74 Killed in South Thailand Gunbattles
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Tue, Apr 27, 2004BANGKOK, Thailand - Suspected Islamic militants clashed with police in Thailand Wednesday, leaving at least 74 people dead in the heaviest fighting yet in the troubled Muslim-dominated south, officials said.
The clashes erupted after machete-wielding militants launched simultaneous attacks on police bases and checkpoints in several districts of Yala and Pattani provinces, said Yala Gov. Boonyasit Suwanarat.
He told reporters that most of the dead were young men attempting to rob weapons from police and army bases.
It was the worst fighting so far in the south where almost daily attacks by gunmen have left nearly 150 people dead this year.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the Wednesday raids were linked to a Jan. 4 attack on a military camp in nearby Narathiwat province, which triggered an upsurge of violence in the area.
"The way they dressed and carried out the operation has shown that they are linked to the group that raided the army camp earlier this year," he said. "Most of the insurgents are youths from the southern provinces. Their acts are not linked with international terrorists."
He said the attackers' "intention was to rob guns from defense volunteers and district offices, but our troops were well prepared for that."
Thaksin said at least 74 insurgents have been killed, with four injured and one arrested. Nine police officers were injured and several police officers were killed.
Television news reports showed the bodies of insurgents lying in pools of blood, some of them with machetes clasped in their hands. Gunfire could be heard in the background as armored personnel carriers drove down the streets of Yala and commandos ran through the woods.
Most of the casualties appear to have happened in Yala province.
Pattani police chief Maj. Gen. Paitoon Pattanasophon told The Associated Press by telephone that clashes took place in at least five places in Pattani province. The fighting raged for more than three hours after the first shooting began at 5 a.m.
One gunbattle was fought around a mosque in Kruesei district of Pattani where the militants were holed up, he said.
Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat are the only Muslim majority provinces in predominantly Buddhist Thailand. Muslims there have long complained of discrimination in jobs and education.
They also say their culture and language are being subjugated by the Buddhist Thais, and cite as an example the state schools, which teach in Thai language. Muslims in the south speak Yawi, a dialect of Malay, spoken in the neighboring Moslem Malaysia.
The central government policies have been the source of a decades old separatist struggle, which subsided after an amnesty in the late 1980s, but exploded again this year with the Jan. 4 raid on an army arsenal and the torching of 21 schools. Four soldiers were killed in the arsenal attack.
Copyright © 2004 The Associated Press.
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