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Hermanolobo
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CABINET IN THE SOUTH: Army, police on high alert
Published on Mar 16, 2004
Security officials brace for worst-case scenarios after more attacks in region
Amid fresh violence in the South - including the killing of another government official yesterday - security agencies are bracing for the possibility of car bombings, military-style raids and hit-and-run attacks ahead of today's Cabinet meeting in Pattani.
Officials said security would be extremely tight for the session, with all government offices on full alert, bomb-detecting robots, commandos, snipers and marine police mobilised and Black Hawk helicopters hovering above the meeting venue.
Some 3,000 security officials, including police, soldiers and civil-defence volunteers, will be on duty, said Pol Maj General Thani Thawidsri, deputy commissioner for the Ninth Police Region, which oversees the southern provinces.
A fresh round of attacks hit the predominantly Muslim region yesterday, adding to fears that peace and stability will continue to be elusive.
Sakul Chuaysakul, a 55-year-old Revenue Department official, was shot three times in the back in Narathiwat's Sungai Kolok district and died on the way to hospital.
Suchart Sae-ju, 33, a hospital security guard in the province's Ruesoh district, was also shot, twice by masked men riding on a motorbike, but survived.
In neighbouring Yala, unknown assailants set fire to an abandoned wooden monastery, damaging the main door to what was once the monks' sleeping quarters.
Deputy Prime Minister Vishanu Krua-ngam said he would submit to Cabinet a proposal from Buddhist monks from the 14 southern provinces. The monks yesterday called on the government to budget Bt300,000 for each province to finance activities aimed at boosting morale and enhancing community-building, including a campaign for a mass ordination.
"It's very important to ensure that the monks are protected and the monkhood be permitted to continue undisturbed amid the ongoing violence," Vishanu said.
Pattani commissioner Pol Maj General Phaithoon Pattanasophon said he suspected that at least three separate groups would stage demonstrations today against the government.
The groups include opponents of the controversial Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline, local residents who are against the continuing imposition of martial law and local fishermen affected by large-scale commercial fishing.
According to a confidential police document circulated to several government agencies, possible scenarios for an attack on the Cabinet session include a raid by Muslim separatists who made off with more than 300 weapons from an Army camp in Narathiwat on January 4.
The document warns that citizens could be incited to create a disturbance to protest the imposition of martial law in the three southernmost provinces.
It also pointed to the possibility that Muslim separatists or criminal groups with vested interests in the region's black market could seize the opportunity to create unrest in order to discredit the government.
Hat Yai airport, government agencies and state symbols on display, plus "soft targets" like entertainment venues, could become targets for terrorist attacks, the document said.
Meanwhile, six civil-defence volunteers charged with attacking a civil-defence installation in Songkhla last year were released yesterday after the state attorney withdrew all charges.
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Bomb blast in southern Thailand
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3559871.stm
The explosion went off in a toilet near the town hall
A bomb has exploded in southern Thailand near a hall where the Defence and Interior Ministers were meeting local officials in Narathiwat province.
One woman was wounded in the blast which went off in a toilet in the nearby offices of a telephone company.
In a separate incident a policeman was shot dead in Yala.
The government imposed martial law in the area in January and has blamed Islamic militants for violence that has killed over 50 people.
"We consider the blast to be a direct challenge to state authority. The government wants to denounce the perpetrators of the bomb attack who are trying to worsen the situation," said government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair.
Development
A bomb squad also defused a device which was planted in a branch of the Government Savings Bank next to the town hall where talks were taking place.
The Defence Minister, Chetta Thanajaro, and the Interior Minister, Bhokin Bhalakula, were meeting senior local officials to discuss the wave of violence in the south.
Earlier a police spokesman in Yala province said that four gunmen shot the policeman, Surapol Prabpailee, in the back of his head while he was directing traffic.
The spokesman said that he died at the scene and the gunmen escaped.
Killings on an almost daily basis have continued despite a government pledge to spend $304m on development projects in the region over two years.
Thailand's minority Muslims have long complained of discrimination in jobs, education and culture by the predominantly Buddhist central government.
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