FPI members threatening jihad in Thailand misled: Deputy PM
FPI members threatening jihad in Thailand misled: Deputy PM
Agence France-Presse, Bangkok
Indonesian activists threatening to wage holy war in defense of fellow Muslims in Thailand's south are blind to the realities on the ground, a Thai deputy prime minister said on Friday as a soldier was killed in the violence-plagued region.
Chavalit Yongchaiyudh rejected comments by two dozen members of the hardline Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI), who gathered outside Thailand's embassy in Jakarta on Thursday to protest the "slaughter" of Muslims in majority Buddhist Thailand.
"These are people who live far away and they don't know what the reality was, so they believe the Thai government attacked and killed (Muslims), but the true fact is we were under attack," Chavalit told reporters.
"These are fellow Muslims who do not have information about the incident," added the deputy premier who is in charge of national security.
Violence in Thailand's south escalated dramatically on April 28 when 108 suspected Muslim rebels were killed as they mounted disastrous coordinated assaults on police stations and checkpoints.
The attacks culminated in the controversial storming of a historic mosque, resulting in the deaths of all 32 suspected militants hiding inside and triggering international concern.
Chavalit was unmoved by the Islamic group's call for jihad if more Muslims were killed in the south. "If we are concerned about every little thing we will get indigestion," he said.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra dismissed the Jakarta demonstration as "really nothing," saying only five members of the Islamic group went to the embassy to inquire about the incidents in the south.
"When embassy officials explained and told them about the remarks made by Thailand's Muslim spiritual leader (supporting suppression of the unrest), they were satisfied and left," Thaksin said.
Thaksin on Friday slammed foreign media coverage of violent unrest in the kingdom's south, criticizing reports by journalists who "know nothing" about the situation.
The premier said Thai-based foreign correspondents are one- sided and their reports do not represent the true nature of the conditions in the region, where a Muslim insurgency has flared this year and last month saw Thailand's bloodiest day in recent history with over 100 suspected Muslim rebels killed.
"Those media know nothing, they just write reports every day without taking any responsibility," Thaksin told reporters at Government House.
"Foreign countries understand us, but foreign media who live in Thailand do not have a friendship with this government, they like the previous government."
"They don't think how their reports will affect the nation," he continued, "they just think about ruining it first."
A Muslim separatist insurgency raged in the south until the 1980s but the movement fragmented and attacks had dropped off until the start of the year, when a deadly raid on an arms depot heralded a new wave of violence that has left some 80 people dead in addition to the suspected rebels.
The violence continued early Friday with the killing of a soldier as he drove his wife to work at a school in Yala province.
"He was shot several times in front of the school by two men on a motorcycle," a policeman told AFP.
On Thursday a security volunteer was shot four times on his way to work in Yala, also by motorcycle gunmen, and was being treated at hospital. Police said he was likely shot by assailants seeking to further the unrest.
Thaksin has welcomed overtures by the head of umbrella Muslim separatist movement Bersatu, Wan Abdul Kadir, who said he sought to enter peace talks with Thai authorities.