News from the Nation, Agence France Presse and the Bangkok Post reports that in Narathiwat province in the troubled south, a five kilogram bomb was detonated this morning.
The bomb was hidden in a garbage can in front of an electronics shop in downtown Muang. It was triggered at 6.30 am local time by mobile phone as five Buddhist monks were gathering alms, accompanied by thirteen soldiers who were acting as an escort. The bomb was triggered as they passed the shop, and all five monks and the soldiers were injured in the blast.
The monks came from Wat Promniwat. Three were seriously injured. Three civilians were also injured. After the wounded were transported to hospital, one of the soldiers died from his injuries. 22-year old Private Pramote Wannasuk, from a Chon-Buri-based taskforce, became the 28th person to have died in the violence since last Sunday. This week is said to have been the bloodiest week in recent memory.
The current insurgency began on January 4, 2004, and has claimed 1,700 lives. The governor of Narathiwat province, Pracha Therat said Allah punished people who committed violent acts. Pracha is a Buddhist. He said that the bomb could have been placed in the garbage can during a power blackout. This had gone on for several hours, as a result of heavy rains which have been pounding the southern provinces.
Yesterday, premier Surayud Chulanot was in Indonesia, and said that he would use the example of Aceh as an example for containing the violence in the south of Thailand, which affects the provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, as well as two districts of Songkhla.
The Thai academic Ahmed Somboon Bualeng poured scorn on the suggestion. He said that yje government of Indonesia knew who the rebels were – representatives of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). In Thailand, although groups of rebels are engaged in preliminary peace talks, it is unknown who is still perpetrating the violence.
There are other reasons to suggest any parallels with Aceh and Thailand’s predominantly Muslim south are preposterous. Most importantly, Aceh’s road to peace involved an agreement to introduce Sharia law. With 20 percent of Thailand’s southern residents being Buddhists, such a measure will only increase inter-faith distrust and conflict, as it has done in the north of Nigeria between Muslims and Christians.
On July 31 this year, almost a year after peace was signed between GAM and Indonesia, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group reported on the problems that sharia has caused. As AKI described it, sharia “is creating a conflict between the civilian and religious authorities and is also penalising women and the poor.”
In Aceh, the wilayatul hisbah enforces “vice and virtue” law. Effectively they are vigilantes. In April it was announced that in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam district of Aceh, non-Muslims would also have to be subjected to Islamic law.
There are already worrying signs that the leader of the coup which took place on September 19 is seeking more involvement from Muslim countries in solving the problems in the south. This individual, General Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, is a Muslim. Boonyaratkalin appointed the current Thai prime minister who is now eulogizing the Aceh process. Should Islamic law be introduced to Thailand, the Buddhists in the south would become alienated and denied the normal rights of citizenship.
