Daniel Pedersen

The Courier Mail

September 10, 2005

Thailand

Muslims caught up in the violence of Thailand’s south say they are being forced to leave by security forces, reports Daniel Pedersen

MORE than 130 people have fled southern Thailand, claiming security forces are hunting down suspected insurgents under new laws granting government officials virtual impunity in the face of human rights abuses.

The group of Muslim villagers seeking asylum in Malaysia constitutes the first refugees of an escalating armed conflict in the kingdom’s south.

Malaysia fears this could be the beginning of an exodus of Muslims from the south.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has dismissed the matter as a case of dirty tactics employed by Muslim insurgents.

He claims the appearance of asylum seekers is a ploy to internationalise the conflict.

The Muslim villagers have claimed they fled security forces hunting suspected insurgents.

They were being interviewed by the UN, and if the UN High Commissioner for Refugees rules they have a case for refuge, Malaysia would almost certainly grant them visas.

It was Malaysia, against strong opposition from Thailand, that invited the UNHCR to interview the group.

At this point Malaysia considers them illegal aliens, but the UNHCR has asked they not be repatriated until its investigation is complete.

One thing is sure: The people have left an area of Thailand rife with armed clashes.

Daily images from the conflict are increasingly gruesome; headless corpses fly-blown in the tropical heat, the aftermath of fatal car-bombings, the splintered remains of restaurants and police gathering body parts from streets.

On Wednesday, the feisty elder statesman of Malaysian politics, Mahathir Mohamad, weighed in to the refugee debate, saying: "I think if these people are real refugees then we need to give them asylum." Similar sentiment is emanating from Kuala Lumpur.

The Thai foreign ministry maintains the episode is nothing more than a bid by insurgents to smear Thailand’s name for its treatment of its Muslim minority.

The Government is also adamant most of the violence is not related to Muslim insurgents.

In calling on police to clear a backlog and expedite their investigations, Justice Minister Chidchai Vansathidya said last week there had to be division among criminal acts and the insurgency.

"Of all the murders that have happened in the deep south, I think no more than a third are related to the unrest," he said.

That percentage would mean since January last year only about 300 people had been killed as a result of insurgent-related violence, and 600 or more were executed as a result of ruthless criminal vendettas.

In the first week of this month, casualty figures paint a bleak picture. On September 1, 10 people were wounded when two hotels and a market were bombed. The same day, a worker was gunned down in a rubber plantation, a teacher wounded in a drive-by shooting and two rubber-tappers, a husband and wife, were shot dead on their way to work.

On September 2, a spate of 20 bomb blasts killed three and wounded 26 in a 24-hour period, a police officer was also shot dead and a teacher gunned down.

At dawn on September 3, a monk gathering alms escorted by two police officers and a passing cyclist were wounded in a bomb blast. That afternoon another two men were shot dead in separate attacks, one while picking up his daughter from school and another having dinner at home. Also that day, a villager was shot dead in front of his house, and another while tending his cattle.

On the same day, suspected insurgents killed four people. One was shot four times, then doused with petrol, torched and left to die.

He was not the first to die in such a manner.

Another point-blank shooting came the next day.

Later in the week two people were gunned down in separate incidents, a woman was killed and three seriously injured by a car bomb. Then a Thai Muslim villager and a Buddhist truck driver were killed in separate attacks.

Amid the carnage, Thai Muslims detained in Malaysia claim their village leader was executed by government forces.

The Government has denied this, and on Thursday accused Islamic separatist group the Pattani United Liberation Organisation of orchestrating their flight to stir trouble.

ENDS