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Thai
Regime Criticized For “Colonizing” Muslim Provinces
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Thaksin
was accused of misleading the Thai people on the truth in Southern
Thailand
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By
Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia correspondent
Kuala
Lumpur, May 15 (IslamOnline.net) - Haji Lukman B Lima, deputy
president of the Pattani United Liberation
Organization (PULO), which is
waging a silent war of liberation of Muslim lands against Thai
occupation, slammed the local government for its “colonization” of
Muslim provinces, says an email sent to IslamOnline.net on Thursday,
May 15.
The
exiled leader, now living in Sweden, still has great influence on the
members of the PULO and has been instrumental in uniting the once
prominent freedom fighting organization with the New PULO, a splinter
rebel group created in 1995.
PULO
was formed in 1971 and declared itself a Muslim movement fighting for
the liberation of the predominantly Muslim region of Thailand's five
southernmost provinces.
Lima
and PULO contest the annexing of the Muslim provinces of Pattani,
Narathiwat, Yala and other smaller provinces into the Thai territory,
branding Thai administration as colonizers and its military and police
presence as an occupation of the Malay-Muslim land.
PULO
insists that the former Pattani State, which regrouped the entire
Muslim area of Southern Thailand were illegally incorporated in the
early 1900’s by the Thai regime.
Lima
also lambasted Thai Premier Thaksin Shinawatra for his statements
about the doubt and confusion reigning in southern Thailand, accusing
him of misleading the Thai people on the truth in Southern Thailand.
The
premier recently warned those who seek separation from the Thai nation
of dire consequences, claiming they do not deserve to live in
Thailand’s territorial administration during his tenure.
Failure
The
Muslim independence fighters charge that the U.N. and the Organization
of Islamic Conference (O.I.C) did little to address the territorial
claims of the Muslims.
These
fresh accusations and political attacks by Lima come after a long
period of instability in the southern provinces of Thailand.
Kidnappings,
killing of police and army officers, the murder of Muslims by army
officers in Narathiwat and Yala this year and the shooting of pro-Thai
administration “Muslims” have lead to a state of fear in the
Muslim areas.
The
Thai army reinforced its presence in the territory while the police
carried out indiscriminate arrests and killing of local Muslims,
lending more credibility to the PULO’s assertion that the Muslim
areas are being colonized by Bangkok.
Lima
said Thaksin has adopted the same oppressive policies applied by his
predecessors, adding that such a policy is a waste of tax payers money
and is an ‘impossible mission’ if they are trying to convince
Malays to abandon their struggle for freedom.
Thaksin
has ordered all his important aides to concentrate and deal
effectively with what is happening in the five southern predominantly
Malay provinces, formerly known as the Malay Kingdom of Pattani, says
Lima.
He
believes the Thaksin administration will fail in its objectives in
Southern Thailand because it is ignoring several facts and is
“blinded to their own criminal acts against the Malays and
underestimated them to be easy to control.”
“Above
all, they are lying to the locals, their countrymen/women to justify
their acts of colonialism in Southern Thailand,” the self exiled
leader charged.
“What
Thaksin means by imperial and military might - presently stationing a
battalion in each Muslim province - is to demonstrate that his team is
incapable of controlling the whole situation.
“In
fact, the military build-up is just controlling the buildings and land
and manipulating the natural resources, not the Malay people who are
yearning for freedom,“ said Lima.
License
to Kill
Lima
said that a couple of young Muslim motorbike joy-riders who went ahead
of a police inspector's car were simply shot to death.
“The
police have a license-to-kill within the scope of the government's
declared war on drugs.”
In
retaliation for this, an angry people stabbed to death two special
police task force officers stationed in Ra-ngae (Tanjong Mas),
Narathiwat, and seriously wounded the local police chief accused by
them of being a member of a gangster group responsible for robbery,
kidnapping and rape.
“The
motives for the people in taking the matter into their own hands are
because of what happened in the past - when Thai colonial officer’s
committed criminal acts they were usually either transferred to an
inactive position or just fired.
“Two
locals (Muslims) were gunned down by Thai colonial security men. One
was an education officer at the Bacho district office who was linked
to the liberation movement without proof. Prior to this, four locals
had already been shot, according to rumors in the village,” Lima
stressed.
He
said the “colonial officers” are hunting down the locals, with or
without proof, as a pretext under the war on drugs - as occurred
during the communist war era - so that the police can practice their
extra-judicial rights freely.
Of
Sunni school of thought, Thai Muslims are of largely of Malay origin
and are a majority in the South.
They
form 4.6 percent of the total 61 million people of Thailand according
to a year 2000 population census.
There
are 2000 mosques in Thailand, including 100 in Bangkok alone.
Muslims
enjoys Islamic Laws in southern Thailand but are weary of the overall
education and language policies of the Thaksin administration.
Some
200 Muslim schools offer secular as well as religious instruction in
Thailand.
Muslims
enjoy full state support and are free to teach and practice their
religion according to their own tenets.
There
have been more than 40 bombing and other attacks allegedly conducted
jointly by PULO and New PULO between 1997-1998.
The
recent spate of bombing and armed attacks may be a renewal of the
independence conflict, observers in Malaysia said.
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