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Thai
Plan for Muslim Areas Under Fire
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“I will eradicate it (the separatist movement) within the next four years,” said Thaksin. (Reuters)
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BETONG,
Thailand, February 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Thai
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed Thursday, February 17, to crush
separatist revolt in the predominantly-Muslim south within four years,
saying his government would cut off aid to villages who help separatists
there.
But
the plan drew fierce criticism in the region, with Muslim
leaders, academics and politicians saying it would encourage support for
a separatism in which more than 500 people have been killed since it
erupted in January last year and damage business confidence further.
Making
his first visit to the southern provinces since his party’s landslide
re-election victory earlier this month, Thaksin said he would cut
funding to over 350 villages deemed to be sympathetic to the
separatists, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“I
will eradicate it (the separatist movement) within the next four
years,” Thaksin told reporters before touring southernmost Yala
province, which with neighboring Narathiwat and Pattani has borne the
brunt of the unrest.
“We
must be decisive today otherwise we will not be able to crack down on
them,” he said of separatists, who have been blamed for most of the
violence since January last year.
The
1,500 villages of the three provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat
would be categorized as troubled, or red, semi-cooperative, or yellow,
and peaceful, or green, he said.
New Approach
Surrounded by a
massive security detail, the premier appeared to signal a new, hardened
approach to militancy reminiscent of his 2003 anti-drugs policy which
stirred controversy for its strong-arm tactics. The “drugs war”
claimed at least 2,500 lives.
Thaksin said
areas prone to unrest and judged to be sympathetic to separatists would
be identified as “red zones” and denied crucial government funding.
“I don't want
money going towards supporting insurgents in red-zone villages, to be
used to buy bombs and guns,” Thaksin told thousands of villagers
Wednesday in Yala's Betong district near the Malaysian border.”
“I have to do
this, I have to cut their support,” he said. “I won't accept them
here, and I will do everything to keep our sovereignty.”
Thaksin said
that of 1,580 villages in the three southernmost provinces, 358 are
listed as “red”, including some 200 in Narathiwat alone.
Two hundred are
deemed “yellow”, while the rest are “green” areas where 90
percent of residents abide by the law, according to the hawkish
premiere.
Thaksin said he
hoped the policy -- first used in Thailand during the fight against communist insurgents in the 1970s and 80s --
could pressure villagers into outing militants or severing ties with
them.
Discriminatory
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Thaksin unveiled the controversial plan during his visit to the Muslim provinces. (Reuters)
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But
Thaksin’s plan to exclude Muslim villages from development drew ire
widely in the region, with some warning it could backfire.
“What
the government is doing is creating more enemies than friends,”
security analyst Chidchanok Rahimmula at Prince of Songkhla University
in Pattani, told Reuters.
“Innocent
people in those suspected villages will feel bad and become sympathizers
with the militants.”
Thaksin,
who won a another nationwide landslide poll victory but not one seat in
the troubled south, said Thursday troops would be sent to live in
“red” villages and they would follow suspected people everywhere
until they became “green”.
“If
I were a top executive in the government, I would put a lot of money
into resistant villages for physical development and all kinds of
rehabilitation to win their hearts,” said Abdulrahman Abdulsahad,
president of the provincial Islamic council of Narathiwat.
There
has been no sign of an end to the violence even though Thaksin has sent
thousands of soldiers to the region to deal with a revival of a low-key
separatist war fought in the 1970s and 1980s, according to Reuters.
The
violence has scared away tourists, mainly ethnic Chinese Thais and
Malaysians, prompted thousands of Buddhist Thais to flee the largely
Muslim region and frozen new investment.
Businessmen
and politicians said the zoning plan would dampen business confidence in
villages or towns branded as “red”.
Others said it
could increase poverty and push villagers towards support of
separatists.
Critics
at home and abroad have accused Thaksin’s government of using
heavy-handed tactics against Thai Muslims.
Thaskin’s hard-line plan sharply
contradicted a plan approved by the Thai cabinet Tuesday, February 15,
to create a 12,000 soldier-strong infantry division to be permanently
based in the Muslim southern provinces to foster what it termed
“better relations between the military and Muslim residents”.
“This regiment is not to combat but to
develop the region, thus staff must fully understand the tradition,
culture of Thai Muslims before deploying in the area. But if necessary,
we have to be sure that we have enough troops for combat operations,”
Thai Defense Minister General Sumpan Boonyanun was quoted as saying.
On
October 25, a total of 87 Muslims died after Thai troops broke up a
protest at Tak Bai in the southern province
of Narathiwat with tear gas, water cannon and gunfire.
The
majority of victims suffocated or were crushed after being bound and
left for hours on trucks.
On
Tuesday, July 27, the government threatened to shut
down some Islamic boarding schools in the south, claiming they are
used as training camps for separatist fighters.
In
April, security forces opened fire at Muslims killing at least 107 young
Muslims in the bloodiest day in the history of this troubled region.
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