Insurgents behead man and wife in Yala

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News » Local News

Insurgents behead man and wife in Yala

• Published: 23/02/2009 at 12:28 AM
• Online news: Local News

A group of insurgents gunned down and beheaded a couple of local rubber farmers in the southern border province of Yala on Sunday morning.

The unarmed victims, identified as Kongphet Janyarerk, 39, and his wife Yenjai, 38, were ambushed and killed while they were on their way to at a rubber plantation in Yala's Raman district. The culprits decapitated them and took their heads away before escaping from the area.

Police investigators, friends and relief workers with the bodies of the two mutilated rubber tappers.

The killings were the fifth and sixth this month in which the separatist gangs cut off the heads of their victims after what appeared to be targetted murders.

Since the southern gangs renewed the anti-government war in January, 2004, they have beheaded at least 47 of their murder victims. Most of the casualties have been Muslim civilians. In all, more than 3,500 people have been killed in insurgent attacks.

Kompetch was a deputy village chief. Police speculated on Sunday that the rubber tappers were killed because the insurgents suspected Kongphet had been a government informer.

The ambush of the farm workers was well planned. When security forces arrived to investigate the twin killings, insurgents used a mobile phone signal to detonate explosives at the scene, seriously injuring one policeman, according to the official police report of the incident.

The insurgent attacks, including drive-by shootings and bombings as well as the decapitation atrocities, frighten Buddhist residents into leaving the predominantly Muslim provinces. Of the 300,000 Thai Buddhists who used to inhabit the region, about 70,000 have left in the last five years.

"They are resorting to terrorist acts because they know they are losing support in the area, and the media has been ignoring them," said Col Parinya Chaideelok, head of the Peacekeeping Force in the three provinces.

"From the political point of view, the army has been receiving significantly more cooperation from local people and that drives the militants to adapt more brutal retaliation," said Col Parinya. "They want to make it more violent so that the locals will be afraid to cooperate, to give us information about them and their hiding places."

In other developments in the restive South, authorities were able to arrest a member of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) group in Narathiwat province on Sunday after they were notified that a group of four to five perpetrators could be plotting to create unrest in the area.

The suspect was indentified as Mamahafi Yee-ngor, aged 39. He was detained for further interrogation and investigation.

In a separate incident in Yala late Saturday, a 38-year-old man was shot dead as he and his wife drove home from a mosque after evening prayers.

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Writer: BangkokPost.com, Agencies

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• Bee

  Discussion 26 : 24/02/2009 at 10:55 PM26

  1902 - Thailand (then called Siam) annexes the ancient Kingdom of Patani, a semi-autonomous Islamic Malay region.
  1903 - The last sultan of Patani is charged with treason for opposing the Thai occupation. He is released three years later.
  
  1910 - Sufi sheiks lead two further uprisings, which are put down by the army.
  
  1922 - Residents of Namsai village in Pattani refuse to pay land tax to the Thai government in protest at education reforms requiring all children to attend state primary schools to learn Thai.
  
  1939 - The ethnically neutral name of Siam is changed to Thailand, and Buddhist Thai culture is imposed across the country. Phibun Songkhram bans Malay customs and language from government offices, and rescinds Islamic law.
  
  1941 - Thailand allies with Japan in World War II but some southerners join the resistance movement, hoping an Allied victory will bring independence to Pattani.
  
  1944 - Pridi Phanomyong takes power and revokes some of the harsher assimilation policies of his predecessor.
  
  1945 - British Malaya territories captured by Japan are returned and hopes of Pattani's accession to Malaya thwarted. Pridi establishes new governance structures to include Malay Muslims in political life.
  
  1947 - The chairman of the Pattani Provincial Islamic Council, Haji Sulong, establishes the Patani People's Movement to petition for self-rule, linguistic and cultural rights, and the implementation of Islamic law. Phibun mounts a coup and takes office again.
  
  1948 - The military government imprisons Haji Sulong and other southern leaders. Some 250,000 Thai Malays petition the United Nations for accession to the new Federation of Malaya. Many are arrested. Phibun makes gradual and limited concessions. Riots erupt across the region.
  
  1959 - The Patani National Liberation Front is formed - the first organised armed group to call for Patani's independence.
  
  Late 1960s - Over 60 armed groups are active in the southern states, with some engaged in criminal operations. Internal rifts start to weaken the major groups.
  
  1970s-early 1980s - Groups continue to wage campaigns of violence, mainly through attacks on police posts and government buildings. The government launches military operations.
  
  1981 - The government initiates an overhaul of security and governance structures to pursue political accommodation, including initiatives on public participation and development.
  
  1980s-early 90s - Hundreds of fighters accept an amnesty, leading to optimism that the insurgency is over.
  
  1990s - Low-level militant activity continues.
  
  1997-98 - Malaysia cracks down on Thai separatist leaders in its northern states, following a request from the Thai government.
  
  2001 - Thaksin Shinawatra is elected prime minister and attempts to re-establish top-down political authority over the southern provinces. In December, militants carry out co-ordinated attacks on police posts.
  
  2002 - Thaksin abolishes the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre and the joint civilian-police-military (CPM) task force, stoking tensions.
  
  2003 - The Thai government launches a war on drugs, with the southern border provinces heavily affected. More than 2,200 people are killed and thousands arbitrarily arrested, blacklisted and "disappeared", according to Human Rights Watch. In June, three prominent Muslims are arrested on terrorist charges.
  2004
  Jan - Militants raid an army arsenal in Narathiwat province, torch schools and police posts and set off several bombs. The government imposes martial law.
  
  Mar - Prominent human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaichit disappears while defending alleged militants.
  
  Apr 28 - Synchronised attacks are carried out on police posts and army checkpoints across Pattani, Yala and Songkhla, ending in a bloody showdown at the Krue Se Mosque in which the Thai army guns down 32 men. By the end of the day, 105 militants, one civilian and five members of the security forces are dead.
  
  Oct 25 - A demonstration outside a police station in Tak Bai leads to the deaths of at least 85 Muslim men and boys. Most die from suffocation after being arrested and stuffed in army trucks for transport to an army base.
  
  2005
  
  Jul - Thaksin is given new powers to counter suspected Muslim militants in the region. In November, the death toll since January 2004 tops 1,000.
  
  Oct - A Buddhist monk dies when Phrom Prasit Temple in Pattani province is burned down - the first direct attack on a Buddhist temple since the violence began in 2004.
  
  2006
  
  Jan - One of five policemen accused of "disappearing" rights lawyer Neelaphaichit is jailed for three years. The others are acquitted. Thaksin says he understands Somchai is dead.
  
  Thaksin rejects an offer of peace talks, saying he has never heard of the separatist group that requested negotiations.
  
  Feb - Rallies demand Thaksin's resignation amid allegations of corruption and abuse of power. Thaksin dissolves parliament and calls a snap election, but main opposition parties say they will boycott the polls
  
  Apr 2-4 - Thaksin's party wins 57 percent of the vote, but says he will step aside due to an unexpectedly large protest vote. He officially remains PM but hands day-to-day duties to former police general Chidchai Vanasatidya, who was in charge of security (including for the Muslim south).
  
  Apr 23 - By-elections are held for 40 empty parliamentary seats, but fail to resolve the political crisis.
  
  Apr 25 - The Thai king calls on the country's top judges to solve the "mess".
  
  May 8 - The Constitutional Court rules the April 2 election invalid.
  
  August - Police say they have thwarted what they believe to be preparations for a bomb attack on the house of the prime minister, who accuses army officers of plotting to kill him.
  
  Sept 16 - Four people die and 68 are injured when three remote-controlled bombs hidden in motorcycles go off in the southern tourist town of Hat Yi. Three other bombs cause minor damage.
  
  Sept 18 - The Thai army seizes power without a shot being fired, dismissing the prime minister, who is in New York. Military leaders say the seizure is temporary and power will be "returned to the people" soon.
  
  Oct - Retired General Surayud Chulanont is appointed as interim prime minister. He takes a more conciliatory approach to the south, visiting several times over the next few months.
  
  Dec 31 - Series of bomb blasts in Bangkok kills three people but no group claims responsibility.
  
  2007
  
  Feb 18 - On Lunar New Year, militants carry out dozens of coordinated bombing, arson and shooting attacks on urban areas across four provinces, targeting people of Thai-Chinese ancestry. At least 8 people are killed and 50 people wounded.
  
  Mar - Thai security forces kill five militants in a rare successful raid on a jungle training camp in the south. The military says the men belonged to a group called BRN Coordinate, which is believed to be the largest separatist network with several thousand members, and is an offshoot of the Barasi Revolusi Nasional (National Revolutionary Front).
  
  Mar 20 - Human Rights Watch says the Thai army and police are "disappearing" ethnic Malay Muslims in the far south.

• Anonymous

  Discussion 25 : 24/02/2009 at 02:45 AM25

  How violent and cruel!! I hope the military does something fast.

• JS

  Discussion 24 : 23/02/2009 at 11:47 PM24

  Solutions suggested by Tommy are rubbishs. They show how uncivilized and primitive he is.

• Bee

  Discussion 23 : 23/02/2009 at 09:04 PM23

  The problem in the Southernmost is not the insurgents but all the people who interested in their own needs. Only speak and do nothing. When Government clean all the offices with corrupt people in the Southernmost that will be better.

• tommy

  Discussion 22 : 23/02/2009 at 06:05 PM22

  Simple Solution.
  
  1. Send a huge military force with mega weapons to the "restive south".
  
  2.Round up all of the Muslim rebels that you can possibly get your hands on.
  
  3.Immediately, without trials, line them up in the public areas of the villages and shoot them all.
  
  4. Cut off their heads and display them for all to see.
  
  5. Assure them all that this will be the policy to solve the problem in the "restive south"
  
  6.Carry out the policy without stopping until evry one of the murderous dogs are dead or "reformed".
  
  I think this is called, in the Muslim law,
  "an eye for an eye". The Muslims of the "restive south" should understand this! I believe a Muslim women in Iran was just granted "an eye for an eye" request for justice by having her assailant, who blinded her with acid, also blinded by acid so he would feel her pain. These rebel dogs in the south need to also feel the pain just as their victims feel it, and the Muslim families need to feel the same pain that families of the victims feel.
  
  Nothing else has worked and the Thai officials have been whimps about this issue in the south. Obviously, these murderous dogs do not understand anything that borders on civility, so give them a taste of their own medicine!

• gameison

  Discussion 21 : 23/02/2009 at 05:50 PM21

  This Govt and PAD proved anything goes to achieve what they want... So The South just follow the same direction.
  
  Amazing Thailand.

• laosuwan

  Discussion 20 : 23/02/2009 at 05:05 PM20

  RE discussion 13
  
  Silly Look Moo:
  
  I am 52 years old and a woman. I don’t think the army would take me. But I do live here in the south six months each year. I am a nationalist and I know that what the south needs is nationalism, which is the sense of shared identity among people who don’t know each other.
  
  When will I see you down here spreading your message of multiculturalism to the muslims of the south? Do you think they are multicultural when they go around killing people just because they go to a different church or are of a different race? Do you think they value diversity and equally opportunity for women and gays? Silly Look Moo, deep down inside you know that your message of multiculturalism, diversity, “understanding” and your self loathing and apology for simply being yourself, the sickness that is destroying europe and the reason why I pulled my kids out of school in the US to finish in China, means nothing to these muslims here.
  
  Ride your motorbike home, work in your farm, take your kids to school, sit in a tea shop at the same time each day and find out what will happen to your multicultural self in a second if the opportunity arises for them to act. A
  
  So I want to ask everyone who reads this post is to think about this: Why is it people like Look Moo are angered by people like me who simply repeat what terrorists say in their own words and dare to resist them, but never seem to be able to get the same anger towards the terrorists who are doing the genocide and allow no cultures but their own? Nationalism is the only hope Thailand has for diversity and peace in the south, and it does not require violence but love of country. Yet I am supposed to be the bad guy for saying our culture is worth defending but the terrorists get off scott free with people like Look Moo even while they go around killing people just because they are different.
  
  Look Moo, ask yourself where is the diversity under Muslim rule? How is it that we guarantee the right of religion to all thais but they kill anyone who is different and yet we are supposed to be in the wrong? Where is their diversity and multiculturalism?

• lek

  Discussion 19 : 23/02/2009 at 04:18 PM19

  it no surprise drugs is big in south too.
  
  ASIAN TERROR GANGS TARGET UK WITH KILLER HEROIN," by Scott Hesketh for the Daily Star, February 22 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):
  
  TERROR chiefs plan to flood our streets with heroin in a terrifying plot to wage “chemical jihad” on Britain.
  
  And they have been using hate-filled Muslim gangs as their UK dealers.
  
  Pakistani and Afghan-based al-Qaida and Taliban warlords are sitting on a £6billion stash of deadly heroin.
  
  And they have ordered their dealers to sell it only to non-Muslims.
  
  The ruthless racket is a two-pronged attack which peddles death and misery with heroin while netting massive sums to pay for future terror attacks.
  
  A senior security source told the Daily Star Sunday: “The Afghan poppy fields are probably the biggest financial contributor to al-Qaida and the Taliban.
  
  “The UK’s heroin trade is increasing at an alarming rate and most of the cash helps arm terrorists with bombs and guns.”
  
  The US has already been ­targeted in the evil campaign which mirrors a terror plot in the new James Bond novel Devil May Care.
  
  Between 1990 and 2005 Taliban-linked drug peddler Haji Baz Mohammed raked in a staggering £17billion by pouring heroin into North America.
  
  He told a US court that “selling heroin was a jihad because they were taking Americans’ money and the heroin was killing them”.
  
  Now the fanatics have made the UK their top target. A whopping 30 tonnes of heroin is being smuggled into Britain every year.
  
  The drug is grown in the Afghan badlands and bought for £1,500 a kilo in neighbouring Pakistan.
  
  It’s finally sold on Britain’s streets, often in the backs of cabs or over kebab shop counters, at between £30 and £50 a gram.
  
  Asian gangs are operating in South London, Luton, Preston, Manchester, Leeds, Oldham, Birmingham and Bradford.
  
  Our investigators went on the hunt for heroin in Luton and did a deal in the back of a taxi.
  
  Pulling out a handful of wraps, the ­driver said: “I’ll sort you a fix for £10 but a gram’s £50. It’s knockout gear.” Asked where the drugs came from he said: “Poppy fields between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
  
  “The big bosses have Taliban and al-Qaida connections and we’re often told only to deal it to non-Muslims. They call it ­chemical jihad and hope to ruin lives while ­getting massive payouts at the same time.
  
  “I’m more interested in the money. I knock it out to anyone, ­whatever their beliefs.
  
  “But there are lots of big-­hitters who only sell to non-Muslims – to poison them.”...

• qw

  Discussion 18 : 23/02/2009 at 03:15 PM18

  im just thankful that the majority of those killed since 2004 were muslim...in response to diss#8 there may be sneaky quiet muslims but forget about moderate ones...Deep down they are all Evil and have no place in modern society but then the same could be said of other corrupt violent religions such as christianity... at least we live in a 92% majority Buddhist country... A charming and peaceful religion!!

• somsak

  Discussion 17 : 23/02/2009 at 02:08 PM17

  Dic14, I don't think Thai should learn something from Hun Sen. Thai faces completely different situaion from the civil war in Cambodia. KR was declined moslly because their socialist brothers stopped assisting them after the UN sponsered election.
  
  If you are suggesting that Thai should let them control their area in exchange for peace, as Hun Sen let KR control Pailin, I would like to ask you, "who are they?"

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