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Thailand: Muslims Rally Rejecting Violence
additional reporting by Kazi Mahmood
KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 (IslamOnline and News Agencies) - About 5,000 Thai Muslims and Buddhists in Thailand's southernmost provinces rallied in Ruso district on Thursday against violence and "terrorism" in the area.
They protested against growing acts of violence in southern Thailand, a region with a large population of Muslims of Malay-Thai origin. The provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani have been rocked by a sudden surge of violence in the past five months.
The worst event was a bomb blast that rocked the tourist resort of Chiang Mai, killing both tourists and locals.
The demonstrators called on the Thai prime minister to tackle the problem seriously and bring to justice culprits who had brought the violence to the region.
Residents in Muslim populated southern Thailand bordering the states of Kelantan and Kedah in Malaysia said they lived in fear in the wake of acts of sabotage and murder.
The three southern provinces had been marred with violence since the government took office, protesters said.
They cited the killing of six workers in Narathiwat's Si Sakhon district, allegedly by Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) separatists, followed by the kidnapping and beheading of two people in Pattani's Sai Buri district.
"No matter who the targets are, the government or someone else, the result is that the provinces have become unsafe places to live in. The people feel they can no more rely on the authorities in charge," a spokesman said.
A statement issued at the rally stated, "The people must join forces and the prime minister must take the problem seriously. Authorities must bring the culprits to justice to boost morale,"
"Only swift action would bring peace and calm to locals and create understanding between Muslim and Buddhist people," it said.
Southern Thailand has been the berth of the Pattani (Thai-Malay) freedom fighters who do not accept the rule of Buddhist Thais on their "captured" territory.
Before the advent of British colonialism in the region, Pattani was a prominent and powerful Malay kingdom. It underwent several attacks by Buddhist invaders before it was subdued.
The British takeover did not alleviate matters for the Pattani, who did not agree that their territory be handed over to the Thais after the independence of Thailand.
The major secessionist group, the Pattani United Liberation Front (PULO), suffered serious setbacks when Malaysian authorities decided to join Thai police in a clean-up operation in the mid 1990s.
PULO leaders were arrested in Kelantan and sent to Thailand where most of them are still in jail. Some of them claim they did not have a fair trial and that they have been tortured into accepting their fate at the hands of Thai authorities.
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