70 Said Killed in Thailand Gunbattles

[Fidel]

[color:"green"] All Out War in the South [/color]

 

BANGKOK, Thailand - Suspected Islamic militants clashed with police in Thailand Wednesday, leaving at least 70 people dead in heaviest fighting yet in the troubled Muslim-dominated south, officials said.

 

 

 

The clashes erupted after militants launched simultaneous attacks on police bases and checkpoints in several districts of Yala and Pattani provinces, said Yala Gov. Boonyasit Suwanarat.

 

 

He told reporters that most of the dead were youths attempting to rob weapons from police and army bases who were repelled and shot to death by security forces.

 

 

It was the bloodiest day in the south where almost daily attacks by gunmen have left nearly 150 people dead this year. The government has blamed Islamic separatists seeking to carve a homeland in the Muslim- majority south of this predominantly Buddhist country.

[Straycat]

More at BBC:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3665293.stm

 

or

 

Google News - News Around the Globe Related to Thai Killings

[SoiledCowboy]

And much of the same from an Australian major newspaper.

Sympathies to the Thai forces families that were lost in the battle against these cave-dwelling neanderthals whose answer to every one of life's problems is always bloodshed.

 

95 killed in south Thailand gun battle

 

April 28, 2004 - 12:22PM

 

The death toll from violence in Thailand's Muslim south today has risen to 95, including 93 attackers who mounted a series of dawn raids on police and army checkpoints, officials said.

 

Major Chitnart Bunnothok, spokesman for the Fourth Army which patrols the troubled region, said 93 attackers were killed, 12 were injured and one was arrested.

 

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the toll among government forces was low because the raiders were only armed with machetes and a few guns.

 

"Two security forces have died and nine are injured," he said.

 

 

Militants launched simultaneous attacks on police bases and checkpoints in several districts of Thailand's Yala and Pattani provinces, said Yala Governor, Boonyasit Suwanarat.

 

He told reporters that most of the dead were youths attempting to steal weapons from police and army bases who were repelled and shot by security forces.

 

It was the bloodiest day in the south where almost daily attacks by gunmen have left nearly 150 people dead this year.

 

The Thai government has blamed Islamic separatists seeking to carve a homeland in the Muslim- majority south of the predominantly Buddhist country.

 

Most of the casualties appear to have occurred in Yala.

 

In Pattani, provincial police chief Major General Paitoon Pattanasophon told The Associated Press by telephone that clashes took place in at least five places, leaving at least 15 insurgents, three policemen and one soldier dead.

 

The fighting was continuing more than three hours after the first clashes started at 5am (0800 AEST) he said.

 

One gunbattle was raging around a mosque in the Kruesei district of Pattani, he said.

 

Muslims have long complained of discrimination in jobs and education in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat - Thailand's only Muslim majority provinces.

 

They also say their culture and language are being subjugated by the Buddhist Thais, and cite as an example the state schools, which teach in the Thai language. Muslims in the south speak Yawi, a dialect of Malay, spoken in the neighbouring Malaysia.

 

The alienation caused by the central government's policies has been the source of decades of separatist struggle, which had subsided after an amnesty in the late 1980s.

 

It exploded into a frenzy of violence this year with a January 4 raid on an army arsenal and the torching of 21 schools.

 

Four soldiers were killed in the arsenal attack.

 

AP

 

 

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/28/1083103525728.html[
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[adikgede]

Sympathies to the Thai forces families that were lost in the battle against these cave-dwelling neanderthals whose answer to every one of life's problems is always bloodshed.

 

It would seem that these neanderthals are on the receiving end of the bloodshed here.

[SoiledCowboy]

It would indeed seem that those militants in the Southern Provinces are getting cut-down in large numbers - but apparently the Thai Security Forces were tipped-off that these militants were about to launch one of their brutal assaults against many Government outposts and were able to extract a penalty upon the seperatists.

[Chanchao]

Congratulations to Thailand and to Taksin on dealing with yet another attack by Southern thugs VERY effectively. Even Southern religious leaders seem to agree these young thugs were just that; no great loss removing them from the gene pool.

 

I was in the South recently (Songkla) and I do love the South like I love any other area of Thailand, and love Southern people, very much including Southern Muslim people who are just as warm and smiling as Thais everywhere. The vast, vast majority will have nothing to do with the attempted terror we saw this morning.

 

After successfully cleaning up the mess, I hope and trust that the Thai government will now also reach out to the people in the deep South and continue to build a country that is a home for people of all backgrounds.

 

Cheers,

Chanchao

[khwaimaisabai]

adikgede said:

It would seem that these neanderthals are on the receiving end of the bloodshed here.

Hi ad,

Good thing too.

Actually, I think to describe them as neanderthals is offensive to the memory of an ancient people who inhabited Europe many millenia ago. As I understand it, they were not the ancestors of modern humans but rather a different branch on the evolutionary tree. For their time, they were quite civilised but their society was unable to compete with modern humans and they all eventually died out. Possibly some cross breeding, of course - I am sure "sanuk" was alive and well even as far back as then. So, maybe we all have a bit of neanderthal ancestry and should respect their memory, not associate them with the southern thugs.

Khwai

[Fidel]

Hey! They should have used some of those 300 Assault rifles and the 2 M50 machine guns they stole a few months back... much better than knives.

(Oh yeah, that was an inside job. The army sold those.)

 

I guess taking out over one hundred of them is a lot quicker than "torturing, abducting and murdering people.".

 

I'd say that the guys who were taken alive will need a good lawyer... the only one willing to represent them has disappeared. But that's ok. Thalsin is on the case:

 

"I have met with police on Tuesday, and I learned that police were involved in this case which is likely to be resolved soon," Thaksin said.

 

It seems police certainly were involved in the case:

Cops surrender in abducted lawyer case

 

Lets hope it all cools down soon.

[gobbledonk]

When I told my mate how the cops had dealt with the uprising, he let out a hoot. When the West, Pakistan and Indonesia seem hesitant to crack down on Islamic fundamentalists, this kind of fightback is long overdue, IMO.

 

If the people of southern Thailand want to live in an Islamic state, let them move to Malaysia. When the majority are (relatively) peace-loving Buddhists, why should they be forced to confront the brainwashed tools of Islamic clerics ?

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

Please keep the political comments out of this, or this thread will be closed.

 

Sanuk!