chilli13 Posted October 6, 2005 Report Share Posted October 6, 2005 Today 5 police(rangers) killed by insurgants & last week the 2 marines. Is anybody soon gonna take any action down there or how many more needs to die? More than 1000 already since last year & the toll raising daily It seems for the 130 in the controversial fled to Malaysia was a very very sensible thing to do... Even if the violence aint gonna spread or escalate further its damn sad affair as it is don't ye thing? Any easy solutions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted October 6, 2005 Report Share Posted October 6, 2005 Sad...hope something is done soon as well...lets hope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilli13 Posted October 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2005 Yeah I'll 'wai pra' at soi cowboy at the first given opportunity I get Seriously I know there's even worse stuff happening as we speak at countries like Iraq or maybe Isreal, but for us who care abit about LOS its not much fun following the news at present... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted October 6, 2005 Report Share Posted October 6, 2005 No it is not...can only hope the powere that be can do something... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiamIAm Posted October 7, 2005 Report Share Posted October 7, 2005 Here is an interesting (I believe accurate) article regarding the south: Thailand's Islamist Insurgency on the Brink By Stephen Ulph (Oct,4th 2005) With the pace of violence in Thailand increasing—the death toll since the renewal of the insurgency in January 2004 now exceeds 1000, making the region the most violent arena for Muslim violence outside Iraq—fears are growing that the Thai insurgency will take on more overtly regional features, and transform from a secessionist into a full-blown Jihadist-struggle. The Muslim dominated southern Thai provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat have suffered severe economic damage from the constant barrage of bombings, murders and intimidation. One estimate puts the numbers of Buddhists who have fled the region since the renewal of the insurgency in January 2004 at over 34,000. Bangkok's response to date—that the violence in the south is an internal problem it can handle on its own—underpins the nature of the security response. This has taken the form of a troop presence of roughly 30,000 additional soldiers and police forces, as well as heavy-handed suppression. There has been no decrease in the violence as a result of this policy, yet on July 17 the Thai Cabinet issued an emergency decree granting Prime Minster Thaksin Shinawatra more sweeping powers in the three southern provinces and immunity to security forces in the emergency zones (www.bangkokpost.co.th) The insistence on further intensification like this has led observers to ascribe the pursuit of the tactic to Shinawatra's need to rescue his sinking public approval rating. The issue of the insurgency's ‘internalization' was recently highlighted by former army commander General Kitti Rattanachaya, a security adviser to the Prime Minister, who warned on September 29 that Indonesian fighters are involved, contradicting government insistence on its purely domestic dimensions (www.thejakartapost.com). Thai militants have thus far maintained the local nature of the insurgency, but add that training is taking place within Thailand, again contradicting Bangkok's objections that Malaysia is not doing enough to suppress training camps on its bordering territory in the north. An AP report ran a telling comment by rebel leader Lukman Lima to the effect that the insurgents were receiving financial support from abroad, "especially from Islamic sympathizers in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia." If so, this puts an entirely different complexion on the future of the southern provinces. Foreign mujahid intervention almost exclusively means extreme Islamist influence will be added to the equation. There is already evidence that many of the victims of the insurgency are Muslims themselves, considered to be ‘collaborationist' for the moderate nature of their views. The longer the absence of a resolution, the greater the prospect of the Thai Muslim insurgency succumbing to Salafist domination, whereby the local Muslim culture becomes subordinated to austere ‘Wahhabi' influences, useful in providing a groundwork for exporting jihadi culture. A taste of the threatened regionalization from the spillover into neighboring countries is already taking place. At the end of August, 131 Thai Muslims fled from the violence across the southern border into Malaysia. This fuelled a political dilemma for Kuala Lumpur as it wrestled with the domestic fallout of forcibly repatriating them. The cause of the Thai refugees has received popular sympathy and is being actively supported by members of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), a Islamist radical party that has control over the northern province of Kelantan bordering Thailand. This and the ongoing dispute over the reputed existence of training camps used by Thai Muslims in Kelantan, sets the scene for expansion. Meanwhile the image the conflict is presenting, of a Muslim community brutally suppressed, is doing the propaganda work for the Islamists, which may not have to draw reserves from far afield. As Indonesian troops withdraw from Aceh in the wake of the peace accord ending the separatist rebellion initiated in 1976, the question must be asked about how far ties of cooperation with tried-and-tested Muslim rebels in Aceh—with only the Straits of Malacca to separate them from Thailand's southern provinces—have been established. This in addition to the historical evidence of Jemaah Islamiyah's interest in Thailand, with the capture there of their operational chief Riduan Isamuddin ("Hambali") in 2003, spell out an Islamist insurgency Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckwoww Posted October 7, 2005 Report Share Posted October 7, 2005 Very interesting. Of course the big question remains....is the solution political or military? :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilli13 Posted October 7, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2005 Plenty of opportunities for the violence to escalate & expand it seems more than the chance of a peaceful solution, so I will hope for the best... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiamIAm Posted October 7, 2005 Report Share Posted October 7, 2005 It's been my experience these religious zealots will not stop the violence until they get what they want. So the real question is whether Thailand is willing to give up a few providences to (temporally) appease them. They would then have a militant terrorist state on their border that would more than likely be a magnet for Al Quidea and militants from Indonesia. What they should be working toward is good reliable, human Intel embedded in these religious organizations who could provide names of these animals. Who could then be surgically removed with minimal loss of civilian life or collateral damage. Whether or not Thailand or it's allies have the necessary contacts to pull that off remains to be seen. This would seem to me the only real choice as the traditional military tactic of assigning men and material to suppress would not work unless they would be able to identify the enemy, and will only provide the insurgents additional targets and perhaps bigger more destructive weapons... This issue has been bothering the hell out of me as I can't stand to think of gentle Thai monks, happy go lucky school kids, woman, and Thai civilians in general being beheaded and/or blown apart to make a political point...These assholes have no scruples...I wish there was some was I personally could help stop this crap... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckwoww Posted October 7, 2005 Report Share Posted October 7, 2005 SiamIAm said:It's been my experience these religious zealots will not stop the violence until they get what they want. So the real question is whether Thailand is willing to give up a few providences to (temporally) appease them. They would then have a militant terrorist state on their border that would more than likely be a magnet for Al Quidea and militants from Indonesia. What they should be working toward is good reliable, human Intel embedded in these religious organizations who could provide names of these animals. Who could then be surgically removed with minimal loss of civilian life or collateral damage. Whether or not Thailand or it's allies have the necessary contacts to pull that off remains to be seen. This would seem to me the only real choice as the traditional military tactic of assigning men and material to suppress would not work unless they would be able to identify the enemy, and will only provide the insurgents additional targets and perhaps bigger more destructive weapons... This issue has been bothering the hell out of me as I can't stand to think of gentle Thai monks, happy go lucky school kids, woman, and Thai civilians in general being beheaded and/or blown apart to make a political point...These assholes have no scruples...I wish there was some was I personally could help stop this crap... That's pretty much what the leader of the free world said this morning.... http://news.yahoo.com/fc/US/Bush_Administration He may be right for all I know. I just have a bit of trouble seeing American and/or European women wearing veils or guys listening to imams on aisle 5 at Walmart. OK, Iran with a nuclear bomb is a scary thought but they'd be committing national suicide if they used it. And once again CW has broadened the topic which seems to be all part of the same thing to me but not to everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickfarang Posted October 7, 2005 Report Share Posted October 7, 2005 When neither side is willing to consider yielding in their demands, there can be no negotiation. Its as simple as that. And as sad as that. As far the the "leader of the free world"'s comments, I will only say we've been hearing this same song played over and over by his administration, and there is aboslutely no evidence that any of the "Islamic radicals are seeking to "enslave whole nations..." :: He is simply trying to scare the sheep into his side of the pasture. What is disturbing is that nearly half of the Americans believe this nonesense to some degree or another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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