Uniformed terror stalks southern Thailand
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
Tanyong Limo, Narathiwat, Sep 27 (IPS) - "From the tea shop that she runs with her husband, Maye Leh surveys the silence that has descended on the surrounding small houses with cracked walls, shut windows and closed doors on a late Sunday morning.
"The only sounds are those of clucking chickens, the twitter of caged birds and the odd breeze that wafts through this village, whose ethnic Malay-Muslim inhabitants have fled after heavily armed troops poured in searching for people responsible for the lynching of two marines last week.
"Maye, 50, is not sure when the normal rhythm of life in this village, set amidst the rubber plantations and lush tropical vegetation of southern Narathiwat province, will be restored.
"The marines were beaten and stabbed to death, after being held hostage in a single-room building with stained walls, close to a half-built mosque and the village graveyard, last Wednesday.
"News of the brutality and accounts of hundreds of Muslim women, barricading the entrance to Tanyong Limo during the 18-hour hostage drama, brought to an end the years of obscurity this community lived in.
"Instead, this village of some 2,000 people, became the latest entry in a growing list of blood-soaked localities caught in the spiralling ethnic unrest that has claimed over 1,000 deaths, since January last year, in this region near the Malaysian border.
"Yet, the anger directed at this community of poor rubber tappers by the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, could only help cement a belief that the government cares little for the welfare of people in these remote marches.
"The marines were killed in retaliation for the deaths of two villagers and injuries to four others caused by indiscriminate firing from a passing vehicle directed at Maye's run-down tea shop.
"'I have no idea why they were shot,' says Maye, adjusting the white shawl covering her head. 'I told the men not to linger but go home because of what has been happening these days'.
"'He was just a rubber tapper,' said Maeje Niumah, the mother of one of the men killed at the tea shop outside the home of a relative.
"Angry villagers in Tanyong Limo accuse troops of being behind the tea shop deaths just as people in Lahan, another village in Narathiwat province believe that the army was behind the murder of an imam (religious leader) just days before.
"The people of Lahan reacted to the murder of their religious leader in similar fashion-- by blocking the entry of soldiers with makeshift barricades.
"But additionally, over 130 men, women and children from Lahan village and its vicinity, fled across the border to asylum in Malaysia, sparking off a diplomatic storm between the South-east Asian neighbours.
"The villagers' fear was natural. After all, it was in the Narathiwat locality of Tak Bai that 78 Muslim boys and men died of suffocation while in military custody, in October last year. They had been arrested for demonstrating against police abuse.
"Feelings of distrust that the villagers have for the regime in Bangkok is due to 'a sense of injustice', says Perayot Rahimullah, a former professor of political science, but now a parliamentarian from Narathiwat for the opposition Democrat party.
"'The Muslims in the three provinces feel that they have no social dignity due to the reality they encounter,' Peryaot told IPS , referring to Narathiwat and neighbouring Pattani and Yala provinces, predominated by Malay-Muslim populations.
"But that is not solely the creation of the Thaksin administration. The local Muslims have long complained about the economic neglect and cultural discrimination they have endured from policy makers in Bangkok that stretches back decades.
"The consequences of those policies are reflected in studies by United Nations agencies that have noted that Narathiwat, where 82 percent of the province's 730,146 people are Malay-Muslims, has a poverty rate that is two to three times higher than Thailand's national average.
"The poverty and deprivation is visible in Tanyong Limo in the unkempt houses made of wood or drab brick and cement which are a world away from the commercial buzz and the acres of plate glass and chrome that makes Bangkok a world-class capital.
"Muslim disaffection against the Thai state has only grown since the southern provinces, which were once part of the Muslim kingdom of Pattani, were annexed by Siam in 1902, as Thailand was then known ..."
IPS
Tagged: thailand, terrorism, islam, muslims, state+terror
Tanyong Limo, Narathiwat, Sep 27 (IPS) - "From the tea shop that she runs with her husband, Maye Leh surveys the silence that has descended on the surrounding small houses with cracked walls, shut windows and closed doors on a late Sunday morning.
"The only sounds are those of clucking chickens, the twitter of caged birds and the odd breeze that wafts through this village, whose ethnic Malay-Muslim inhabitants have fled after heavily armed troops poured in searching for people responsible for the lynching of two marines last week.
"Maye, 50, is not sure when the normal rhythm of life in this village, set amidst the rubber plantations and lush tropical vegetation of southern Narathiwat province, will be restored.
"The marines were beaten and stabbed to death, after being held hostage in a single-room building with stained walls, close to a half-built mosque and the village graveyard, last Wednesday.
"News of the brutality and accounts of hundreds of Muslim women, barricading the entrance to Tanyong Limo during the 18-hour hostage drama, brought to an end the years of obscurity this community lived in.
"Instead, this village of some 2,000 people, became the latest entry in a growing list of blood-soaked localities caught in the spiralling ethnic unrest that has claimed over 1,000 deaths, since January last year, in this region near the Malaysian border.
"Yet, the anger directed at this community of poor rubber tappers by the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, could only help cement a belief that the government cares little for the welfare of people in these remote marches.
"The marines were killed in retaliation for the deaths of two villagers and injuries to four others caused by indiscriminate firing from a passing vehicle directed at Maye's run-down tea shop.
"'I have no idea why they were shot,' says Maye, adjusting the white shawl covering her head. 'I told the men not to linger but go home because of what has been happening these days'.
"'He was just a rubber tapper,' said Maeje Niumah, the mother of one of the men killed at the tea shop outside the home of a relative.
"Angry villagers in Tanyong Limo accuse troops of being behind the tea shop deaths just as people in Lahan, another village in Narathiwat province believe that the army was behind the murder of an imam (religious leader) just days before.
"The people of Lahan reacted to the murder of their religious leader in similar fashion-- by blocking the entry of soldiers with makeshift barricades.
"But additionally, over 130 men, women and children from Lahan village and its vicinity, fled across the border to asylum in Malaysia, sparking off a diplomatic storm between the South-east Asian neighbours.
"The villagers' fear was natural. After all, it was in the Narathiwat locality of Tak Bai that 78 Muslim boys and men died of suffocation while in military custody, in October last year. They had been arrested for demonstrating against police abuse.
"Feelings of distrust that the villagers have for the regime in Bangkok is due to 'a sense of injustice', says Perayot Rahimullah, a former professor of political science, but now a parliamentarian from Narathiwat for the opposition Democrat party.
"'The Muslims in the three provinces feel that they have no social dignity due to the reality they encounter,' Peryaot told IPS , referring to Narathiwat and neighbouring Pattani and Yala provinces, predominated by Malay-Muslim populations.
"But that is not solely the creation of the Thaksin administration. The local Muslims have long complained about the economic neglect and cultural discrimination they have endured from policy makers in Bangkok that stretches back decades.
"The consequences of those policies are reflected in studies by United Nations agencies that have noted that Narathiwat, where 82 percent of the province's 730,146 people are Malay-Muslims, has a poverty rate that is two to three times higher than Thailand's national average.
"The poverty and deprivation is visible in Tanyong Limo in the unkempt houses made of wood or drab brick and cement which are a world away from the commercial buzz and the acres of plate glass and chrome that makes Bangkok a world-class capital.
"Muslim disaffection against the Thai state has only grown since the southern provinces, which were once part of the Muslim kingdom of Pattani, were annexed by Siam in 1902, as Thailand was then known ..."
IPS
Tagged: thailand, terrorism, islam, muslims, state+terror
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