Root causes of terror | 29.06.05
Terrorism in Thailand’s Deep South is rooted in economic neglect:
Two Muslim villagers were shot dead and two others wounded in separate attacks in Pattani and Narathiwat provinces yesterday.
In the first attack, Muhammad Dulasa, 21, and Yudsalan Majae, 22, both natives of Pattani’s Kapho district, were shot while riding a motorcycle on Pattani-Narathiwat road in Mayo district of Pattani province on Sunday night. Two men on another motorcycle opened fire at them.
Mahammad was hit in the stomach, back and left hand and died on the spot while Mr Yudsalan sustained serious gunshot wounds.
On the same day, Mahama Salaehaheedorae, 28, was shot when he opened the door of his house in Sai Buri district, Narathiwat. He was slightly wounded.
All three of the victims worked as employees of the 23rd task force’s job creation project.
And cultural insensitivity:
In the same province, another Muslim resident was shot dead after returning from his nightly prayers at a mosque in Bacho district.
Abdulkodae Mahamayading, 37, was attacked by a group of six armed men on board a pick-up truck in tambon Lubosawo. Abdulkodae, a member of Lubosawo tambon administration organisation, died at the scene.
Which brings us to the third cause that editorial pages editor Anuraj Manibhandu so aptly demonstrated in the very same issue of the Bangkok Post:
The challenge for state authorities is to withstand the pressure from militants and resist following their rationale. The decapitations in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat over the past three weeks, taking the lives of a rubber tapper, a retired Buddhist teacher, a Lao couple, and a cloth vendor, were all in the militants’ cause of revenge for the killing or arrest of innocent Muslims.
The (media) authorities’ refusal to face up to the reality.