All Discussions Tagged 'Thailand' - The 4 Freedoms Library2024-03-29T01:59:18Zhttp://4freedoms.com/group/buddhists/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=Thailand&feed=yes&xn_auth=noThe Independent: "secret" (?) war in Thailand's deep southtag:4freedoms.com,2013-03-26:3766518:Topic:1216922013-03-26T20:32:25.414ZJoehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/38DD
<p>Media definition of "secret" = something we have steadfastly and consciously ignored for 10 years.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-secret-war-in-thailands-deep-south-8550581.html">http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-secret-war-in-thailands-deep-south-8550581.html</a></p>
<div class="widget storyContent article widget-editable viziwyg-section-1024 inpage-widget-6138696 title"><h1 class="title">The secret war in Thailand's deep…</h1>
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<p>Media definition of "secret" = something we have steadfastly and consciously ignored for 10 years.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-secret-war-in-thailands-deep-south-8550581.html">http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-secret-war-in-thailands-deep-south-8550581.html</a></p>
<div class="widget storyContent article widget-editable viziwyg-section-1024 inpage-widget-6138696 title"><h1 class="title">The secret war in Thailand's deep south</h1>
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<div class="widget storyContent article widget-editable viziwyg-section-1024 inpage-widget-6138720"><p>Just a few hours from tourist-packed beaches, a conflict is simmering that has claimed thousands of lives</p>
<div class="widget storyContent article widget-editable viziwyg-section-1024 inpage-widget-6138699 articleContent"><p>Nisea Nisani was curled on a plastic mat outside the hospital’s intensive care unit. His wife lay on a bed inside, battling for her life after a bomb blast. There was some good news, said Mr Nisani, his eyes red and raw; although shrapnel had fractured both her legs, pierced a lung and torn into her diaphragm, his wife’s doctors were hoping to transfer her to another ward. At that point he would have to tell her that their nine-year-year-old son, Nisofin – their only child – had not survived.</p>
<div class="body"><p>“We’ve not yet told her,” said Mr Nisani, wiping his eyes with a towel. “We thought it might damage her heart.” Mr Nisani’s wife and child, struck by a bomb blast last Thursday in the southern Thai city of Pattani, were the latest victims in an ugly, slow-simmering separatist insurgency that has transformed the region into a militarised zone.</p>
<p>While the casualty figures from most of the incidents of violence are low, the number of victims since 2004, when the insurgency restarted, has now crept past 5,000.</p>
<p>More remarkably, this little-noticed violence is playing out just a few hours drive from holiday resorts such as Krabi, packed with foreign tourists. This week, in what observers hope will be a breakthrough, Thai authorities are to hold their first openly-acknowleged talks with the most significant of a number of militant groups behind an insurgency dating back to the 1970s. Thai military officials will meet representatives of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional-Coordinate (BRN-C) in Kuala Lumpur. “It’s a big step for the Thai government,” said a national security adviser to Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, asking not to be identified. “It’s a huge political risk. But we want to get this it sorted out once and for all.”</p>
<p>The insurgency in Thailand’s deep south is rooted in the fact that anywhere up to 90 per cent of the population of Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala and Songkhla are ethnic Malay Muslims, rather than Theravada Buddhists. Three of the provinces once formed the independent Sultanate of Pattani, which was annexed only in 1909.</p>
<p>The separatists say they are trying to protect customs, language and religious rights. Despite attempts by al-Qa’ida-affiliated groups establish a handle here, it remains an insurgency driven by ethnic demands for greater autonomy rather than religious ideology. The insurgents have taken their battle to the state using targeted assassinations and bombing campaigns. Alongside police and soldiers, many teachers and low-ranking officials have been killed. Amnesty International estimates two-thirds of victims are civilians.</p>
<p>Sapeing Sulong, who had eight children, was a deputy headman in Suannok, a quiet village 15 miles from Pattani. Ten days ago, he was driving to the house of the second of his two wives when gunmen armed with an AK-47 rifle and a shotgun opened fire. Struck several times, Mr Sulong leapt from the vehicle and lay in the foliage by the edge of the lane, seeping blood. “This is where he hid,” pointed Mr Sulong’s step-brother, Lachit Singh, standing on a stretch of back-country road surrounded by rubber trees and paddy fields.</p>
<p>Local people heard the gunfire but were too afraid to move. “The doctors at the hospital said if he’d been brought in immediately, perhaps he would have lived,” said Mr Singh.</p>
<p>At Mr Sulong’s home, his family declined to speculate on who was responsible for the attack, apparently through fear. His boss, headman Ismail Leamo, said there had been no threats. “It makes no sense for us to say what happened to him,” he said.</p>
<p>But at the police station in the town of Kho Pho, where Mr Sulong’s bullet-ridden black Honda Accord was parked in a compound, officers had few doubts. “He worked for the government. Normally it’s the government officers who are targeted,” said a policeman who knew Mr Sulong but who asked not to be be named.</p>
<p>The Thai authorities have held a series of under-the-radar meetings with several insurgent groups since 2005 in Malaysia, Bahrain and elsewhere. Even now, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, brother of the current premier, holds unofficial meetings with representatives.</p>
<p>Yet the talks have made little progress. The Thai government has often been distracted by domestic political turmoil, while doubting whether the figures they were meeting with had control over the actual fighters. The authorities appear to have been pushed again to the negotiating table by several factors, including a growing realisation among those involved that the BRN-C was the most significant of the groups.</p>
<p>Tony Davis, a Bangkok-based security analyst with IHS Jane’s, said the insurgents had also stepped up their attacks. In February, at least 16 insurgents were killed when they launched an assault upon a well-defended Thai marine base. “In the last few years the situation has deteriorated on the ground with the insurgents attacking with increased capacity. The flip-side is that it’s more difficult for the authorities to keep saying ‘we are on the right track’,” he said.</p>
<p>The Thai state has responded by amassing up to 70,000 police, soldiers and paramilitaries. Today, the landscape is filled with army bases and journeys are punctuated by check-points manned by heavily-armed troops. Those working for peace say they consider the talks a positive step but expect few immediate results. “We support the dialogue. We want it to be a long and continuous process,” said Soraya Jamjuree of the Women’s Civic Network for Peace.</p>
<p>It remains unclear what the government is willing to offer. During her election campaign in 2011, Ms Yingluck said she would consider greater autonomy for the south. Yet the national security adviser said at this point “nothing is on the table”. Once again, it is unclear whether those representing the insurgents have it in their power to halt the killings. Reports suggest many of the movement’s old guard are unhappy with the insurgents’ tactic of assassinating teachers.</p>
<p>Among those murdered was Cholatee Charanchol, a PE teacher at the Tangyong school on the outskirts of Narathiwat. On January 23, Mr Charanchol was overseeing lunch when two men approached him and shot him in the head. Mr Charanchol’s seven-year-old daughter was among the pupils who saw everything.</p>
<p>Mr Charanchol’s widow, Pausiah, said that in the days after the shooting, a psychologist had come to visit the little girl. They had moved her to another school but she was frightened her mother would be killed next.</p>
<p>“She is a strong girl,” Mrs Charanchol said quietly. “I try to stop her talking about it. I want her to forget it.”</p>
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</div> Thailand: Buddhists leave South as Fascists use terror campaign to create Islamic enclavetag:4freedoms.com,2011-06-04:3766518:Topic:569242011-06-04T00:43:41.115ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<div class="headline_area"><h1 class="entry-title">Thailand: “Some recent attacks appear intended to spread terror among the Buddhist Thai population, in violation of the laws of war….”</h1>
<p class="headline_meta">by <span class="author vcard fn">SHEIKYERMAMI</span> on <abbr class="published" title="2011-06-03">JUNE 3, 2011…</abbr></p>
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<div class="headline_area"><h1 class="entry-title">Thailand: “Some recent attacks appear intended to spread terror among the Buddhist Thai population, in violation of the laws of war….”</h1>
<p class="headline_meta">by <span class="author vcard fn">SHEIKYERMAMI</span> on <abbr title="2011-06-03" class="published">JUNE 3, 2011</abbr></p>
<p class="headline_meta"><a href="http://sheikyermami.com/2011/06/03/thailand-%E2%80%9Csome-recent-attacks-appear-intended-to-spread-terror-among-the-buddhist-thai-population-in-violation-of-the-laws-of-war-%E2%80%9D/">http://sheikyermami.com/2011/06/03/thailand-%E2%80%9Csome-recent-attacks-appear-intended-to-spread-terror-among-the-buddhist-thai-population-in-violation-of-the-laws-of-war-%E2%80%9D/</a></p>
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<div id="aeaoofnhgocdbnbeljkmbjdmhbcokfdb-mousedown" class="format_text entry-content"><p>When did the soldiers of Allah ever respect the man-made laws of the kafirs? Muhammad said <span><strong>‘war is deceit’</strong></span>, and a whole lot more, like:</p>
<blockquote><p><span>Ibn Ishaq: 327</span> <em>- “Allah said, ‘A prophet must slaughter before collecting captives. A slaughtered enemy is driven from the land. Muhammad, you craved the desires of this world, its goods and the ransom captives would bring. But Allah desires killing them to manifest the religion.’”</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span><strong>Human Rights Watch condemns increasing violence by Thai<del>separatists</del> jihadists</strong></span></p>
<p>Earth Times (on a tip from the<a href="http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/367386,increasing-violence-thai-separatists.html"> Tundra Tabloids)</a></p>
<blockquote><p><span>“Some recent insurgent attacks appear intended to spread terror among the Buddhist Thai population, in violation of the laws of war,</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Bangkok – A human rights group on Tuesday condemned a surge in violent attacks by separatist Muslim insurgents on civilian targets this year in Thailand’s troubled southern provinces.</p>
<p>Read also:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2011/06/thailand-mass-migration-due-to-muslim-terror.html">Thailand Mass Migration due to Muslim Terror</a> (Atlas Shrugs)</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://sheikyermami.com/wp-content/uploads/Thai_south_jihad-12.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://sheikyermami.com/wp-content/uploads/Thai_south_jihad-12.jpg?width=405" width="405" class="align-right"/></a>More horrific pic’s<a href="http://www.google.de/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=thai%20jihad&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=de&tab=wi&biw=1178&bih=659"> here…</a></p>
<p>Since January, a series of shootings and bombings perpetrated by insurgents have claimed more than a dozen lives.</p>
<blockquote><p><span>“There is no excuse for indiscriminate or deliberate attacks against civilians,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The leaders of separatist insurgent groups need to rethink their tactics, which are abhorrent, illegal, and completely unjustifiable.”</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Yawn!</em></p>
<p><span id="more-77176"> </span></p>
<p>Thailand’s majority-Muslim southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala have been a hotbed for violence since January 2004, when a long-simmering separatist movement took a more militant turn.</p>
<p>About 4,370 people have died in the conflict over the past seven years, 90 per cent of them civilians, Human Rights Watch said.</p>
<p>In December, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said stability was returning to the region after the government introduced a policy of promoting economic development in the long-neglected provinces.</p>
<p>The claim appears to have sparked a surge in renewed violence.</p>
<p>On Sunday, a bomb exploded in Yala city, 700 kilometres south of Bangkok, injuring 17 people and destroying an entire block of shops.</p>
<p>On February 10, three Thais were killed and their bodies burned, on February 3 five Buddhists were shot in Pattani and a roadside bomb killed nine in Yala on January 25.</p>
<p>“Some recent insurgent attacks appear intended to spread terror among the Buddhist Thai population, in violation of the laws of war,” Human Right Watch said.</p>
<blockquote><p><span>“Their aim is to drive out the Buddhist population, keep Muslims under control, and discredit the Thai authorities,”</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p>the human rights group said of the separatist rebels.</p>
<p>About 80 per cent of the 2 million people living in the three provinces are Muslims, making it the only majority Muslim region in predominantly Buddhist Thailand. An estimated 300,000 Buddhists have left the region since in 2004.</p>
<p><em><span>And then, the obligatory qualifier:</span></em></p>
<p>The region was an independent sultanate until Bangkok conquered it about 200 years ago. The local population, which shares greater cultural, linguistic and religious similarities with neighbouring Malaysia, has never wholly submitted to rule by the central government.</p>
<p><span><strong>The Buddhists are voting with their feet:</strong></span></p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2011/06/thailand-mass-migration-due-to-muslim-terror.html">Thailand Mass Migration due to Muslim Terror</a> </strong>(Pamela Geller)</li>
</ul>
<p>Subject line: <span>Unreported story: Thailand mass migration due to Muslim terror</span></p>
<blockquote><p>Here in Thailand things are so bad that every quarter thousands (most likely tens of thousands) of non-Muslim (primarily Buddhist) Thai citizens in the south are abandoning homes, jobs, businesses, land holdings and generations of work to head for safer northern provinces. Their holdings are sold for a song to local Southern Muslims. This is the plan of the Muslim terrorists of course, and it’s working. This forced mass migration of Buddhists and abandonment of property and homes in the south of Thailand is a part of terrorism story that is largely unreported in the local or international press. (read more <strong><a href="http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2011/06/thailand-mass-migration-due-to-muslim-terror.html">Muslim Terror</a> )</strong></p>
</blockquote>
</div> Thailand: Fascists murder 5000 since 2004 in takeover of Southtag:4freedoms.com,2009-11-02:3766518:Topic:80702009-11-02T03:07:41.000ZNetconhttp://4freedoms.com/profile/Netcon
<p><strong>[The deaths are mounting up fast in southern Thailand, so I've updated the topic of this thread. - Joe]</strong></p>
<p>This statement was made in Oct 2009, so thats 4000 deaths in 5 years.…<br></br> <br></br></p>
<p><strong>[The deaths are mounting up fast in southern Thailand, so I've updated the topic of this thread. - Joe]</strong></p>
<p>This statement was made in Oct 2009, so thats 4000 deaths in 5 years.<br/> <br/> <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/10/thailand-more-than-3900-people-have-died-in-shootings-bomb-blasts-beheadings-and-crucifixions-since.html" target="_blank">http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/10/thailand-more-than-3900-people-have-died-in-shootings-bomb-blasts-beheadings-and-crucifixions-since.html</a><br/> <br/> This AFP story departs from ordinary mainstream media practice by actually identifying the Thai jihadists as "Islamic," and adds a final paragraph that is, well, killer: more than 3900 people (but apparently fewer than 4000), it says, have been killed "in shootings, bomb blasts, beheadings and crucifixions" since the jihad in Thailand began in 2004.<br/> <br/> Beheadings? Crucifixions? Those who insist that this is simply a nationalist insurgency with an Islamic character that is only incidental should take note: no other group around the world besides Islamic jihadists is practicing "beheadings and crucifixions" with any regularity in 2009. And why are "beheadings and crucifixions," both of which one might be forgiven for thinking of as relics of a distant and barbaric past, happening in Thailand at all?<br/> <br/> Why, because Islamic jihadists -- contrary to the prevailing wisdom of the learned analysts -- read and follow the Koran.<br/> <br/> "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter..." -- Koran 5:33<br/> <br/> "Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks..." -- Koran 47:4<br/> <br/> But of course this is the element of understanding the actions of the Islamic jihadists that we are forbidden to explore in the public square.<br/> <br/> "Two killed, four wounded in Thai south," from Agence France-Presse, October 31 (thanks to Sr. Soph):<br/> <br/> SUSPECTED Islamic insurgents shot and killed two people and wounded three others in a bomb blast in Thailand's troubled Muslim-majority south, police said.<br/> <br/> Gunmen broke into a house in Yala province and shot dead a 16-year-old Buddhist girl, also wounding her 29-year-old husband, they said....<br/> <br/> More than 3900 people have died in shootings, bomb blasts, beheadings and crucifixions since a separatist insurgency erupted in Thailand's southern provinces bordering Malaysia in January 2004.<br/> <br/> Posted by Robert on October 31, 2009</p> Jihad in Thailandtag:4freedoms.com,2009-09-29:3766518:Topic:17472009-09-29T14:48:25.000ZCharles Martelhttp://4freedoms.com/profile/LutonEnglish
<u><b>Comment by Anti-Jihadist:</b></u><br />
Speaking of islands in Southeast Asia...<br />
Last time I was in Thailand, I went to Phuket, a large island off the coast of SW Thailand in the Indian Ocean. Phuket, a beautiful island, is the centerpiece of Thailand's huge tourist industry. And the center of Phuket is an area called Patong Beach. Think Vegas and Hawaii, crammed together in one place, along a 3 km stretch of white sandy beach. That's Patong, a sprawl of discos, clubs, bars, seedy hotels, and…
<u><b>Comment by Anti-Jihadist:</b></u><br />
Speaking of islands in Southeast Asia...<br />
Last time I was in Thailand, I went to Phuket, a large island off the coast of SW Thailand in the Indian Ocean. Phuket, a beautiful island, is the centerpiece of Thailand's huge tourist industry. And the center of Phuket is an area called Patong Beach. Think Vegas and Hawaii, crammed together in one place, along a 3 km stretch of white sandy beach. That's Patong, a sprawl of discos, clubs, bars, seedy hotels, and any other dive you can imagine...and maybe some you can't. Any sort of indulgence, sin, or temptation that people want or money can buy, is there in Patong. And yes, the beach is lovely too, and the scenery is exotic and gorgeous. It's a nice place, if you can get there, and if you're so inclined to enjoy its, um, attractions. European tourists seem particularly drawn to its decadence. Patong was serious damaged in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami (and dozens died there), but was almost entirely rebuilt within 12 months.<br />
<br />
Anyways, what I noticed when I went to Patong in 2006, smack in the middle of the bars, the kathoeys and the cheap touristy trinket shops, was a gigantic mosque under construction. It must have covered an entire US-sized city block. It was about as out of place there in Patong as a Southern Baptist church would be on the Vegas strip. It just didn't belong there at all, and I was horrified.<br />
<br />
I'm sure the mosque has since been completed, no doubt thanks to continued infusions of Gulf oil money (the few Muslims already there in Thailand could never afford such extravagance mosques).<br />
<br />
There, on a beautiful beach in Thailand, the Muslims have secured themselves a beachhead. Think of it as the Green Inkblot strategy. And it's working. What can we do to stop such advances, in such faraway places?<br />
<br />
It's trying to answer questions like that, that bring me here to this site.