Posted on 11/24/2004 6:39:27 AM PST by killjoy
Thaksin rails against bureaucracy as officials unsure if militants are now targeting senior govt officials
Five schools were burnt down in the troubled deep South yesterday evening, a day after a Pattani deputy governor was seriously wounded in a mysterious shooting that could signal separatist militants are now targeting high-ranking officials.
Police and security officials drew the prime minister’s wrath yesterday for failing to determine whether the gunshot that injured deputy governor Soonthorn Ritthipakdee late on Monday night was an accident or one of the boldest attacks yet in the region.
As authorities struggled to find an answer and Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula rushed to Pattani, five schools in the province’s Krapor, Mai Kaen and Sai Buri districts were set alight.
In another shooting incident in Pattani, district clerk Muhammad Roding, 36, who gathers intelligence for the Interior Ministry, was seriously wounded early yesterday evening in an ambush in Muang district.
The arson attacks took place almost simultaneously at around 7pm. The fires raged for hours, after firemen hesitated rushing
to the blazes for fear mili-
tants might have tried to halt
their movements by planting spikes on the road. There were no reports of injuries at press time.
Soonthorn, who will receive a get-well gift from Their Majesty’s the King and Queen, is recovering following successful surgery yesterday morning to remove a bullet from his lower abdomen.
He was shot in the back while inspecting the scene where two village defence volunteers were injured in an earlier ambush in Yaring district that police blamed on suspected militants.
The deputy governor was later moved to Prince of Songkhla Hospital, a regional medical centre, to recuperate.
He is potentially the most senior civil servant targeted by militants since violence erupted in the region at the beginning of the year.
Thaksin initially told reporters that he had been informed Soonthorn was shot after a gun accidentally discharged.
The premier became furious during a Cabinet meeting when it emerged that the deputy governor could have been an assassination target.
“I’m tired of this bureaucracy,” Thaksin said. “They should have known by now how the shot was fired and where it came from. If I could remove them all, I would.”
He vowed to hold Cabinet meetings in the deep South every week if re-elected “so I can give them a better command”.
Police provided vague details about Soonthorn’s shooting.
“It was dark and Soonthorn was walking ahead of other security details around midnight when gunfire was heard from the back,” said Yaring police inspector Lt-Colonel Prathom Thammasek.
Prathom said it was unclear whether the suspected militants involved in the ambush of the two defence volunteers yesterday were also responsible for shooting Soonthorn.
The militants remain at large despite of a police manhunt, he said.
Hours after returning from his visit to Chile, Thaksin said he would wait for forensic and ballistic reports before reaching a conclusion on the Soonthorn shooting.
“The initial accounts were conflicting,” he said.
Government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair said that pending the forensic report, investigators had made three assumptions: Soonthorn was shot after a gun accidentally discharged; he was not the intended target; he was targeted by militants.
Deputy Interior Minister Sutham Saengprathum said he suspected the militants who attacked the defence volunteers stayed in the area and seized the opportunity to open fire on Soonthorn.
“I suspect it was a crime of opportunity. The militants saw the chance to fire at a top provincial official,” Sutham said.
Siva Saengmanee, deputy director of the Southern Border Provinces Peace-building Command, said the shot that hit Soonthorn was fired from the back of the deputy governor’s security detail from a distance.
Siva’s boss, General Sirichai Thunyasiri, said forensic checks would shed light on the case.
“It is too early to draw any conclusion, and I know only that the bullet was fired from a rifle,” he said.
The defence volunteers were both shot once by a 9mm pistol, a handgun commonly used by police and security officials.
Pattani Governor Choedpan na Songkhla said he was concerned that the attack against his deputy might signal an intensifying of the violence in the deep South.
Suspected militant attacks in Pattani have continued unabated since the start of the year.
In another incident yesterday, two unidentified assailants riding a motorcycle hit municipal worker Boonchu Nuphrom with an axe in a drive-by attack.
In a separate drive-by attack, two assailants shot at Sergeant Suwit Boonsiri of Kapho police station. The officer escaped unharmed.
Commenting on the government’s Bt5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of militants, Yala Islamic Committee deputy chairman Nimu Makaje said police should restore public trust instead of offering monetary incentives.
“If police can keep peace and ensure our safety, then local residents will volunteer the information without having to pay them,” he said.
The cash reward centres on some 70 militants who have had arrest warrants issued against them.
Muslim non-violence advocate Ahmad Somboonbualuang said money would not solve the surge of violence.
“Regardless of how much money the government pumps into the South, peace and normalcy will not be restored unless police can regain the public trust,” he said.
"Militants" - In my book, Jihadis incited by the Koran and Hadiths who murderer of Buddhists are terrorists, aka Koranimals.
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