Violence in southern Thailand unlikely to end soon

Violence in southern Thailand unlikely to end soon

Pravit Rojanaphruk, The Nation, Asia News Network, Bangkok

Wednesday was a tragic day for all Thai people, and not just
for those in Pattani and the nearby provinces. An ancient mosque,
a house of God and sanctuary for Muslims, became a site of
carnage, splattered with blood and bullets.

Anyone who thinks that the killings of the 107 young
separatist rebels, including 32 who fled into the mosque, during
their raid on 10 police posts was a stunning victory should pause
and consider history.

The tension between Malay-speaking Muslims in the deep South
and the hegemonic central Thai government has during its long
history led to numerous killings. And there obviously is no
shortage of people willing to be killed.

Interestingly, nearly 56 years ago to the day, fighting broke
out in Narathiwat on April 26, 1948, degenerating over the course
of the next two days into an open battle during which 400 Muslim
peasants and 30 police officers were killed, according to
Thammasat University historian Thanet Abhornsuwan. During the
subsequent suppression by the government, 2,000 to 6,000 people
fled to what was then Malaya. This was not the first such
incident, nor is the one that took place on Wednesday likely to
be the last.

Wednesday's killings, which included the deaths of five
security officials, will go down in history as a failure on the
part of the government and Thai society at large to deal with a
religious minority group in a peaceful -- or at least a less
bloody -- fashion.

The National Human Rights Commission must investigate whether
it was necessary to kill the 32 insurgents holed up inside Krue
Se mosque less than seven hours after being surrounded by the
government's forces.

Gen. Pallop Pinmanee, deputy director of the Internal Security
Operation Command, who was in charge of the situation, ordered
the killings despite Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit
Yongchaiyudh's instruction not to storm the mosque.

Pallop's scanty excuses that a mob of angry villagers was
brewing and that he didn't know what would happen it darkness
fell are an affront to the government's ability to control
potentially deadly situations more humanely and sensitively.
Unfortunately the events on Wednesday can be placed within a
context.

The Thai government, regardless of who is at its head, has
always opposed any move towards greater respect for the South's
history, religions, culture and ultimately its right to self-
determination. Martial law has been put into effect numerous
times in recent decades; locally elected governors are not
allowed; and Islamic religious leaders appointed by Bangkok seem
to toe the government line.

And so at dawn on Wednesday, the rebels, feeling alienated in
their very own homeland, shouted "God is great" as they began
their near suicidal charge, some armed only with knives, swords,
daggers and holy books.

Sadly, it's not just the state, but also the media, especially
television, and the Thai people at large who let their Muslim
brethren down. Most Thai television networks were expansive,
grandly proclaiming that at last, after four months of violence,
a large number of these drug-addicted "bandits", to use prime
minister Thaksin Shinawatra's word, had been killed. Meanwhile,
if one watched or listened to the BBC, one got a different
version of the events. Issues like discrimination against Muslims
in the deep South were mentioned.

"If we can maintain exports, then there is no problem," a news
anchorman on Channel 11 said in English that night, seemingly
unaware of the socio-political repercussions of such statements.

Just hours after the carnage, the nearly defunct Pattani
United Liberation Organization reacted to the day's events by
warning on its website for tourists not to visit the deep South.
"Patani (sic) people are not responsible for anything happens to
you after this warning," read the message posted in less-than
perfect English.

"This is like a nightmare which had never occurred before,"
said another highly popular news personality on Channel 9,
shortly after 11 p.m., seemingly oblivious to local history.

Looking beyond the media to civil society, we recently heard
prominent anthropologists, the supposed masters of cross-cultural
understanding, admitting in public during a seminar that little
had been done to study the area's cultures or the issue of
violence in Thai society.

No human rights or peace groups stepped in during the seven-
hour siege to help prevent the government's mass killings at Krue
Se mosque.

If the people in the South are so fanatical about upon having
a separate, independent Islamic state, then it appears that many
of us are now equally fanatical in defending the territorial
integrity of what we believe is Thai soil. Or has it been that
way for all along?