CAIRO, December 13, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Muslims in south Thailand are complaining that the government is forcing their sons to attend a controversial "peace-building" training program over suspicion of having militant tendencies, reported The Nation daily on Tuesday, December 13.

"My son has to use medication almost all of the time and hardly ever leaves home," said Maseng Cheteerokee with tears in his eyes.

He asserted that his 20-year-old son Sadeemee, who suffers from various illnesses including asthma, "can’t even walk to his grandparent’s house alone."

Maseng said he felt so distraught when helping his son pack his belongings, including his medication.

"He would die if he didn’t get this medicine," said the heartbroken father.

Village headman Doloh Waemarong said he was also surprised to learn that Sadeemee had been asked to join the course.

He added that district officials said that those ordered to attend would be issued an arrest warrant if they failed to do so.

Sadeemee’s whereabouts and the state of his health are currently unknown.

Yala Governor Bunyasit Suwannarat said people participating in the course were suspected of being supporters or sympathizers of ill-intentioned groups.

They had voluntarily applied for training at a makeshift peace-building school in an army barracks in Songkhla's Khlong Hoi Khong district, he claimed.

Bunyasit said people aged 23 or under would receive training to "rehabilitate their minds and improve their quality of life and be good citizens", before being sent for occupational training at the school.

The government has extended a controversial emergency rule in the Muslim south despite mounting criticism that the law will only further alienate members of the Malay-Muslim majority.

Muslims make up about five percent of the population in predominantly Buddhist Thailand.

Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat are the only Muslim-majority provinces in Thailand and were an independent Muslim sultanate until annexed officially a century ago.

A young man from Betong, Yala, who only gave his name as Ma, said that two months ago the district chief called him and several other people from his village to attend a meeting on the legal ramifications of the emergency decree and then asked them to sign their names to a list as an attendance record.

"On Friday a letter came from the district office telling me that I needed to attend a 20-day course in order for the emergency decree course to be completed," he said.

Assan, a 22-year-old resident of Yala's Raman district, said that on Friday, one day before the program was scheduled to start, he received a letter from local officials that he was on a list of people who must report to the town hall immediately.

"Throughout the past month, officers have constantly raided and searched my house, even though I have never taken part in any violent act or rebellion against the government,'' he said.

"So when the letter of invitation came, I was compelled to go for fear of being framed for some kinds of crime I had not committed."