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October 3, 2006

Thailand: The Coup Has Not Stopped Muslim Violence

The Bangkok post yesterday reported that in Bacho district in Narathiwat province, a phone booth was set alight at 4.50 am on Monday morning. The fire was a lure. Police inspected the phone booth and filed a report. Three hours later, when members of the security task force and reporters from Channel 3 and Channel 5 arrived, a bomb was detonated, 12 feet away from the original fire. The bomb, made with urea fertiliser, damaged a reporter's car.

In the same province, a woman was shot dead as she rode her motorcycle with her son riding pillion behind. Montha Sa-ngiamjit, who lived in Si Sakhon district had just been shopping at a local market and was taking her son Jetsada home. They were trailed by two men on a motorcycle, who then opened fire. Jetsada escaped unharmed.

On Sunday (October 1), the Ban Don Rak school in Nong Chik district, Narathiwat province, was set on fire. The damage caused will take 3.5 million baht ($93,000) to repair.

Today, the Bangkok Post and the Nation report that this afternoon, a border patrol policewoman and her 13-year old son were shot and injured by two assailants on a motorcycle. 33-year old Police corporal Siriporn Sangkaharat and her son Saknarin were riding to their home in Than So, district, Yala province, on a motorcycle.

Following the shooting they were taken to hospital, the boy was in a serious condition. His mother had a broken arm, fractured by a bullet. They had been shot from behind. Saknarin was steering the motorcycle and his mother was riding pillion. One bullet had passed through Siriporn's body and lodged in her son's back.

A bomb went off in Bannang Sata district today. Hidden in a motorcycle, the bomb was detonated near a food shop where five military officers were eating. There were no injuries.

A man had been seen leaving the motorcycle outside the shop, and then running to the other side of the road. The bomb went off minutes afterwards. The vehicle had been reported stolen. The device had been detonated with an alarm clock but had not been well assembled, causing minimal damage.

In Songkhla province, a deputy village headman was shot while riding home on his motorcycle in Thepa district. Korde Baga was killed in the attack. Police suggested that it was the work of insurgents, but did not rule out the possibility of there being a personal conflict.

The Nation reports that a former terrorist from Jemaah Islamiyah, now a senator-elect in Narathiwat province, has asked the new prime minister, Surayud Chulanont, to include Thai Muslims from the south in the drafting of the constitution and law-making.

Waemahadee Waedaoh said that by doing this, the situation in the Muslim south would improve. "To solve the problem in the South effectively, first the National Assembly must include Thai Muslims on a proportionate basis," he said.

He also suggested that the suggestions formerly made by the now-disbanded National Reconciliation Commission should act as guidelines.

We reported that since the military coup of September 19 a "ruling body" called the Council for Democratic Reform (CDR) was formed, with General Sonthi Boonyaratkalin at its head. Sonthi led the coup.

The decision by the CDR to tamper with the constitution was a very unhealthy sign that the coup leaders' promises to return to democracy were hollow. Enacting a permanent constitution should be the duty of elected representatives. They placed 63 year old Surayud Chulanont as the acting prime minister of the country at the weekend.

To write the constitution, they nominated a panel of 26 individuals a week ago. On Sunday three pro-democracy advocates announced that they refused to be part of this panel.

The coup leaders had banned political campaigning, and have already started to suppress voices of dissent. At the weekend the coup leaders closed down the "Midnight University" website, an online academic forum with 600,000 visitors per month, because it contained critical comments about the coup and suspension of the democratic process. The Midnight University website had been in existence for six years, and was closed officially by the Information and Communications Technology Ministry following VDR recommendations.

Other websites, such as the new http://www.19Sep.org site have also been closed because of anti-coup sentiments being expressed.

Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister who was out of the country when the coup was taking place, is currently residing in exile in London, UK. He had been in New York for the UN General Assembly when the coup took place. Today, according to TNA English News and the Nation, Thaksin Shinawatra has announced that he has resigned as head of the Thai Rak Party.

He faxed a three page letter from London to the party headquarters, saying that he had to quit because while in power, the government had failed to implement the law in a way to keep Thailand in order. He said that as ruler, he should be responsible for the situation that led to the coup.

An interesting article on background of the situation in Thailand can be found in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at October 3, 2006 8:52 PM

Comments

Posted by: pigtails not veils at October 3, 2006 10:59 PM

Posted by: Funk Soul Bruhva at October 4, 2006 7:07 PM

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