Forces scour South for attackers

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Forces scour South for attackers

Police insist arrested suspects not scapegoats

Published: 30 Jul 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

A combined force of hundreds of police, soldiers and civilian officials has been deployed to go after 13 armed militants who remain at large after unleashing a barrage of bullets at six soldiers patrolling on motorcycles in Pattani's Mayo district on Saturday morning.

Two military rangers stop and talk to the driver of a pickup truck in Pattani’s Muang district. Security officers have stepped up checks on vehicles following intelligence reports that insurgents are planning bomb attacks, with the bombslikely to be hidden in such trucks. PAREZ LOHASANT

Most of the militants were natives of Mayo and further investigations found they were still hiding in the district, Mayo police chief Pol Col Gong-aut Suwannakham told the Bangkok Post.

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jinmalay
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Discussion 28 : 30 Jul 2012 at 18.4928
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Eric: well said. however, if communities are grouped and force to work together, it reduces recruits for the terrorists. easier monitoring and once in these communities, locals will feel safe from harm then the proper teaching of islam can be given by Islamic leaders to its people. When you built communities you make many under government payroll to manage this community and it surrounding land can be continually cultivated with guard escort. Confidence will emerge from the malay community. i suggest asking private sector and non government agencies from malaysia for assistance. they may help if things are organized and a common goal to unite the people and equal opportunity for all. I pity the folks there as they probably can't even enjoy a peaceful day to 7-eleven without being scared of their lives. propaganda and reward system may help as well. i believe we Buddhist can live with our muslim brothers peacefully. Notice how the local leaders or local police or army are main targets by terrorists, to instil fear not to support the thai leadership. you need to provide a safe haven for them and allow them to continue to recruit and train local police/army against these bullies.
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samut
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Discussion 27 : 30 Jul 2012 at 17.4127
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Still the Land of Smiles!
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victor Careford

Discussion 26 : 30 Jul 2012 at 17.3126
Time for proper military style road blocks on all roads, with license plate recognition video equipment to check for stolen vehicles and a dusk till dawn curfew. Stop them moving around under cover of darkness. Time to get tough!
from iPhone application.
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khunbill
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Discussion 25 : 30 Jul 2012 at 17.0725
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Guys...... the point is not comparing the communist to terrorist or the differences in tactics. The point is winning over the local support. I dont believe the people in the south have much faith in the Thai military there after 5-10 years. Do you really think they do?
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Eric
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Discussion 24 : 30 Jul 2012 at 16.4024
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Jinmalay, the settlement strategy may not work for the southern conflict. The Malaya emergency is a ideology issue while the south is a complex religious issue emboldened by global militant Islamist fundamentalist. The communist ideology is a matter of winning the minds of the people but will be hard to do the same or change religious minds. Further, re-settlement will only creat more antagonism and bad feelings of ethnic separation. Back then, the re-settlement was to deprive food and intelligence and the communists were living in the jungle. In present time, it's more urban and food can easily find its way through very porous borders especially with the sympathetic Muslim neighbors. And in this IT era, intelligence € information will be hard to stop.
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khunbj
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Discussion 23 : 30 Jul 2012 at 14.4523
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D22, Jack Sprat, good point , agree 100%, but most prefer to simplify things and draw conclusions based on something they find similar...in this conflict, the insurgents/criminals/terrorists do not have any central command or leadership and there may be a lot of different groups with different objectives, some purely criminal others want to change the system and maybe some just use the confusion to take care of personal interests.There is no face or leadership to negotiate with and that makes it different than most other conflicts around the world and very difficult to solve.
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jacksprat
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Discussion 22 : 30 Jul 2012 at 13.0322
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People love to bring up the insurgency in British Malaya, but they overlook one very obvious difference. The Communist Party of Malaya consisted almost entirely of Chinese Malaysians. Thus they were easier to isolate and had little sympathy from the ethnic Malay majority. They also acted primarily as a military force, not a clandestine terrorist group. The British finally defeated the CPM after an SAS ambush virtually wiped out their leadership. The "insurgents" in southern Thailand are of the same ethnic group as the majority and thus harder to identify.
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jinmalay
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Discussion 21 : 30 Jul 2012 at 12.5521
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Khunbill: Yes you are right. The british gave the malay/chinese/indian community better opportunities and safety. But that also came with emergency ordinance to migrate all the villages, mainly chinese to new settlements that are protected by british/malay forces. This way the terrorist/insurgence will not have an opportunity to brain wash and intimidate the local residence into supporting their criminal activities. It is time to create this shelters for the people in the south. yes there maybe hardship in moving and rebuilding, but after 5-10 years the conflict will be over and us malaysians will be happy that thai south has achieve peace. I know for a fact Malays, whether they are in malaysia or thailand are peace loving people. I pray you all achieve peace and understanding.
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abbub
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Discussion 20 : 30 Jul 2012 at 12.5120
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Sorry Khunbill I failed to see the sarcasm.....

Be well
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abbub
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Discussion 19 : 30 Jul 2012 at 12.1919
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KHUNBILL D16: Those veterans must have been extremely objective and knew why they chose you, of all people to teach history to.

Beside that, what does Communism have to do with the southern conflict? The paranoia about Communists has given birth to right wing fanaticism that is in many ways far worse. It is also a paranoia perpetuated for the sake of justifying oppression.

"Our fear that communism might someday
take over most of the world
blinds us to the fact
that anti-communism already has."

Michael Parenti
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Forces scour South for attackers | Bangkok Post: news