Thai Muslim Soccer Team Turned Militant Overnight

Reuters via Yahoo! ^ | Friday, April 30, 2004, 7:57 AM ET | Nopporn Wong-Anan

[SlickWillard]

 
BAAN SUSOE, Thailand (Reuters) - The shooting of an entire team of 19 soccer players from the same Muslim village in southern Thailand after they attacked a security checkpoint has left relatives stunned, mystified and outraged.

Reuters Photo

Revelations about the soccer team give a disturbing insight into the minds if not the motives of those involved in Wednesday's violence, in which troops shot dead 108 machete and gun-toting militants after coming under attack.

Three days after defending their annual county soccer title, the "All Stars" team of Baan Susoe village near the Malaysian border mounted nine motorcycles and rode 23 km (15 miles) through the night to launch a dawn attack on a security checkpoint.

They planned to steal weapons from the soldiers, local people said, but armed only with machetes against the automatic rifles of Thai troops who had already been tipped off, they didn't stand a chance. Five members of the security forces were killed.

One of the youths, who were all aged between 19 and 26, managed to strike a soldier with his blade. The rest were all shot dead before they even got close.

Relatives of one of the dead, 20-year-old Kamaruding Baeprommi, told Reuters he had had the potential to become a soccer superstar for Thailand's national team.

"He started playing soccer when he was eight and was very good," said Pitaya Baeprommi, Kamaruding's elder brother and head of the village sports club.

"He had the potential to become a national superstar so I encouraged him to go into the army and play soccer. He represented his barracks in an army regional tournament," Pitaya said.

There was no sign that his younger brother, whose 21-year-old wife Koriya Samae was three months pregnant with their first child, would have committed a crime until the eve of the attack, Pitaya said.

"On that night he came home from his wife's with a suitcase and told his mother that he would go on a Dahwah," Pitaya said, referring to an Islamic religious mission.

DRIVEN BY DRUGS, OR ISLAM?

Government officials said tests had shown four of the "All Stars" used a heady mixture of methamphetamine and marijuana before launching the motorcycle raid.

"We also found prayer beads and five commandments written in the Malay dialect, Yawi, in their backpacks," local district official Suvej Taepee, told Reuters.

Four of the 19 men had also been teachers at an Islamic primary school in the village, he said.

Residents acknowledged the "All Stars" might well have smoked marijuana, a habit common throughout the impoverished area, but they described their friends as "local heroes," as dedicated to Islam as they were to soccer.

"This is excessively brutal," said Sutha Lohpanasa, 35, a teacher at a school in a nearby village whose 19-year-old nephew was also among the dead.

"Every single one of them had bullets in their heads. The officers knew nothing about human rights. They were all sharp-shooters," he said.

"My nephew and many of his friends were good lads. His daily life was going to school, praying, and practicing soccer. We knew nothing of his bad behavior."

Kamaruding's new widow, Koriya, was shell-shocked by her husband's death.

"I am devastated. I don't know what to do now. I will stay single and go back and live with my family," she said, fighting back tears.
 

[xm177e2]

"Every single one of them had bullets in their heads. The officers knew nothing about human rights. They were all sharp-shooters," he said.

Where is that human right listed? The one that gives you the right to start a terrorist group, attack a bunch of soldiers, and then escape without being killed?

[BrooklynGOP]

A "militant" muslim is one who blows himself up in a crowd of civilians, a "moderate" muslim is the one who sends him. ie, Arafat is a "moderate".

[Bogey78O]

Militant muslims are the ones you've got your back towards. Moderate ones are the ones you're holding a gun to their head.

[zip]

Worth repeating.

again no comdenation from their families.... NO sense of grief for what they tried to do... just criticism that the military were too good of shots....

[mtbopfuyn]

They win the trophy but then go on a killing rampage? That makes no sense at all. There's much more to this story.

[KevinDavis]

Actually there are "soccer" riots in Europe.. I think Soccer and Islam is deadly.

[cricket]

"again no comdenation from their families.... NO sense of grief for what they tried to do"

Yes, this "left relatives stunned, mystified and outraged"; apparently this supercedes 'grieving' and 'remorse'.

Koriya shocked; and 'fighting back tears'offers 'I will stay single and go back and live with my family," . . .

all these people had to know more. . .but yes, Koriya; it is "time to pack up and move on".

[null and void]

A "militant" muslim is one who blows himself up in a crowd of civilians, a "moderate" muslim is the one who sends him. ie, Arafat is a "moderate".

Then there IS hope. Arafat used to be a militant, in that he made his name firebombing schoolbusses...

[kabar]

Sounds like a shutout to me. It's going to be a long season for the home team.

[Nebr FAL owner]

The "moderate muslim" simple screams that you are an infidel & the you deserve to die for being the bastard offspring of pigs & monkeys.

The "militant muslim " tries to remove your head from your shoulders with a machete or tries to murder you & your loved ones by any means that they can come up with.

Simple to define but d**ned difficult to tell sheep from goats in the P.C. world though.

[AmericanVictory]

What is this "human right" to pick up a machete and kill people? Must be a special Muslim "human right."

[eyespysomething]

remote control?

[JimSEA]

armed only with machetes against the automatic rifles of Thai troops who had already been tipped off, they didn't stand a chance.

The young Islamists who killed the Buddhist monks, town officials and rubber plantation workers were also "only" armed with machetes and riding their motorcycles. We are all fortunate that this time, the ones attacked were prepared.

[ChuckShick]

I guess there won't be any soccer practice tomorrow.

[steveegg]

"This is excessively brutal," said Sutha Lohpanasa, 35, a teacher at a school in a nearby village whose 19-year-old nephew was also among the dead.

"Every single one of them had bullets in their heads. The officers knew nothing about human rights. They were all sharp-shooters," he said.

No, excessively brutal would be hacking them up like the "soccer" team wanted to do. I somehow doubt that the Islamokazis were waving white flags at any point in all this, and since they were the aggressors, it was incumbent on them to stop.

[steveegg]

On a related note, I wonder what the soccer moms think about this one.

[btcusn]

"Moderate" Muslims are the ones who haven't yet picked up arms.Yea, but mow the're GOOD muslims.
Jack

[olde north church]

It is quite ironic when you to think in America "liberal mothers and fathers against anything a kid might find even remotely fun" (LMFAAKMFERF) has taken the good ol' American cap pistol or BB gun out of the hands of countless 8 year olds while halfway across the world, 8 year olds are being given their first AK-47s.
Maybe the best thing that could be done to help the kids in this country would be to take away the ritalin, let the kids beat each other up, play dodge ball, and pick on each other and look at playboy magazines, smoke cigarettes that were stolen from the ash tray, you get the picture. Maybe we wouldn't wind up with so many kids who are so high strung by the time they are 13 years they walk into school and blow each other apart.
It's very nice to be able to allow a child to get to know him/her self but their is also a time for swift kicks in the ass and threats of humiliation in from of their friends.
Billy the Kid didn't listen to gangsta rap
Leopold and Loeb didn't have any access to the internet
Jack the Ripper didn't play video games.
If you say the videos of the two "Columbine Kids", they weren't disturbed, they were just two little je*k-offs with nothing but time and bad attitudes.

[btcusn]

mow = now.
Jack

[Charles Martel]

I don't mean to nit-pick, but this seems odd:

They planned to steal weapons from the soldiers, local people said, but armed only with machetes against the automatic rifles of Thai troops who had already been tipped off, they didn't stand a chance. Five members of the security forces were killed.

One of the youths, who were all aged between 19 and 26, managed to strike a soldier with his blade. The rest were all shot dead before they even got close.

"Friendly fire", perhaps?