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.