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Thai official slain in ambush by alleged Islamic insurgents

Suspected Islamic insurgents shot and killed a local politician yesterday as Thailand's prime minister admitted his government has been unable to do anything to stop the escalating violence in the Muslim-dominated south.

Daoh Kareeuma, 56, an elected official of a village administration in Yala province, was ambushed by two gunmen as he arrived home after going round his village on a motorcycle, police Captain Jirasak Wichaicharoenying said.

The death raised to 59 the number of people killed this year in the almost daily cycle of violence gripping the southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, the only Muslim majority areas in the predominantly Buddhist country. The government says the culprits are Islamic separatists, who have targeted policemen, village officials and others belonging to the Buddhist majority.

Also yesterday, two gunmen shot and seriously injured the husband of a woman who works in a village administration office, said police lieutenant Ith Boonrith.

The government's increasing desperation was evident in Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's most recent comments on the issue.

"We seem to know everything about what the bad guys are doing but we cannot do anything to solve even a single problem," he said on Thursday. "Troubles in the south have affected the country's image very, very, very much."

He also complained that the insurgents easily go across the border to neighboring Malaysia because they hold dual citizenship.

Thaksin has said he plans to visit Malaysia on April 9 to meet with his counterpart Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to press for cooperation in tracking down the insurgents. Malaysia has not confirmed the visit.

"Villages on the Malaysian border are safe havens ... It's easy for them. They killed people here and went to Malaysia and openly held meetings about breaking away" from Thailand, Thaksin said.

He said he was not making accusations against Malaysia but only asking for their cooperation.

Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said yesterday the government will hold a meeting of security officials on Monday to prepare evidence of the insurgents' Malaysian incursions, which Thaksin would present to Abdullah.

Thailand had successfully dealt with a decades-old separatist insurgency in the area in the late 1980s.

But it resurfaced two years ago before gaining strength this year to pose the country's biggest domestic security challenge.

Fears of a major attack on civilian targets during the Thai New Year festival, known as Songkran, April 13-15, have been raised since armed raiders stole a huge quantity of explosives from a quarry in Yala on Tuesday.

On Thursday, officials ordered all 10 quarries in southern Thailand to hand their rock-blasting explosives to the army for safekeeping. Also Thursday, another large unprotected cache was found stored in an abandoned marble mine.
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