Thailand beefs up airport security in South

[rickfarang]

Reuters AlertNet 21 Apr 2004 11:23:51 GMT

Thailand beefs up airport security in Muslim south

------------------------------------------------------------------------

BANGKOK, April 21 (Reuters) - Thailand tightened security at an airport in the southern commercial centre of Hat Yai on Wednesday as authorities fear a spate of violence in the largely Muslim deep south could escalate, officials said. Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit, who visited the airport on Wednesday, ordered a hike in the security level to 'orange' from 'green'.

 

The move means extra checks of almost all baggage and the stationing of air force troops in passenger halls. Violence in the three southernmost provinces along the Malaysian border, which started with a raid on an army barracks in January 4, shows little sign of abating.

 

On Wednesday a policeman was killed while riding his motorcycle home and a border police outpost was sprayed with rifle fire overnight.

 

No one was hurt in the attack in Narathiwat, 1,200 km (750 miles) south of Bangkok.

 

Almost 20 houses of police officers and other government officials across the region, home to a separatist rebellion in the 1970s and 1980s, have been attacked by molotov cocktails since Monday.

 

The government, which has tried in vain to quell the unrest, appears to have little idea of what has caused the outbreak of violence, which has claimed more than 60 lives since January.

 

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the unrest had intensified because authorities were closing in on the masterminds of the initial raid on the army camp, in which four soldiers were killed.

 

"We could quell the violence by stopping chasing after them," he said on Wednesday while on a tour of the northeast.

 

Other security ministers said in Bangkok many of the incidents were caused by unemployed youths and pledged government job schemes for the region.