Pattani, Thailand - Suspected separatists shot dead and then
decapitated the manager of a shrimp farm in the majority-Muslim
deep South, where almost 3,000 people have died in escalating
violence since early 2004, officials confirmed Thursday.
Suphawit Mitjan, 26, was ambushed Wednesday night while driving to
a shrimp farm in Nong Chik, Pattani, 730 kilometres south of Bangkok.
The Thai-Buddhist victim was first shot with a M-16 rifle and then
decapitated with an axe, said Colonel Akkara Thiproj, spokesman for
the southern region command.
Suphawit was the 37th decapitation recorded in the deep South,
comprising Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala provinces - since the
region's long simmering separatist struggle took a turn for the worse
over the past four years, said Akkara.
When authorities went to inspect the scene of Suphawit's death
Thursday morning they triggered an explosion that injured two
volunteer militiamen, he added.
Meanwhile, a bomb was detonated Thursday morning in Yala city,
killing one soldier, and another explosion in Than-To district, Yala
province, injured one soldier.
The spate of fresh violence marked the end of the traditional Thai
New Year which was celebrated with a national holiday Saturday
through Wednesday.
Thailand's three southernmost provinces, bordering Malaysia,
comprised the independent Islamic sultanate of Pattani more than 200
years ago before it fell under Bangkok's rule.
More than 80 per cent of the three provinces' 2 million people are
Muslims, making the region an anomaly in predominantly Buddhist
Thailand.
A separatist struggle has flared on and off in the area for
decades, but took a turn for the worse in January, 2004, when Muslim
militants, inspired by rising Muslim militancy abroad, attacked an
army depot and stole 300 war weapons, prompting a crackdown that
further inflamed the local population against the government.
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