Pattani, Thailand - Separatist insurgents on Monday shot
dead a Thai-Buddhist couple working as fruit pickers in the
majority-Muslim area of Bannang Sata, Yala provine and injured their
three-year-old daughter, police said.
After gunning down Praphan Ponlarak, 36, and his wife Chaddakan,
the assailants decapitated Praphan, making him the 29th victim to be
beheaded in Thailand's troubled deep South since the region's
separatist insurgency took a turn for the worse in January 2004.
Their daughter was admitted to Bannang Sata hospital, 780 kilometres
south of Bangkok, for treatment
Also on Monday, two Thai-Muslim labourers were gunned
down in Kabang district, Yala, killing Luesong Hayiwale, 50, and
seriously injuring Mahamu Samae, 41. On Sunday the bullet-riddled
bodies of a Thai-Muslim couple working in a Bannang Sata rubber
plantation were found by police.
'The insurgents are trying to sow hatred between Thai-Muslims and
Thai-Buddhists and terrorize the area,' said Bannang Sata Police
Sub-Lieutenant Than Serikan.
Despite the near daily killings in the region, Thai Prime Minister
Surayud Chulanont on Sunday reiterated his pledge to resolve the
conflict through peaceful means during a visit to Yala with several
cabinet ministers over the weekend.
Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani provinces comprise Thailand's deep
South where more than 2,100 people have died in an escalating
separatist struggle over the past three years.
Surayud, who was appointed prime minister on October 1 by a
military junta that overthrew elected premier Thaksin Shinawatra on
September 19, has adopted a conciliatory approach to the southern
insurgency, in contrast to the tough tactics adopted by his
predecessor.
Thus far the change of tactics have failed to end the near daily
killings in the region, though Surayud has won international praise
for adopting a conciliatory approach to the insurgency.
Thailand, a predominantly Buddhist country, has painted the
southern conflict as a separatist insurgency, downplaying its
religious element, a stance that has been accepted by much of the
world's Islamic community.
The three provinces, bordering Malaysia, constituted an
independent Islamic sultanate known as Pattani for hundreds of years
before being conquered by Bangkok in 1786. The border provinces came
under direct rule of the Thai bureaucracy in 1902.
A separatist struggle took off in the 1950s, fuelled by government
efforts to suppress the local culture and religion in the region.
The long-simmering separatist struggle, after a two decade-long
lull, took a turn for the worse when Muslim militants raided an army
arms depot and stole more than 300 weapons in January 2004.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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