[extropy-chat] FWD [U-Tapao] Pinched this article from the ThailandLaos Forum

Terry W. Colvin fortean1 at mindspring.com
Thu Jul 14 17:10:50 UTC 2005


You "may" have already seen this article, but I'm passing it on for your 
comments.
 
BANGKOK Muslim insurgents in Thailand have stockpiled more than 7,000
weapons and have trained with Indonesian militants to wreak violence in
southern Thailand, a former army commander said Monday.
 
Kitti Rattanachaya, a retired army general who was praised for
maintaining the peace in southern Thailand in the 1990s and has been a
security adviser to the government, said its mishandling of the
situation could cause it to deteriorate.
 
"There is still no light at the end of the tunnel," Kitti said.
"Eighteen months after the government started deploying massive numbers
of troops into the region, the situation is getting worse. The
separatist movement has complete control of the people. Only the land
belongs to us, but the people belong to the movement, 100 percent."
 
A decades-old Muslim separatist movement in southern Thailand died
down in the late 1980s after the government granted an amnesty.
 
But the violence surged early last year and has resulted in more than
880 deaths in the last 18 months.
 
The three southernmost provinces are the only Muslim majority areas in
predominantly Buddhist Thailand. Southerners have long complained of
discrimination in education and jobs.
 
Kitti said that many of the guns stockpiled by the separatists had
been stolen from the police and the army, including weapons seized in
an attack on an army camp that started the latest offensive.
 
On Jan. 4, 2004, a group of armed men stormed a camp in Narathiwat
Province, killing four soldiers and stealing more than 400 weapons,
mostly assault rifles. The raid prompted the government to send more
than 50,000 soldiers to the region.
 
Kitti cited intelligence sources as saying that at least seven
Indonesian Muslim militants had gone to the south to provide training
for the Muslim rebels.
 
"Things are getting worse because the government doesn't accept the
fact that this is a movement of terrorists and separatists," he said.
 
Defense Minister Thammarak Isarangura said the situation was under
control and that locals would be trained to defend themselves against
the militants. "The situation is calming down," he said, "and in some
areas, daily attacks on innocent people have decreased by 50 percent."
 
Regional police statistics show that from January to June 20, at least
207 people had been killed and 601 people had been wounded in
hit-and-run attacks, bombings and beheadings.
 
Ken Bower
"The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes"  
Frank Lloyd Wright
------------------------------------------------------------------------


-- 

"Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress." Copyright 1992, Frank Rice


Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1 at mindspring.com >
     Alternate: < fortean1 at msn.com >
Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html >
Sites: * Fortean Times * Mystic's Haven * TLCB *
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veterans, Allies, CIA/NSA, and "steenkeen" contractors are welcome.]


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