In the rush to stow away unfortunate events to keep the holidays happy, a significant report from the deep South received scant attention. Three important and closely allied countries late last week issued new information about the embattled region. The governments of Australia and the United States independently warned their citizens that they believe southern gangs are plotting to attack western residents or travellers directly. Britain, in its own separate statement, cited the Australian claim.
These reports, issued as new travel warnings to US, Australian and British citizens, are a noteworthy development. None of the three governments gave additional information on the source of this major change. These three countries, along with many others, have long warned that southernmost Thailand is often violent. Tourists from pretty well all over the world have been cautioned of the obvious dangers in Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala and parts of Songkhla.
The claim that armed groups in the area now are specifically targeting westerners deserves more attention than a routine upgrade in a trio of travel alerts. No further information from the three foreign capitals was issued. No security agency had a comment. The foreign ministry was as silent as the ministry of tourism and sports.
By today, senior staff of the army, police and state ministries will return from the lengthy holiday. A priority task must be to press all three allied governments for more and better information. Obvious questions are how the foreign governments came by such game-changing news. In addition, Thai officials should know why such important information was passed on in routine travel warnings, instead of in special alerts.
These foreign governments have passed off extremely important new claims in the most back-handed way. They must now provide more details, and explain why the new developments were published in such a low-key manner. On one hand, the US and Australia are claiming that violent forces in Thailand are targeting their citizens. On the other, it is only important enough to broadcast via a routine update on a pair of travel websites.
There is, of course, an unpleasant possibility. The information that, in Australia’s words, “Extremists may be planning
to target westerners in the southern border provinces”,
could be little more than a rumour. It would not be the first time.
Rumours about supposed widening of the conflict have come from the deep South for decades. Yet the southern gangs have isolated their zones of violence, and rejected both the help and the targeting of foreigners. Tactics have become more atrocious. But there has been no evidence the insurgents have either welcomed foreign fighters, or that they have hunted or even blamed foreigners outside the border region.
The US claimed in its travel alert, “Foreigners, including westerners, may be targeted in this region”, meaning the deep South. Canberra, Washington and London all added similar language to their travel alerts.
One always assumes the best motives and information from all three nations. But at times in the past, travel alerts and warnings about Thailand have seemed over-wrought, even panicked. Thai governments and businesses have often complained about the sometimes emotional tone of the frankly exaggerated warnings.
Events in the South are threatening to get out of hand. A beleaguered government is badly neglecting the region, and terrorism is having negative effects.
This is why it is vital that government ministries and security forces press all three foreign governments, starting immediately. If they have a reliable basis for making these extraordinary claims of danger in the deep South, they should be willing to provide much more information.