Mixed reception greets Thai PM on tour in Muslim south

Mixed reception greets Thai PM on tour in Muslim south

Trirat Puttajanyawong, Reuters/Narathiwat, Thailand

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra went to the homes of
alleged guerrilla leaders in the Muslim south on Friday, telling
their families and friends that militants would be treated fairly
if they surrendered.

However, his mixed reception from non-Thai-speaking locals,
who either failed to understand him or who were too intimidated
to talk, emphasized the problems faced by Bangkok's Buddhist
government in the restive Muslim-majority, ethnic Malay region.

In the village of Tanyong Limoh, where Muslim youths murdered
two captive marines last month in one of the grisliest episodes
of 21 months of violence, Thaksin's attempts to speak to
villagers were met by embarrassed silence.

"Does anyone know what happened that night? Anyone know? You
can be rewarded," he told women and children lined up to meet the
government delegation, which had roared into the quiet hamlet in
a 50-vehicle cavalcade.

Eventually, an official jumped in to save his blushes, asking
if anybody in the crowd knew the Prime Minister's name. A boy who
gave the correct answer was given 500 baht (US$12), the
equivalent of three days' unskilled labor.

Despite heavy security for Thaksin, who was traveling in an
armored Mercedes, two bombs exploded nearby during his visit.

One small blast detonated beside a road 20 minutes after
Thaksin's motorcade had passed, injuring a policeman. Another hit
a restaurant, injuring two television crewmen who had traveled
with Thaksin from Bangkok, police said.

Thaksin also visited the family of Sapaeing Bazo, a 69-year-
old religious teacher who has a 10 million baht ($250,000) bounty
on his head as a suspected mastermind of the unrest in which more
than 900 people have been killed.

"When he contacts you again, please tell him that the prime
minister has visited and guaranteed his safety," Thaksin told
Bazo's wife, Sadina Sulong, sitting alongside her and her
daughter in the living room of their two-storey home.

"If he doesn't feel comfortable, he could inform a provincial
governor or fly to Don Muang Airport and I will pick him up. I am
more than ready to give him justice," he said, referring to
Bangkok's airport.

Sadina said she did not think the surrender of her husband
would end unrest which has alarmed foreign investors and
governments, who fear it could draw in the likes of al-Qaeda.

"What we are afraid of is a kangaroo court," Sadina said in
Thai -- a second language for the Malay Muslims who make up the
vast majority of the 1.8 million people in the violence-hit
southernmost provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani.

Going through a list of Thailand's most wanted, Thaksin also
stopped off at the home of Romalee Utrasin, believed to be a
leader of the BRN Coordinate, one of several separatist groups
behind the intensifying violence.

"Please tell him the prime minister was here," he told a
relative of Romalee, who is accused of involvement in a
coordinated attack in July on the provincial capital of Yala in
which two policemen were killed.

The government has flooded the region with 30,000 troops and
police, but they have so far failed to make any headway in
stemming the unrest.

Their presence in what used to be an independent Muslim
sultanate until annexed by Bangkok 100 years ago has also stirred
local anger.