Some hearts will never be won in Thailand's tragic South

By Don Pathan
The Nation

Patae, Yala

Behind the wide smile of Fatimoh Paleakawor, one can sense the bitterness in her heart. The mother of ten had, the day before, buried her second child, Mahkoseng Pohtae, 39, who died in Yala Central Prison pending trial on charges relating to the southern insurgency.

Mahkoseng was accused of being part of the Muslim separatist movement that seems bent on carving out a separate homeland for the Malay Muslims in Thailand's three southernmost provinces. He was arrested in April 2009 and beaten senseless by the local police, forcing an intervention by senior government officials and human rights activists.

According to his mother and a senior provincial officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Mahkoseng was so badly beaten that he had to be taken away from the police and placed in Yala Central Prison. Upon his arrival, prison officials were extremely uneasy because of his condition.

"A physician was rushed in to examine him. This was to document that all the injuries inflicted upon him had been done before he arrived at the prison," said the Yala officer. "His kidney was severely damaged," he added.

For nearly a year and a half after the incident, Mahkoseng had been in and out of hospital for treatment.

"My son was never the same after that beating," Fatimoh said.

Two police officers and a ranger have been charged with torturing the suspect, and their cases are currently being reviewed by the National Counter Corruption Commission, the independent agency that oversees alleged police abuse and crime relating to government officials.

Two weeks ago, Mahkoseng succumbed to his injuries and died at the Yala Hospital. His lawyer and local human rights activists wanted to carry out a full autopsy, and managed to round up support in kind and money to pay for it. The aim was to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mahkoseng died from the injuries inflicted on him by the officials in April 2009.

But Fatimoh changed her mind the next day and decided to bury her son instead.

"He suffered enough. There is no need to torture him any more," she said.

For Fatimoh, burying her son within 24 hours of his death - in line with Islamic tradition - was a way of coming to terms with her loss.

An imam at the Patae village mosque, Dorateh Tohdey, made a similar decision when his daughter was shot at point blank range and killed on July 13 by a gunman. The assailant drove up to Dorateh's sedan in a pickup truck and fired a shotgun shell through the window. The round nipped the back of the imam's neck but hit his daughter, Patiya, 20, in the forehead, killing her instantly.

"She has gone to a safer and kinder place," said the imam.

Such killings are an everyday reality in the southernmost provinces, where the ongoing insurgency has claimed more than 4,200 lives since January 2004. Authorities tend to blame Islamic insurgents for all such incidents but no one can really say for sure what percentage of these attacks are personal or political in nature.

Like ordinary Malay villagers in this backwater of Yaha district -  a highly contested area where Thai Special Forces roam in groups to deter insurgent attacks - Fatimoh makes ends meet with the helping hands of her children and grandchildren. One works at a tom yum restaurant in Malaysia and sends money home regularly, she said.

Sitting at the doorway of her half-wood, half-concrete house, with a beat-up bench outside the front door and straw mats here and there, Fatimoh doesn't have much to show in terms of physical possession. There isn't even a picture of her late son.

The police took them all when they searched the house last year, she said.

The only available picture of him was a mugshot taken by the family's lawyer shortly after the beating. With bloodied lips, swollen cheeks and blackened, hald-closed eyes, Mahkoseng looked more like a political cartoon character.

But Fatimoh is determined to fight back, and has taken her case to various agencies. She is seeking legal assistance from human rights organisations and the Muslim Attorney Centre.

In the course of the interview, a Special Forces unit drops by with a bag of rice, canned fruit and cookies - part of the military strategy with local people who have lost loved ones.

"What do I do with this?" asked Fatimoh as she turned to a group of foreign journalists.

In spite of the government's stated policy of trying to win the hearts and minds of the local Malay population in the deep South, a culture of impunity continues to prevail among security officials, creating more problems for reconciliation, as well as security.

Fatimoh is part of the growing number of people who have been speaking out against the use of torture against suspects in the deep South, according to Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch.

"Mahkoseng's death is a test case for the Abhisit government on whether it is willing to hold abusers accountable," Sunai said.

"For too long, successive governments in Bangkok have allowed abusive police and soldiers in the South to organise cover-ups and escape criminal prosecution," he added.

According to observers and officials in the region, questionable methods employed by the security forces have pushed more and more people toward the insurgents' side, even to the point of taking up arms.

A number of high profile cases have gone unresolved, including some that have grabbed national and international media attention.