A Thai Buddhist was gunned down in the southern province of Pattani yesterday, a day after Thai Queen Sirikit made an emotional appeal to stop the slaughter of Buddhists in the deep South.
Noi Sangamphai, 47, was shot dead early yesterday morning by two pistol-weilding assailants riding a motorcycle in Yaring, Pattani province, 730km south of Bangkok.
Noi had died from four bullets wounds to the body by the time he was brought to a hospital in Pattani city, Police Major Anand Keowmanee said.
He was the latest victim of a spate of attacks this year on Thai government officials, teachers, Buddhist monks and increasingly, ordinary Thai Buddhist residents in the country's three southernmost provinces -- Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala.
Queen Sirikit, who spent two months at her palace in Nara-thiwat earlier this year, on Tuesday night made an emotional one-hour appeal to all Thais to respect the human rights of the 300,000 Thai Buddhists living in the deep south.
Some 1.7 million of the 2 million people living in the three provinces are Muslim, making the region the only majority Muslim population in predominantly Buddhist Thailand. The remaining 300,000 are mostly Buddhists.
"Every Thai owns Thailand, so we need to help think of ways to solve the situation and save the lives of the 300,000 Thais living in southern Thailand," said the queen in a speech to 1,000 people who gathered at the Dusit Palace on Tuesday night. The speech was also televised nationwide.
"These people have not committed any crimes, and they have the right to earn a living in their own country," said Queen Sirikit.
She recounted several gruesome accounts of slaying and beheading of Thai Buddhists, reportedly perpetrated by Muslim militants, in the south that have occurred this year.
Clashes in the South have claimed up to 500 victims this year. A government crackdown on machete-weilding Muslim youth on April 28 left 107 dead, and another crackdown on a mob on Oct. 28 left 85 people dead, 78 of whom died of suffocation in custody while being trucked to an army base.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was