Military

DATE=10/26/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-319911

TITLE=THAILAND/MUSLIM VIOLENCE (L)

BYLINE=NANCY-AMELIA COLLINS

DATELINE=BANGKOK

HEADLINE: Thai Government Cracks Down on Southern Violence As Monday's Death Toll Shoots Upward

INTRO: Thai security forces have begun large-scale detentions in the predominately-Muslim south of the country following a clash with demonstrators Monday that left more than 80 protesters dead. Authorities said six protesters were shot to death, and the rest suffocated after being rounded up by police. Nancy-Amelia Collins reports from Bangkok.

TEXT: Thai soldiers and police were questioning hundreds of people Tuesday in Pattani, near Thailand's border with Malaysia. One military commander was quoted as saying 13-hundred people have been detained since Monday's fatal clash.

Monday night's deaths came after around 2000 Muslim youths massed outside a police station in the southern province of Narathiwat, demanding the release of six men detained on weapons charges.

Police say the youths made several attempts to storm the police station, a nearby government building, and threw rocks at the police building.

In retaliation, Thai security forces dispersed the protesters with water cannon, tear gas and live ammunition. Authorities originally reported six protesters killed, but Tuesday evening, the death toll was revised dramatically upward.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who traveled to the scene Monday and returned to Bangkok later that night, praised the security forces for their actions and says the crackdown was justified.

However, the government's human rights commissioner, Jaran Ditapichai, says the violent approach to the security forces have taken in the region will only make the situation worse.

/// JARAN ACT 1 ///

"The situation will not end. What happened yesterday [made] it worse, worse, worse because it makes people, Muslim people, angry. The government of Thai state don't understand."

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/// OPT /// A leading Muslim official in the province also said the reaction by the security forces may cause a backlash among the largely-Muslim population, and could lead to further violence. /// END OPT ///

International and domestic human rights groups had earlier criticized the government's tactics in the region, especially after 107 protesters and militants were killed April 28 when the security forces retaliated for a series of armed raids on police outposts.

A low-intensity Muslim separatist rebellion has been bubbling in the region since the 1970's, and was largely contained in the 1990's. The violence flared up again last January, with armed men raiding an army depot and making off with hundreds of weapons.

Through Monday, at least 360 people had died in the almost daily acts of violence that the government blames on Muslim separatists. Many analysts say the violence actually results from a combination of rivalry between politicians and between the police and military, along with organized crime and Muslim militancy.

/// REST OPT ///

While the vast majority of Thailand's 63-million people are Buddhists, around 10 percent practice Islam and most of those live in the southern provinces near the Malaysian border. (Signed)

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