Southern murders reflect lack of effective leadership

Don Pathan

Supalak Ganjanakhundee 

The Nation

The murder yesterday of two security officers following a tense stand-off between

government officials and Muslim villagers in Narathiwat’s Ban Tanyong Limo

underscores the absence of a concerted plan and strategy required for such urgent

situations.

The incident not only reflects a lack of decisive leadership and the degree of difficulty

that state officials find themselves up against in this restive region, where the local

communities have never really trusted government officials, but also serves as

testimony that the worst may be yet to come.

Villagers expressed their distrust of the Thai press and preference for Malaysian

coverage of the incident. It was not clear what the presence of the Malaysian press would have achieved. If anything, the incident reflects the mindset of the local

villagers, who are telling the world that they trust neither the Thai authorities nor the

so-called independent Thai media.

In the struggle against the ongoing violence in the South, a conventional strategy –

large numbers of troops with heavy firepower controlling the situation on the ground

– was adopted from day one.

Psychological operations aimed at discrediting the insurgents and winning the hearts

and minds of the local populace have never amounted to much. If anything,

yesterday’s stand-off was proof of that.

Unlike the demonstrations and mass protests of previous years, Muslim women and

children have now been given a role for local residents to vent their anger against state

agencies. They acted forcefully to block the entrance to Ban Tanyong Limo.

While the two Marines who were tied up in a pavilion may not have been connected

with the Tuesday-night shooting incident at a village tea shop that killed two men and

wounded four others, they certainly appeared to have been in the wrong place at the

wrong time.

It appears the villagers grabbed the first security officers they could find. Whether

they really thought that would enhance their bargaining power with the state, from

whom they demanded an immediate investigation – as well as the presence of

Malaysian and other foreign journalists – will never really be known.

But the blockading of the village by hundreds of women and children, preventing the

entrance of government officials and Thai journalists, was a statement in itself: we

don’t trust the authorities and take your flunkies with you.

The incident was the second of its kind in less than a month. Three weeks ago, an

imam in Ban Lahan village was gunned down. The incident provoked a similar angry

stand-off, because villagers believed the cleric’s dying words that he had been shot by

government officers.

But there have been ample warnings. As far back as three years ago, a group of

Narathiwat villagers lynched two Border Patrol officers in broad daylight after a feisty

stand-off. Many officials on the ground admitted at the time they feared a worsening

situation, but political leaders in Bangkok did not pay the kind of attention needed to

change local mindsets.

And so misunderstandings and mistrust still prevail today in the unruly South, where

Muslim insurgents are trying to carve out a separate homeland for ethnic Malays,

while local residents are stuck in the middle of the escalating strife.

Worse, since authorities are unable to contain the violence, conspiracy theories

blaming state agencies for manufacturing the violence have become commonly

accepted as fact. Although such a school of thought is nothing new, the government

has never really seriously considered the need to understand local mentalities and

attitudes towards the state. 

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That does not mean there have been no efforts to win hearts and minds. There have

been plenty – the Thaksin Football League, the origami bird drop, the one-week

“clinic” aimed at instilling a higher sense of patriotism.

But none appeared to hit the right spot. It was as if the authorities were acting just for

the sake of acting.

What has clearly been lacking these past two years is any attempt to second-guess

local reactions towards such government initiatives.

Not only did the government fail to anticipate public reactions, they ignored even the

need to think things through and come up with possible scenarios.

Today, a full 20 months after scores of armed men raided an Army battalion in

Narathiwat and made off with 300 automatic weapons, the insurgency in Thailand’s

southernmost provinces has crossed a threshold.

The battle in the South will require much more than a conventional military approach.

While the struggle may be physical on one level, it is more in the hearts and minds of

the local population.

It is no longer an issue of geographical control, but rather one of mindsets – between

the ethnic Malays of the deep South and the rest of the country. And if the insurgents

have their way, the battle will evolve into Muslim versus non-Muslim.

VILLAGE ‘REVENGE’: Massive hunt for marines’ killers

Published on September 22, 2005
The Nation

PM promises those responsible for killing two officers in South will be found 

A fuming Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to hunt down the killers of two
marines who were stabbed to death after being taken hostage by villagers in the deep
South yesterday.
“We will not let the two die for nothing - the law must be law,” Thaksin said shortly
after learning that the men had been killed.
“I have ordered all officials to implement the law to its fullest extent to track them
[the killers] down.”
Thaksin launched an all-out military operation to bring the suspected insurgents and
villagers responsible for the slayings to justice.
The killings came amid a desperate attempt by authorities to negotiate their release
from Ban Tanyonglimo in the border province of Narathiwat.
The two marines killed were Sub-Lieutenant Vinai Nabut and Petty Officer Khamthon
Thongeiat.
“They were brutally beaten to death with machetes and sticks while their hands and
legs were tied up and they were gagged and blindfolded,” Fourth Army Region
commander Lt-General Kwanchart Klaharn told a press conference.
Commandos were positioned to storm the village and rescue the marines, but hooded
villagers took advantage of the absence of eyewitnesses when people gathered in the
mosque for mid-day prayers to kill the men, he said.
On Tuesday night, hundreds of villagers seized the two marines and locked them in a
small storage room next to the village mosque immediately following a shooting
attack at a local teashop that left two people dead and four others wounded.
Some of the villagers had accused the two marines of being behind the shooting. But
Kwanchart said the two servicemen were just passing by on their way to another
incident when they decided to stop after hearing the shooting at the teashop. They
vehicle may have broken down, he added.
Najmuddin Umar, a former Thai Rak Thai MP who accompanied Fourth Army deputy
chief Maj-General Pichet Wisaichorn into Ban Tanyonglimo, said authorities were
unable to establish a dialogue with villagers because they would not identify who
would do the negotiating.
Pichet said he saw the two troopers from a distance and asked that they be given food
and water.
He told reporters that villagers had demanded the government form a committee to
investigate the teashop incident and allow foreign media to come to their village to
document the situation there.
But by the time Malaysian reporters arrived on the scene in the middle of the
afternoon, the two men had been executed.
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Thaksin said the violence was instigated by insurgents who wanted to amplify the
tension between Tanyonglimo villagers and the government.
Throughout the entire stand-off drama, hundreds of women - their faces wrapped in
traditional headscarves - stood on a tiny bridge just metres away from heavily armed
soldiers, as their children played nearby.
They blocked the entrance to the village for 18 hours. Yesterday morning they put up
a large tent that was plastered with messages.
“Evil has spread since Thaksin’s party came to power. Ethnic Malay people have been
cruelly killed by soldiers. They are the real terrorists,” one message read.
Another simply said: “It’s you, not us.’’