Author: Nopporn Wong-Anan
Publication: www.alertnet.org
Date: June 2, 2004
URL: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/BKK277659.htm
Buddhists in Thailand's Muslim-dominated
south gathered on Wednesday for a morale- boosting rally after the beheading
of a Buddhist man this week stoked fears of sectarian conflict in the restive
region.
Tension between Muslims and Buddhists,
who are the overwhelming majority in Thailand but are outnumbered four
to one in the deep south, is on the rise after five months of attacks on
government officials, teachers and security forces.
The Thai government called off talks
between the military and a Muslim separatist group on Tuesday because of
the beheading and an attack on a Chinese shrine popular with Buddhists.
Some Buddhist temples have been
ransacked and three monks killed this year. The unrest burst into major
bloodshed on April 28 when police and soldiers killed 108 Muslim attackers,
including 32 who had taken refuge in a mosque.
The Lim Ko Nhieo Chinese shrine
in the town of Pattani is next to Krue Se mosque, where the 32 militants
were hiding after an earlier shootout.
"In the past, when monks went out
for alms, children helpers followed to help carry food," said Phrakru Praphassorn
Sirikul, abbot of the temple that hosted the gathering to commemorate the
birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha.
"But nowadays when they go out,
soldiers carry M-16s to protect them. This is very ugly," he said.
WEALTHY BUDDHISTS FLED
The rally, led by Deputy Prime Minister
Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, was billed as a morale booster for the region's
nervous Buddhist population. Most of the 1,000 people gathered at a temple
in Narathiwat province, 1,200 km south of Bangkok, were government officials
or students. "Wealthy Buddhists have already fled their homes and the middle-class
people are joining them," the abbot said.
"Only the poor can't afford to leave
and they can barely nourish Buddhism. We may soon become another Indonesia
where there are many Buddhist structures, but few followers."
Tension in the region began on January
4, when dozens of suspected Muslim militants raided an army camp and stole
about 400 guns, provoking fears of a resurgence of a low-key separatist
war that rocked the region in the 1970s and 1980s.
More than 200 people have died in
the violence.
In the latest gruesome incident,
an elderly Buddhist rubber tapper was found decapitated in Narathiwat over
the weekend. Muslim leaders have urged locals not to assume the 67-year-old's
attackers were Muslim. The killers left a note suggesting the murder was
linked to unrest in the south, where many people speak Malay and feel closer
to Kuala Lumpur than Bangkok. Thai officials say the killers were trying
to stir up religious strife ahead of Wednesday's Buddhist holiday.
The government has blamed gunrunners,
smugglers, local mafias, and Muslim separatists for the violence in the
south.
Talks to discuss the violence were
planned for later this week between the Thai administration and Wan Abdul
Kadir Che Man, the leader of Bersatu, an umbrella group for separatists.
