Flashermac Posted June 2, 2007 Report Share Posted June 2, 2007 THE NATION 2 June 2007 21 killed in worst day of violence yet Army says brutal tactics adopted by insurgents meant to provoke soldiers The military is on high alert after increasingly brutal and sophisticated attacks by southern insurgents claimed a total of 21 lives, both soldiers and civilians, in a single day on Thursday, Army spokesman Acra Tiproch said yesterday. Militants killed 12 rangers with a bomb in Yala's Bannang Sata district on Thursday night. The attack was similar to one on May 9 in which seven soldiers were killed. "Again this is a great loss for the Army. The insurgents have adopted similar tactics to those they used in Narathiwat. They used a bomb against the soldiers and brutally killed the injured to make sure that no one survived," the spokesman said. Eleven Army rangers died at the scene after militants set off a remote-controlled bomb as the soldiers were travelling in a pickup along a back road linking Yala and Betong shortly before 10 pm. They were returning to their camp from crowd control duty at a protest by local residents. The 12th soldier died in a hospital. "This was the biggest single attack yet," the spokesman said. Acra said that Army investigation into the attack showed that the insurgents had killed the injured soldiers by either shooting them at point-blank range or strangling them to make sure that all were dead. "The militants have stepped up attacks in order to increase pressure on authorities," Acra said. He said the rebels were hoping to provoke a heavy-handed reaction from security forces, who would then be blamed for committing atrocities against residents in the deep south. Acra also referred to a separate attack in Songkhla's Saba Yoi district on Thursday night when the insurgents sprayed bullets at villagers shopping in an evening market, killing five. He said that those behind the attack were believed to be same groups operating in Yala's Yaha district. They caused violence in Saba Yoi district to draw police and soldiers away from Yala. Four other people were killed in scattered attacks in the region. Acra described the single-day death toll of 21 as "shocking". Meanwhile, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont vowed not to retaliate in kind. "We must be patient. We have to be firm on the rule of law. We will not do anything to cause more problems and injustice," he said. However, he said it would be impossible to win the support of many militant sympathisers. Meanwhile, about 2,000 students and villagers protested at a mosque in Pattani province for the second day yesterday, demanding an end to the state of emergency declared in the region and an immediate withdrawal of the Army. The core protesters were Muslim students from Ramkamhaeng University in Bangkok. They announced through a speaker that they represented the university's student organisation and hid their faces with scarves. They seemed to take charge of the mosque, since they guarded all entrances and screened people who wanted to enter. The president of the Ramkamhaeng University Students Organisation, Sikanan Nulek, said it was true that the protesting students were members of the student body. "The students who are now protesting in Pattani are members of the university students organisation. But they are acting on their own. Before they went down to Pattani, they asked me to join them, but I refused," he said. They claimed they wanted to bring justice to local people who were under attack from soldiers and the authorities, he added. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted June 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2007 Editorial: THE NATION 2 June 2007 Army blundering threatens security Unless the junta changes its tactics, the armed forces are fighting a losing war against insurgents in the South The Council for National Security (CNS) has had its priorities misplaced lately by overemphasising efforts to avert political disturbances in Bangkok while allowing the situation in the strife-torn deep South to descend into lawlessness. Islamic militants/Malay separatists have clearly gained the upper hand and continue to inflict heavy casualties on government security forces, while carrying on with their daily slaughter of innocent civilians with impunity. The fears the government and the CNS had of a huge number of hostile protesters converging on the capital did not materialise, perhaps because of the smart tactics they employed to disrupt or block would-be protesters' travel plans. Obviously, when it comes to their political survival and self-preservation, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin and other members of the military junta have proven themselves capable of ingenuity and decisive action. The same cannot be said of their handling of the war in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and parts of Songkhla, where armed soldiers, as well as defenceless civilians, are being hunted down and murdered by insurgents - at virtually no cost to themselves and their accomplices. Well over 2,000 people have been killed since the insurgency broke out in January 2004, yet authorities have been able to arrest only a handful of those responsible. Of more than 1,000 incidents linked to the insurgency that have taken place in the restive provinces over the past three-and-a-half years, law enforcement officials have been able to prosecute only about 20 cases, for which decisions are currently pending. People in this country are constantly reminded that the political survival of the military junta along with the interim Surayud government it appointed and matters of national security are one and the same. However, it is becoming impossible lately for anyone to ignore the fact that Thailand's territorial integrity, which the military vows to defend to the last man, is being threatened by armed separatists like never before - without the armed forces putting up so much as a fight. Soldiers are being sent into areas infiltrated by insurgents without any arrangements for adequate protection, no promise of reinforcements in case they come under attack and not even the hope of the injured being evacuated in a timely manner. Virtually no military helicopters have been sent to rescue soldiers injured in roadside bombings, for example. They invariably lay in a pool of their own blood waiting to be shot execution-style or have their throats slashed by insurgents. Reinforcement units are always a few hours too late and the only thing left to do is to reclaim the dead bodies of their comrades. The most cited excuse for these late arrivals is that insurgents usually line the road leading to the crime scenes with spikes that can puncture military vehicles' tyres. Or reinforcement units fear they may be the victims of secondary roadside bombs. There is also never any attempt at hot pursuits of insurgents. All insurgents after an attack on a military unit have to do is blend into the civilian population in the nearest community. There they can lay low for a while assembling bombs, plotting their next ambush, or waiting to go on a killing spree of innocent civilians. They know they can do all this without having to worry about soldiers coming after them, going from door-to-door, conducting searches and questioning people who may know something about the crimes they have committed. Even people who disagree with the insurgents' hate-filled ideology will not cooperate with authorities, because doing so would be like giving themselves and their family a death sentence. They know that insurgents will come after them if they do and there will be no one coming to their aid. The military then complains about a lack of good intelligence because of this non-cooperation from locals. Meanwhile, members of the military junta, sitting in their Bangkok offices chanting mantras of peaceful resolution to end the insurgency, continue to send troops into the battlefield without clear rules of engagement, to be butchered by insurgents. It's time the military junta wakes up to the fact that there can be no peace unless the military proves itself fully capable of protecting itself and the civilian population against the insurgents' campaign of terror. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaiLuk Posted June 3, 2007 Report Share Posted June 3, 2007 Interesting. The spokesman for the military says we are going to exercise restraint. The Nation then blasts the military for exercising restraint. As soon as the military launches a major operation down there, the Nation will be the first one screaming about the heavy handed military junta. In fact I believe they were screaming about it when the military was more aggressive with the insurgents a year ago. Its the same here in the US. Alot of pacifist types are advocating military intervention in Darfur. At the same time they advocate a complete withdrawal from Iraq even though this creates a major risk of ethnic cleansing. If we did go into Darfur and "fixed" the problem these same people would start screaming how evil the US is. No way to please everyone i guess... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pescator Posted June 4, 2007 Report Share Posted June 4, 2007 THE NATION2 June 2007 21 killed in worst day of violence yet Seems like the 78 people killed while in custody of the military is conveniently forgotten? http://www.hindu.com/2004/10/27/stories/2004102703891400.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted June 4, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2007 That wasn't violence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pescator Posted June 5, 2007 Report Share Posted June 5, 2007 I guess you are right, they were killed by peaceful means Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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