Time to actively promote peace

Pravit Rojanaphruk, The Nation, Asia News Network, Bangkok

The window of opportunity to restore peace in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat is closing fast in the aftermath of the violent crackdown on 3,000 protesters outside Tak Bai district police station,

in which six protesters were killed at the scene and more than 80 died en route from the protest site to a military camp. The government described the latter deaths as unintentional, saying the men suffocated after being packed into trucks. Most of the men, it claimed, were weak due to the Ramadhan fast and the fact that the protest had lasted for seven hours before being broken up.

To add insult to tragedy, Prime Minister Thaksin claimed that many of the young men who gathered in protest outside the police station to demand the unconditional release of six suspects accused of giving government-issued weapons to Islamic militants were under the influence of drugs. This, despite the fact that the protest occurred during the holy fast of Ramadhan.

Any suggestion that these young Thai-Malay Muslims had taken drugs is truly an insult and affront to many locals. Many locals have also rejected the government's claim that more than 80 deaths were accidental. The fact that the prime minister hasn't made any apology or expressed any sense of contrition has made even moderate locals here bitter.

"They [the state] didn't treat them like humans," said Niraman Sulaiman, a lawyer and member of civil society in Pattani. "(The protesters) were squeezed into trucks like canned fish and the canvass covering the trucks can't have helped."

He added that if security officials were at all sensitive, they would have offered some water to the captured protesters, who were largely unarmed. Alas, nothing was offered, no precautions were taken and the result was nothing short of tragic.

As relatives reclaimed the bodies of their loved ones and started preparing them for burial, the long history of mutual distrust between the Buddhist central government and predominately Muslim southern people showed signs of repeating itself. For the past 10 months, this distrust has been fanned by near daily tit-for-tat killings, numbering more than 400 to date.

The mysterious disappearance of respected Muslim lawyer Somchai Neelapaichit remains unresolved, despite the fact that a number of police officers have been arrested and nearly a half a year has passed. The broadly condemned, state-sanctioned massacre of scores of Islamic militants at Krue Se Mosque in April is still fresh in the minds of local residents. These conditions will never be conducive to peace, yet the Thaksin administration seems to have learned nothing from the past, recent or remote.

On a different front, Bangkok's restrictive, top-down rule over the provinces, leaving no room for locals to elect their own state officials, only makes locals who are religiously and culturally different feel more like they are colonists on their very own soil. It is no wonder that just hours after the protest was violently dispersed on Monday, a school in Narathiwat was set on fire. School, in this context, has become a symbol of Buddhist-Bangkok's hegemony, a tool for brainwashing.

Isn't it time that Buddhists and Muslims who are part of civil society become more pro-active and pro-peace and not sit back and allow the government to cruelly commit further injury? The Thaksin administration has proven itself not only incapable of handling the conflict, but also very capable of exacerbating it. If no pro-active peace initiatives are introduced soon, it is not unthinkable that the conflict could spill over into communal violence, perhaps creeping north to Bangkok.

A clear message must be sent to the government that people want peace, not war, and that they must have a role to play in bringing about this peace. If any separatist ideology truly exists among some Thai-Malay Muslims, then let there be space for dialogue, a place to talk free from fear and a process to seek solutions peacefully.

It's time to stop the self-denial and start talking about outside influences, drugs and bribes. It's time to face the truth of the pain that has been laid upon the grieving families of both sides, and start discussing problems openly and humanely.

Thai citizens, especially those in Bangkok, can continue to ignore the situation and behave as a mere spectators, or even consumers of the daily news of the killings. However, if things escalate, the people will end up reactive. The issue is no longer just about restoring law and order -- it's about respecting our fellow humans.