Three Muslims slain in drive-by shooting in southern Thailand

Wed, 24 Nov 2010

Pattani, Thailand - Unidentified assailants killed three Muslims in a drive-by shooting Wednesday in the southern Thai province of Narathiwat, military sources said. The men were gunned down while driving through rubber plantations in Ru-so district, about 720 kilometers south of Bangkok, Fourth Region Army chief Lieutenant General Udomchai Thamasalorat said.

Two unidentified assailants with assault rifles attacked local imam Ukree Da-ee, 45, and district administrators Yamaruding Lohma, 46, and Sae-Ungsean Lahmu, 57.

"Our strategy for reducing violence in the region is on track," Udomchai said. "These occasional acts of violence are the results of personal conflicts, not the separatist movement."

The army is attempting to win the hearts and minds of local residents through development projects.

The three men were the latest victims of violence in southern Thailand, where an estimated 4,400 people have been killed and another 7,140 injured since 2004 in a low-intensity insurgency.

Nearly 60 per cent of the slain have been Muslims.

According to a recent survey, there have been 10,284 acts of violence in the region since January 2004, when Muslim militants raided an army arms depot and stole weapons.

Harsh army crackdowns in 2004 on the long-simmering separatist movement further antagonized the local population and gave rise to a reprisal killings, targeting both Buddhists and Muslims.

Besides a struggle for greater autonomy from the predominantly Buddhist state, the border region is also notorious for illicit trade in smuggled goods, arms and drugs.

Residents polled in a recent survey listed the drug trade as the most urgent problem in the region that borders Malaysia.

The region of 2 million inhabitants was an independent Islamic sultanate until it was conquered by Bangkok about 200 years ago. Ethnic Malay Muslims have never wholly submitted to rule by the central government.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/354967,drive-by-shooting-southern-thailand.html.