Free Republic

A Thai Buddhist was gunned down in the southern province of Pattani yesterday, a day after Thai Queen Sirikit made an emotional appeal to stop the slaughter of Buddhists in the deep South. Clashes in the South have claimed up to 500 victims this year. A government crackdown on machete-weilding Muslim youth on April 28 left 107 dead, and another crackdown on a mob on Oct. 28 left 85 people dead, 78 of whom died of suffocation in custody while being trucked to an army base.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Revered Queen Sirikit has urged all Thais to work with the government in its fight against the violence in the largely Muslim south, where almost 500 people have been killed since January. Queen Sirikit, speaking after a wave of attacks on Buddhists in the troubled south, said she had asked the southern army commander to train female Buddhists to use guns and she herself would learn soon.