Thread: Violence in the South.

Last Updated: Monday, 25 October, 2004, 12:58 GMT 13:58 UK

Southern Thailand protest turns violent
Protesters in Thailand's troubled south have clashed with police, in one of the most serious incidents in months.

Up to three people were reported killed when police moved against protesters who had surrounded a police station.

Hundreds of people had gathered to protest against the detention of six Muslim men in Narathiwat province.

More than 350 people have died this year in clashes between militants and security forces in Thailand's Muslim-majority southern provinces.

Thai television showed footage of soldiers firing M-16 automatic rifles.

Police said the protesters also used weapons, and one witness told Reuters news agency that pistol shots came from the crowd.

At least 20 people were reported to be wounded in the fracas, which lasted several hours and reportedly led to the arrest of more than 200 people.

The protesters had gathered at the district police station in Takbai, in Narathiwat province.

But Sommai Puthakul, the chief of the station, told the Associated Press that he did not know whey they had chosen there because the detainees were being held in the provincial capital and not in Takbai.

The Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has flown to the south for an emergency visit.

"I want to tell the Thai Muslims... that I know about everything that goes on in the south, and I will absolutely not allow the authorities to harass the public," he told reporters.

"But when the authorities set up laws, they have to be respected," he said.

Authorities have imposed a 1000-1800 (1500-2300 GMT) curfew on the region, according to Reuters news agency.

Muslims in the south have long complained of discrimination, and civil servants and security officers have been targeted in a wave of violence which began in January this year.

Muslim separatists fought a low-key insurgency in the region in the 1970s and 80s.

Originally Posted by amdisuk

So is there anyone out there that reads this? Are they what the western world would call civilised protests? I understand there is violence but what about the tourist situation?


Is it safe for people who want to avoid the trouble?

ha ha ha

the BBC is reporting at 1745 tuesday , thai time...

that the Thai justice ministry has just announced that the death toll in Narathiwat has risen to seventy-eight ( 78 ) people ! It was reported this morning that 3-6 people had been killed. It's not clear if these people were shot while protesting or what BBC says : "possibly suffocating to death packed into trucks after arrest." The story and pictures in the Bkk POst this morning held no suggestion of such a mass killing. They showed many people injured or bloodied, but alive, laying bound on the ground. We will just have to wait and see how 78 people ended up dead.

Yes indeed, the shit will now cover and smother the fan. Any Islam who had doubts about joining up with the armed faction will have what he needs to go head-on with it. Big mistake Toxic!!! Bye bye.

BBC
Last Updated: Tuesday, 26 October, 2004, 23:50 GMT 00:50 UK

Demand for Thailand deaths probe

Amnesty International has urged the Thai government to impartially investigate the deaths of at least 84 protesters in the south of the country.

Seventy-eight people died after being arrested and loaded into army trucks following Monday's clashes with security forces, which left six dead.

A foreign ministry spokesman said all the facts would be made known.

Thaksin has gotta go. His appallingly insensitive comment that the deaths were the protesters own fault because their defences were weakened due to their fasting for Ramadan, may well bring the troubles in the south, North to Bangkok. I hope I'm wrong. But there must be some justifiably angry people down there who are crying out for blood.

Gee ,the Americans made the same "mistake" once a couple years back .Could happen to anyone .

Tongue in cheek aside , I fear the worst . It might well have been an accident ,but all these folk have families somewhere mourning and looking for blood .
Accident or not they will be seen as matyrs and victims . They should never have been in the trucks in the first place .

For those of you who have not heard........there have been more reprisals in the south.

LINKY

Thanks for the link, Captain.

I don't know what to say about what's happening in the South. I wish we all can come to term, live side by side in peace and harmony without any tensions.

I don't know what to say about what's happening in the South. I wish we all can come to term, live side by side in peace and harmony without any tensions.

Jesus you contradict yourself from thread to thread. You were mongering over on t'other one a second ago.

Are you a Fillipino??

No, I've said before, I'll say it again...I'm a Thai, born in Songkla, raised in Bangkok-slum klong toei, grown up in U.S.A, travel abroad (Russia, Indonesia, Jamaica, Germany, Kuwait, Iraq). I like to believed I'm an experience man, but that's me saying.

I'm a democrat but I voted for Bush

Thanks for asking

Thanks for telling... :chug:

I'm a democrat but I voted for Bush

However:
Yet more evidence of your contradictory nature. How can anybody who wishes so much for peace on earth vote for a man whose sole purpose in life is to ensure it never happens.
I'm beaten, you are an enigma.

God bless you.