Thaksin vows crackdown on weapons in southern Thailand

Thaksin vows crackdown on weapons in southern Thailand

Associated Press/Bangkok

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed on Saturday to purge southern Thailand of illegal war weapons being used daily in deadly attacks.

Four Buddhists -- one a young student -- were killed in the latest outburst of violence, police said.

Thaksin said he would travel on Sunday to the southern province of Narathiwat, scene of some of the most intense rebel activity, to personally supervise the operation.

"I will have to launch a massive crackdown on weapons. We will use both a soft approach and an iron fist to sweep out these people. Innocent people don't have to fear or worry," Thaksin said in his weekly radio address.

Thaksin's government has been sharply criticized at home and abroad for using strong-arm methods rather than trying to win the hearts and minds of the country's Muslim minority.

In an apparent spate of revenge killings, suspected Muslim separatists have targeted ordinary Buddhists, including monks, shopkeepers and students, following the deaths of 85 Muslims on Oct. 25 in a riot broken up by government forces.

On Friday evening, two men on a motorcycle shot and killed 17- year-old vocational school student Nattapong Wangmaetakul as he rode his motorcycle home from school in yet another part of Narathiwat, said police Lt. Sukhum Sawadichart.

Thaksin said the attackers were trying "to show that there is religious conflict ... killing Thai Buddhists every day."

"There may have been some mistakes in the way this was done, and we've set up an independent panel which is investigating this. This will make the truth clear," he said.

Thaksin said weapons stolen from the government were previously thought to have been illegally sold abroad, but authorities now believe "they're circulating around here."

"These are what they're using to kill," Thaksin said.

Earlier, the government had repeatedly said that large numbers of stolen weapons and explosives had been sold to rebel groups in Indonesia.

"The people who are creating unrest, instigating the violence, are doing so to force the government to negotiate on the separatist issue. They can wait until the next life, but I'll never talk with them. I won't allow separatism to occur," Thaksin said.