara. (Nation)

Furthermore, a bomb exploded on the scene, when officials arrived. Two people were injured.

It’s a classic insurgents’s tactic.

Teachers, among other civil servants, have always been a target “de choix” for the insurgents in the South (assassinations, schools burnings), because they represent the “thai state” and because they’re the medium of the “thainisation” of the children in the South.

We can see that, unfortunatly, the terror campain is working : the teachers are fleeing. To the north. To Thailand if I may say.

 More than 200 teachers in four districts of Songkhla province have asked to be transferred for safety reasons as they have been targeted by militants.

Soljai Wiboonkij, director of Songkhla’s education zone 3 office, said his office has been flooded with letters asking for transfers out of the violence-prone districts sent by terrified teachers since early this month, when the last semester ended. Education zone 3 covers four districts _ Chana, Thepha, Na Thawi and Saba Yoi _ which border the three restive southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.

There are 208 schools and 2,700 teachers under the office’s jurisdiction.   (Bangkok Post)

It looks like an administrative cleansing with an ethnic/religious cleansing as the background.

What will happen if Bangkok is unable to maintain a proper state apparatus in the South, because most of the civil servants refuse to stay there ?

Three people were killed in separatist attacks in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south, bringing the death toll from the four-year conflict to more than 3,000, police said Wednesday.

Two militants shot dead a 72-year-old Buddhist grocer at his store in Yala, one of three provinces roiled by violence along the southern border with Malaysia, police said.

The two men fled, but were stopped at a nearby military checkpoint where they were killed in a 10-minute gun fight, they added.

The latest killings brought the toll in the conflict to 3,002 dead, while thousands more have been injured in daily shootings, bombings and arsons across the region, according to police. (AFP)

A very interesting piece published by Bangkok Post, that gives us another view on the generals elections in Malaysia last week-end (that were a real blow to the Prime Minister).

 Malaysian voters put opposition parties in all three of the Malaysian states on Thailand’s southern border. More importantly, the presence of separatist-friendly Islamist governments doubled.

The Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) kept control of Kelantan state and added Kedah. For the first time, Islamist governments will rule Malaysian states abutting all five Muslim-majority provinces in the South.

In addition to parts of Yala, Kedah borders the province of Satun _ which has seen no violence since the southern insurgency flared up in 2004. It also borders on three Songkhla province districts where terrorist-type violence has spread.

We shall aknowledge that it’s a little revolution, regarding the way thai politicians are talking about the South. At least… in words.

The new Interior Minister has pronounced the infamous “A” word !

Consideration will be given to setting up an autonomous area in the far South, using models adapted from China or Germany, as a means of redressing the violence in the region, Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung yesterday. ”I am looking for new solutions. The violence must be reduced,” he said.

”I haven’t decided on granting autonomy, but a communist nation like China allows Xinjiang to be an autonomous region with its own elections.

”Funds are allocated to the region and there is no fighting there.

This also happens in Germany, where they have their own budget and elections.

”I will see if any of the formulas being used in these two countries can be applied in the South,’‘ the new interior minister said.  (Bangkok Post)

However, our enthusiasm is quickly to be washed away : the Interior Minister shows an astonishing lack of culture and common sense by putting on the same level China and… Germany, and to think that these “formulas” can be applied to the South of Thailand…
I mean : even a child should know that Germany is a federal state ! Therefore, german landers (regions) have indeed some autonomy. But again, it’s impossible to compare this situation with China ! And with Thailand of course.

And then what to think about his reasoning “german and chinese allocate money in these regions, and organize elections, therefore there is no fighting” ? I mean ! Jeez even by thai standards, the minister has broken the wall of stupidity !

It’s hopeless.

Pattani - One person was killed and 11 other persons were injured when insurgents detonated a bomb at a pier where Buddhists were gathering to release fish into the river in a merit making ceremony Monday.

Yala - Three policemen and three women were injured when insurgents detonated a bomb to attack the police officers Monday. (Nation)

That will of course fuel the… religious aspect of this conflict (that the authorities continue to deny, with force, against all the evidences).

We could call that a “very unfortunate concomitance”…

WONDERLAND

Chief of Army “says the government’s work to tackle insurgency in the three Southern border provinces has been improving as local people has shown more cooperation with the authorities.

The army chief adds that the army is adjusting solutions to the insurgency problem in line with peaceful means in order to end violence as soon as possible. He also expresses his confidence that the situation in the deep South will alleviate. ” (PRD)

MEANWHILE : 7 WOUNDED

“Pattani - Insurgents detonated a bomb to ambush a military bus carrying 30 soldiers, injuring seven of them.”Insurgents placed a homemade bomb on a tree branch and detonated it with a remote control when the bus was approaching the spot. The insurgents also opened fire at the bus before retreating.” (Nation)

MEANWHILE : 1 KILLED, 2 WOUNDED

“An ambush in Pattani’s Yarang district Tueday killed one soldier and injured two other while they joined a four-member patrol on the road.
The gunmen hiding in a mosque fired to the group when they were on a pick up truck passing through the area at about 10 a.m.” (Nation)

The Chief of Army continues to live in Wonderland… Far away in another galaxy. Does he believe his own lies ? We can doubt it.

Look at the figures of the violences in the South (click here)…

Where is the improvement ?