The moose-limbs terrorize and mass murder all members of all religions. Since 624AD.
The gentle beheaded Buddhists of Thailand are on the right (the Wheel of Life).
Posted on 07/15/2005 4:22:46 AM PDT by Cornpone
BANGKOK - Beheadings, car bombs, roadside blasts, drive-by shootings, assassinated government officials and a body count heading for four figures -- 19 months of unrest in Thailand’s Muslim south have an ominous and familiar ring.
“There was a report in The New York Times over a month ago about Iraq. If you took out ’Iraq’ and put in ’Thailand’ the story would have read fine,” said Brian Dougherty of Bangkok-based security consultants Hill and Associates.
“It’s a smaller scale, of course, but...”
In the latest incident since violence flared in January 2004, suspected Muslim separatists wreaked havoc in Yala, a southern provincial capital, plunging the sleepy town into darkness with a series of bombs at electricity substations.
Around 60 men then went on a shooting and arson spree in which two policemen were killed on Thursday night. The militants also scattered metal spikes on three main roads in the town, 1,100 km (690 miles) south of Bangkok, to hamper security forces.
The attacks prompted a now familiar response from Bangkok -- an emergency cabinet meeting, followed by a shake up of the security structure in the predominantly Muslim region which Buddhist Thailand annexed just over a century ago.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra assumed direct control of security operations in the three southernmost provinces, bypassing commanders of the 30,000 troops stationed there.
However, under the new emergency decree, the government also reaffirmed its commitment to tap mobile phones to try to improve its intelligence gathering -- an area in which it so far appears to have been lacking woefully.
“Our intelligence is very poor. We must improve it,” Deputy Yala governor Winyu Thongsakul told a Bangkok radio station, conceding Thursday’s attacks had taken security forces by surprise.
BRAINS NOT BRAWN?
Since mystery militants raided an army barracks in January 2004 to kick off the latest wave of unrest in a historically troubled region, more than 800 people have been killed in southern Thailand.
The violence has included roadside blasts targeting military patrols and detonated by mobile phone, and the beheading of at least 10 Buddhists -- both eerily redolent of Iraq’s insurgency.
Security forces have also been accused of atrocities, in particular when 78 Muslims died in the back of army trucks following protests against the arrest of Muslim villagers.
Against this backdrop, Thaksin’s policies have bounced from the conciliatory to the iron-fisted to the down-right bizarre.
In December, the Air Force “bombed” the restive provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat with millions of origami doves, even though community leaders said the symbolism was lost on a region where 80 percent of people are Muslim and speak Malay, not Thai.
Alongside promises of lavish development aid -- which southern Muslims complain never materialised -- the government has also announced plans to buy seven attack helicopters and 25,000 rifles and machine guns.
Thaksin has also ordered the Defence Ministry to build pilotless spy drones and suggested a security wall be built along the 500 km (300 mile) border with Malaysia to prevent militant infiltration -- a suggestion which infuriated Kuala Lumpur.
Analysts say throwing up fences and flooding the region with troops is unlikely to make any difference until the government has a clearer idea about who or what it is fighting.
Farish Noor, a Malaysian academic who recently interviewed an ageing separatist guerrilla leader now in hiding in Sweden, said the militants appeared to be young men aged 16-21, operating in small and fairly independent cells.
They probably received inspiration from the separatist rebellion in the 1970s and 1980s and training from Thai Muslims who have spent time in Afghanistan or Pakistan, he added.
“Politically, I don’t think they have a programme. I think their intention is simply to cause chaos and embarrass the Thai government,” Noor said.
There is no concrete evidence of involvement by international militant networks such as Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda or its southeast Asian affiliate, Jemaah Islamiah, but analysts fear it is only a matter of time before they get drawn in.
“Battling people like this is never easy,” said Dougherty. ”They need to narrow down who it is.”
Politically, I don’t think they have a programme. I think their intention is simply to cause chaos and embarrass the Thai government,” Noor said.
This is a direct response to the illegal American occupation of Thailand.
I'm sure the Jews have something to do with this. And Sudan, Phillipines, Chad, Iran, Chechnya etc...
More likely it is in reaction to the Zionist occupation of Palestine!
The moose-limbs terrorize and mass murder all members of all religions. Since 624AD.
The gentle beheaded Buddhists of Thailand are on the right (the Wheel of Life).
"Analysts say throwing up fences and flooding the region with troops is unlikely to make any difference until the government has a clearer idea about who or what it is fighting."
Why is this so difficult for people to understand. It's Muslims. sheesh
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.