Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed that his government would be as tough as necessary to bring to justice the killers of two marines who were taken hostage in the country's violence-wracked far south.
Speaking in his weekly national radio address on Saturday, Thaksin described the killers -- presumed to be Islamic militants -- in harsh terms, reflecting widespread indignation at the brutal murders.
"The people who create unrest are very cruel and inhuman, they are worse than wild animals. I have to order tough action against these cruel killers and bring them to justice," Thaksin said.
PHOTO: AFP
He also indicated that if necessary, the government would make use of a recently enacted emergency law which suspends some civil liberties, instead of going through standard legal procedures, to combat the southern militants.
Thailand's three southernmost provinces, Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala -- the only ones with Muslim majorities in the Buddhist-dominated country -- have been hit by an Islamic separatist insurgency in which more than 1,000 people have died since January last year.
The two marines were stabbed to death on Wednesday in Tanyonglimo village in Narathiwat Province while being held hostage by residents who accused them of shooting at a local teashop the night before, killing two civilians and wounding three others.
The military denied that the men were the shooters, saying they had gone to the area to investigate the incident.
Thai authorities said Friday they had detained two people -- a man and a woman -- in connection with the killing of the marines. Arrest warrants were issued on Friday for 11 people, and on Saturday for two more.
Professor Chaiwat Satha-anand, a peace advocate and member of the National Reconciliation Commission, said on Saturday that security forces did the right thing by trying to negotiate the marines' release, although the incident ended sadly.
He said their fate should not make the government switch back to depending on force to end the insurgency, because it would not work.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RSS