Tension escalated between Thai-land's Buddhist majority and its Muslim minority yesterday as the country's defense minister warned of a bloody war between the two communities.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra traveled to Pattani province in the heart of the Muslim-majority deep south in an attempt to head off a rising tide of violence.
In the latest of a series of attacks, two Muslim men were shot dead by unknown gunmen in separate incidents Sunday night in Yala province, 770km south of Bangkok.
Police said the motive of the killings was unclear but they suspected they might be part of a continuing effort to destabilize the region.
On Sunday the Islamic Central Committee of Thailand, along with Muslim leaders in the southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, announced they were suspending cooperation with central government authorities because of "disgraceful" behavior by Thai soldiers. The Muslim leaders objected to a search of a local ponoh Muslim school in Pattani by about 70 soldiers who were looking for weapons stolen in a raid on a Thai army camp on Jan. 4.
Reacting to Muslim leaders' announcement, Defense Minister Thammarak Issarangkura said the government would not tolerate any kind of rebellion in the south.
Speaking in a radio interview in Bangkok, Thammarak compared the Muslim militancy in the south to the communist insurgency that was widespread in the area in the 1970s.
"During that time, many people died," he said. "Do we want that situation to happen again? The rest of the country won't let the people of these three provinces disrupt the lives of all 59 million people in Thailand. If there's war, a lot of people will be killed in those three provinces."
Thammarak criticized the Mus-lim leaders for violating their own religion and the principles of the Koran.
"Their god does not teach this kind of thing," he said.
Police, soldiers, teachers and Buddhist monks have been the targets of shooting and bombing attacks in the past three months, mainly in the five southernmost, Muslim-majority provinces.
Government leaders have attempted to play down the attacks as being the result of local conflicts and banditry. But the rising number of attacks, combined with intelligence reports of Islamic separatist involvement, have forced him to take a more active role in easing tensions.
Thaksin had been scheduled to return to Bangkok yesterday from Phuket but instead traveled to Pattani.
He said he planned to go to Narathiwat later in the day and attempt to meet with local Muslim leaders.
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS