Posted on 05/02/2004 10:28:42 PM PDT by ambrose
Thai troops march into Muslim south
PATTANI, Thailand (AFP) - Thai troops trained as peacekeepers in East Timor are to be deployed in the Muslim south to help avert further attacks after last week's bloody clashes, officials said Sunday. The first of two battalions ordered to reinforce the military presence in the south, where forces are on high alert for fear of reprisals, was due to arrive in the troubled region by train, said a senior army source.
"Our battalion will arrive in Pattani on Monday and will be ready to work straight away," he told AFP, adding that the soldiers who cut their teeth in war-torn East Timor would carry out security and development projects.
"Our task is providing security to local people and government officials, not only teachers but any government officials who ask for security protection," he said. The battalion is believed to number about 500 men.
Some 108 militants were killed in Wednesday's clashes, after they mounted disastrous raids on well-armed and well-prepared police stations and checkpoints in three Muslim-majority provinces bordering Malaysia.
Thailand has defended its handling of the violence and rejected growing international calls for an investigation into the use of such overwhelming force against young rebels armed mostly just with machetes.
Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula said Sunday that the response was justified in light of the four months of violence against government officials, security forces and schools which preceded the attacks.
"When hundreds of our officials and innocent people were killed in the past few months, we were blamed for not solving the problems," he told reporters.
"But when they were impetuous enough to attack security posts and were killed, we were blamed for over-reacting."
Bhokin suggested the rebels who escaped with their lives could be regrouping. "There are hundreds who ran away from the incident, we don't know what they will do next," he said.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Saturday hit out at foreign interference over the clashes, as the United Nations called for an inquiry and Malaysia offered to take any refugees fleeing the region.
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