AI
Saturday, November 06, 2004 8:20:23 PM
Thailand bracing for worse violence: PM
In the Pacific Theatre 'on the campaign against terrorism' Australia and the US agreed that South East Asia was a key front.
#msg-3542419
Much of the South East Asian front will be centered around the Malacca Strait.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said during a visit to Singapore that he hoped to have US troops fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia "pretty soon". His comments fuelled speculation that the United States wants to deploy US forces in the Strait of Malacca, the narrow and busy shipping lane straddled by Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore that is seen as a likely terrorist target.
More than one million tonnes of oil a year -- well over 80 percent of China's imports -- are shipped through the narrow strait.
#msg-3404130
#msg-4474975
China thus is looking to boost military ties with Indonesia and a recent junta believed to be backed by China has given Myanmar over to the dragon.
#msg-4328677
To the south of Myanmar Thailand is ready to explode.
Thailand is bracing for worse violence. “They (separatists) want to stir our anger, prompt us to use brute force and spread the news. Then their sympathisers overseas will throw in their support,” said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Bangkok has also turned down CIA anti-terror training. "We don't want any country, ally or not, to interfere with our internal affairs," said Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister in charge of internal security Chavalit Yongchaiyudh.
It was the first time a Thai government minister admitted that the CIA has offered Thailand anti-terrorism training.
-Am
November 6, 2004
BANGKOK: Muslim separatists are intensifying violence in southern Thailand in hopes of a brutal government response that would boost foreign support for their aims, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Friday.
The separatists, who have been targetting Buddhists in the largely Muslim region since 85 Muslim protesters died last week, were trying to intimidate non-Muslims into leaving the area and attract recruits, he told reporters.
“They want to stir our anger, prompt us to use brute force and spread the news. Then their sympathisers overseas will throw in their support,” he said.
“We know what they’ve been doing and what they’ve planned to do,” he said, but stopped short of saying who was behind violence in the largely Malay-speaking region which erupted in January with an army camp raid in which around 300 assault rifles were stolen.
At least 15 people, most of them Buddhists, have been killed by militants since last week’s deaths of 85 protesters, 78 of whom suffocated or were crushed after being crammed into army trucks for a long journey into detention. One of the victims was a Buddhist monk who was shot and severely wounded after a religious ceremony in nearby Songkhla on Thursday and died later in hospital, police said.
Another was a Muslim Marine guarding a Buddhist temple who was shot and killed by suspected militants. Armed with M-16 assault rifles, the gunmen attacked the temple compound in a Buddhist village in Narathiwat province’s Ruesoh district around midnight on Thursday and killed the 22-year-old Muslim private in a short firefight, police said.
More than 450 people - mostly security men and officials - have been killed since the raid on the army camp in the remote south bordering Malaysia in which four soldiers were killed. The mainly Buddhist government in Bangkok is showing few signs of getting any closer to coming up with policies or answers to resolve the unrest.
Thaksin said the unrest may prevent him from joining re-elected US President George W Bush and other Asia-Pacific leaders at a summit in Chile this month.
“If the situation is still unabated, I won’t go,” Thaksin said when asked whether he would attend the November 20-21 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Santiago.
“I am obliged to take care of the situation,” said Thaksin, host of the 23-member APEC summit in Bangkok last year and who sees himself as the emerging leader of Southeast Asia. He was likely to send Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh to Santiago instead, a government official told Reuters. reuters
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_6-11-2004_pg4_2
Bangkok turns down CIA anti-terror training
BANGKOK (dpa) - Thailand has turned down an offer by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for anti-terrorism training, a senior minister said on Tuesday.
"We don't want any country, ally or not, to interfere with our internal affairs," said Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister in charge of internal security Chavalit Yongchaiyudh.
It was the first time a Thai government minister admitted that the CIA has offered Thailand anti-terrorism training.
"We have known each other for a long time, and they may have been thinking to help us, but we told them no thanks," Chavalit said. He added that Thailand already has its own anti-terrorism training.
Thailand drew international criticism last week, especially from Muslim countries, for its crackdown on a mob of Muslim protesters on October 25 in Tak Bai of the southern province of Narathiwat, which left 85 people dead. Seventy-eight of the demonstrators died in detention while being trucked from Tak Bai to an army base in Pattani.
The Pattani United Liberation Organisation (PULO), a decades-old separatist movement, has threatened to attack targets in Bangkok, Thailand's capital, in the wake of the Tak Bai incident.
Altogether, more than 460 people have died in Thailand's three southernmost provinces - Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala - since January this year.
http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/wed/nov3w10.htm
Why is there conflict in Thailand?
04 Nov 2004 16:10:00 GMT
Source: AlertNet
By Katherine Arie
A Thai Buddhist monk is escorted by two soldiers in southern Yala province.
Stringer photo
LONDON (AlertNet) - In the past 10 months, Muslim separatists in Thailand's three southernmost provinces have stepped up attacks on police, government buildings and other symbols of the mainly Buddhist Thai state.
The Thai government has responded with force, declaring martial law in the region.
Altogether some 450 people have been killed since January 2004.
The separatist movement is decades old, but violence has gotten worse this year.
Economic and social grievances have rekindled frustration in the south, which is poorer than the rest of the country, and the separatists claim the central government discriminates against Muslims.
Muslims are a minority in Thailand, and make up just 10 percent of the country's overall population of 63 million.
They live mainly in the southern provinces, which were annexed by the Thai government in 1902.
Many of Thailand’s Muslims speak Malay and have more in common with the citizens of neighbouring Malaysia than with Buddhist Thais.
The government initially blamed bandits and mafia-style crime bosses for the violence but was forced to acknowledge that separatists were responsible.
There is also concern that international extremists are involved.
ANGER AND REPRISALS
Since April, suicide raids, arson attacks, and shootings of Thai officials, traffic policemen and Buddhist monks have become almost a daily occurrence.
In October, tensions increased after 79 southern protestors -- all Muslim -- died in army custody.
The protestors, who had been arrested after a riot outside a police station, were crowded into trucks, where they died of suffocation on their way to detention at an army camp.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra admitted that the army was at fault, but Muslim leaders and analysts fear that no matter what the government says the protesters' deaths will encourage more Muslims to join the insurgency.
There is even evidence that the separatists will take their revenge in Bangkok.
The United Nations has put its Thailand staff on alert following threats by separatists to stage attacks in the capital.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/109958502836.htm
In the Pacific Theatre 'on the campaign against terrorism' Australia and the US agreed that South East Asia was a key front.
#msg-3542419
Much of the South East Asian front will be centered around the Malacca Strait.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said during a visit to Singapore that he hoped to have US troops fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia "pretty soon". His comments fuelled speculation that the United States wants to deploy US forces in the Strait of Malacca, the narrow and busy shipping lane straddled by Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore that is seen as a likely terrorist target.
More than one million tonnes of oil a year -- well over 80 percent of China's imports -- are shipped through the narrow strait.
#msg-3404130
#msg-4474975
China thus is looking to boost military ties with Indonesia and a recent junta believed to be backed by China has given Myanmar over to the dragon.
#msg-4328677
To the south of Myanmar Thailand is ready to explode.
Thailand is bracing for worse violence. “They (separatists) want to stir our anger, prompt us to use brute force and spread the news. Then their sympathisers overseas will throw in their support,” said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Bangkok has also turned down CIA anti-terror training. "We don't want any country, ally or not, to interfere with our internal affairs," said Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister in charge of internal security Chavalit Yongchaiyudh.
It was the first time a Thai government minister admitted that the CIA has offered Thailand anti-terrorism training.
-Am
November 6, 2004
BANGKOK: Muslim separatists are intensifying violence in southern Thailand in hopes of a brutal government response that would boost foreign support for their aims, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Friday.
The separatists, who have been targetting Buddhists in the largely Muslim region since 85 Muslim protesters died last week, were trying to intimidate non-Muslims into leaving the area and attract recruits, he told reporters.
“They want to stir our anger, prompt us to use brute force and spread the news. Then their sympathisers overseas will throw in their support,” he said.
“We know what they’ve been doing and what they’ve planned to do,” he said, but stopped short of saying who was behind violence in the largely Malay-speaking region which erupted in January with an army camp raid in which around 300 assault rifles were stolen.
At least 15 people, most of them Buddhists, have been killed by militants since last week’s deaths of 85 protesters, 78 of whom suffocated or were crushed after being crammed into army trucks for a long journey into detention. One of the victims was a Buddhist monk who was shot and severely wounded after a religious ceremony in nearby Songkhla on Thursday and died later in hospital, police said.
Another was a Muslim Marine guarding a Buddhist temple who was shot and killed by suspected militants. Armed with M-16 assault rifles, the gunmen attacked the temple compound in a Buddhist village in Narathiwat province’s Ruesoh district around midnight on Thursday and killed the 22-year-old Muslim private in a short firefight, police said.
More than 450 people - mostly security men and officials - have been killed since the raid on the army camp in the remote south bordering Malaysia in which four soldiers were killed. The mainly Buddhist government in Bangkok is showing few signs of getting any closer to coming up with policies or answers to resolve the unrest.
Thaksin said the unrest may prevent him from joining re-elected US President George W Bush and other Asia-Pacific leaders at a summit in Chile this month.
“If the situation is still unabated, I won’t go,” Thaksin said when asked whether he would attend the November 20-21 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Santiago.
“I am obliged to take care of the situation,” said Thaksin, host of the 23-member APEC summit in Bangkok last year and who sees himself as the emerging leader of Southeast Asia. He was likely to send Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh to Santiago instead, a government official told Reuters. reuters
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_6-11-2004_pg4_2
Bangkok turns down CIA anti-terror training
BANGKOK (dpa) - Thailand has turned down an offer by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for anti-terrorism training, a senior minister said on Tuesday.
"We don't want any country, ally or not, to interfere with our internal affairs," said Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister in charge of internal security Chavalit Yongchaiyudh.
It was the first time a Thai government minister admitted that the CIA has offered Thailand anti-terrorism training.
"We have known each other for a long time, and they may have been thinking to help us, but we told them no thanks," Chavalit said. He added that Thailand already has its own anti-terrorism training.
Thailand drew international criticism last week, especially from Muslim countries, for its crackdown on a mob of Muslim protesters on October 25 in Tak Bai of the southern province of Narathiwat, which left 85 people dead. Seventy-eight of the demonstrators died in detention while being trucked from Tak Bai to an army base in Pattani.
The Pattani United Liberation Organisation (PULO), a decades-old separatist movement, has threatened to attack targets in Bangkok, Thailand's capital, in the wake of the Tak Bai incident.
Altogether, more than 460 people have died in Thailand's three southernmost provinces - Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala - since January this year.
http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/wed/nov3w10.htm
Why is there conflict in Thailand?
04 Nov 2004 16:10:00 GMT
Source: AlertNet
By Katherine Arie
A Thai Buddhist monk is escorted by two soldiers in southern Yala province.
Stringer photo
LONDON (AlertNet) - In the past 10 months, Muslim separatists in Thailand's three southernmost provinces have stepped up attacks on police, government buildings and other symbols of the mainly Buddhist Thai state.
The Thai government has responded with force, declaring martial law in the region.
Altogether some 450 people have been killed since January 2004.
The separatist movement is decades old, but violence has gotten worse this year.
Economic and social grievances have rekindled frustration in the south, which is poorer than the rest of the country, and the separatists claim the central government discriminates against Muslims.
Muslims are a minority in Thailand, and make up just 10 percent of the country's overall population of 63 million.
They live mainly in the southern provinces, which were annexed by the Thai government in 1902.
Many of Thailand’s Muslims speak Malay and have more in common with the citizens of neighbouring Malaysia than with Buddhist Thais.
The government initially blamed bandits and mafia-style crime bosses for the violence but was forced to acknowledge that separatists were responsible.
There is also concern that international extremists are involved.
ANGER AND REPRISALS
Since April, suicide raids, arson attacks, and shootings of Thai officials, traffic policemen and Buddhist monks have become almost a daily occurrence.
In October, tensions increased after 79 southern protestors -- all Muslim -- died in army custody.
The protestors, who had been arrested after a riot outside a police station, were crowded into trucks, where they died of suffocation on their way to detention at an army camp.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra admitted that the army was at fault, but Muslim leaders and analysts fear that no matter what the government says the protesters' deaths will encourage more Muslims to join the insurgency.
There is even evidence that the separatists will take their revenge in Bangkok.
The United Nations has put its Thailand staff on alert following threats by separatists to stage attacks in the capital.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/109958502836.htm
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