Decapitation was 'revenge for massacre'

A 53-year-old rubber tapper has been decapitated and another person shot dead in separate attacks in Yala and Narathiwat.

The body of a headless man was found yesterday in a durian planation in Yala's Than To district at about 10am. The victim, identified later as Kimsiang Sae-tang, 53, a rubber tapper, was stabbed to death before being beheaded, police said.

The attackers later burned his body and left it in the plantation. His head was found impaled on a shovel in the same compound.

A leaflet found near the head claimed the killing was in retaliation for last week's attack on a Narathiwat mosque which left 10 people dead and 12 injured.

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In Narathiwat, Museng Masu, 40, was shot dead yesterday while walking along Thungkha-Manangtayor Road in Muang district at 6.30am. He was attacked by a gunman riding pillion on a motorcycle.

Security forces in Narathiwat were on full alert yesterday for possible attacks as June 15 marked the anniversary of the creation of the insurgents' "free Pattani state".

Maj-Gen Theerachai Nakwinit, commander of the Narathiwat-based special task force, has asked security personnel and local officials in 13 districts to increase security for local residents, military and police outposts, schools and areas vulnerable to insurgent attacks. Road checkpoints have been set up to search people and vehicles suspected of carrying weapons.

A Democrat meeting chaired by party chief adviser and former prime minister Chuan Leekpai acknowledged yesterday administrative bodies in the deep South needed to be restructured to deal with the unrest as the situation was becoming increasingly violent.

The meeting agreed to push for the setting up of a permanent body to directly tackle the southern unrest, Democrat spokesman Buranat Samuttrarak said.

Mr Chuan instructed party MPs for the five southern border provinces to make frequent visits to local residents, Mr Buranat said.

Meanwhile, the Matubhum Party, which includes key Muslim politicians, has demanded the government set up an independent panel to investigate last Monday's shooting at Al-Furqan mosque in Cho Airong district of Narathiwat and urgently restore peace in the region.

Matubhum members, including Areepen Uttasing, Den Tormeena, Muk Sulaiman, Farida Sulaiman and Najmudin Uma, along with former information and communications minister Mun Patanotai, yesterday held a press conference at their party's headquarters in Bangkok to push for their demands.

They called for an independent investigation into the mosque attack and compensation for the victims.

Angkhana Neelaphaijit, chairwoman of the Working Group for Justice and Peace, who recently visited the deep South to gather first-hand information, said survivors and relatives of those killed in recent violent events, particularly the mosque massacre and the bomb hurled into a bus in Yala, still believed authorities were partly to blame because they had failed to ensure peoples' safety.

More importantly, she said they were questioning whether the killings were carried out by the authorities because they found it difficult to believe Muslims would dare to kill Muslims when they were praying.

She said the victims had not sought compensation. They just wanted police to bring the killers to justice as quickly as possible.

Mrs Angkhana, who is also a member of the upper house committee to solve southern problems, said she would submit her report to a committee meeting tomorrow to decide what steps should be taken.