H
HagiaSophia
Guest
"The fraying of interfaith ties in southern Thailand is a byproduct of an escalating conflict that has claimed over 800 lives since last January. While political violence and guerrilla revolts have plagued this area for generations, the militants behind the latest attacks appear determined to rattle the confidence of the non-Muslim minorities.
After a series of new attacks, last Friday the Thai government declared martial law in the region, giving the prime minister sweeping powers to tap phones, ban meetings, give direct orders to security forces, and order curfews.
Analysts say the separatists are deliberately trying to divide the local population along ethnic and faith lines. “The strategy is working. For the first time in decades, they are splitting the communities. The Buddhists are starting to arm themselves with guns,” says Panitan Wattanyagorn, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and scion of a southern Buddhist family.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinwatra has described the insurgents as separatists with criminal motives and says the violence shouldn’t be construed as a religious conflict. Analysts say Thaksin’s view is broadly correct, but overlooks the emerging interfaith divide and the overt use of Islamic ideology in separatist indoctrination.
Recent attacks on Buddhist civilians have included public beheadings in restaurants. Militants left notes at the scene vowing revenge for the deaths of innocent Muslims. Monks are now escorted by the military during alms collection in town centers and have stopped collecting in smaller rural communities.
Some Buddhists have fled. Between January and June 2005, more than 34,500 residents - mostly Buddhists - moved out of the three southernmost provinces, the Associated Press reported, citing household registration figures. Of the 1.8 million people living there, around 360,000 are Buddhists. The majority - about 1.3 million - are ethnic-Malay Muslims who once lived under an Islamic sultanate annexed by Thailand in 1902…"
csmonitor.com/2005/0720/p06s03-woap.htm
After a series of new attacks, last Friday the Thai government declared martial law in the region, giving the prime minister sweeping powers to tap phones, ban meetings, give direct orders to security forces, and order curfews.
Analysts say the separatists are deliberately trying to divide the local population along ethnic and faith lines. “The strategy is working. For the first time in decades, they are splitting the communities. The Buddhists are starting to arm themselves with guns,” says Panitan Wattanyagorn, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and scion of a southern Buddhist family.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinwatra has described the insurgents as separatists with criminal motives and says the violence shouldn’t be construed as a religious conflict. Analysts say Thaksin’s view is broadly correct, but overlooks the emerging interfaith divide and the overt use of Islamic ideology in separatist indoctrination.
Recent attacks on Buddhist civilians have included public beheadings in restaurants. Militants left notes at the scene vowing revenge for the deaths of innocent Muslims. Monks are now escorted by the military during alms collection in town centers and have stopped collecting in smaller rural communities.
Some Buddhists have fled. Between January and June 2005, more than 34,500 residents - mostly Buddhists - moved out of the three southernmost provinces, the Associated Press reported, citing household registration figures. Of the 1.8 million people living there, around 360,000 are Buddhists. The majority - about 1.3 million - are ethnic-Malay Muslims who once lived under an Islamic sultanate annexed by Thailand in 1902…"
csmonitor.com/2005/0720/p06s03-woap.htm