NARATHIWAT — Muslim and community leaders in Cho Airong converged on the district’s hospital on Tuesday as Human Rights Watch strongly criticised insurgents for using it as a base to attack a military post.
About 500 Islamic and village leaders in the Narathiwat district held a peace rally and prayed to dispel evil from the hospital with director Boonrat Prapanwong among the witnesses.
Maroning Jewah, representing the religious leaders in Cho Airong, led other community leaders to talk to patients, doctors and nurses and lend support following the violence on Sunday.
The hospital was raided by about 50 armed insurgents on Sunday and used its buildings to fire at a base of rangers adjacent to the facility. The fighting left seven rangers wounded before militants wearing hoods retreated to the jungle behind the complex.
The hospital was damaged but all staff members were unhut.
Human Rights Watch said an attack on a hospital is tantamount to a war crime and urged that health facilities not be included in the conflict.
"Putting hospitals at risk of attack threatens the lives of patients, doctors and medical workers throughout southern Thailand. The insurgents should publicly commit to ending attacks on medical facilities immediately," Brad Adams, Asia director of the New York-based rights group said in a statement.
The attack was believed to mark the 56th anniversary of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional. Analysts said it showed the elusiveness of the peace talks with the separatists.
Residents of Sungai Kolok district also held a peace rally on Tuesday by walking around the border town with banners calling for the end of violence in the region.