Please forgive and forget : Fourth Army commander
The newly appointed commander of the Fourth Army Area, Lt General Viroj Buacharoon, reached out the Muslim religious leaders of the Malay-speaking region on Wednsday, calling for "forgiveness for past mistakes" but fell short of issuing a formal apology.
In his first meeting with the religious leaders in the five southernmost provinces in his current posting, Viroj made references to the massacre in Tak Bai, the standoff in Krue Se, as well as the October 1976 when soldiers gunned down studentled prodemocracy demonstrators. Viroj said one of the most important tasks at hand is to prevent these incidents from reoccurring and addressed the need to compensate the victims. Nearly 80 demonstrators from the Tak Bai demonstration had died from suffocation after they were stacked one on top another on the back of military trucks, while the storming of the Krue Se Mosque to kill scores of insurgents were killed had upset local Muslims here on the ground that the acts had violated the sanctity of mosque. Both incidents took place in October and April 2004, respectively. "The only way to move on is to forgive the past mistakes. But all parties, especially the religious community, must help work towards a peaceful outcome," Viroj said. Viroj singled out the religious leaders, about 400 of whom showed up yesterday for a luncheon with him, as the most important group that could help the army and the government achieved reconciliation in the Malayspeaking region where insurgent violence has claimed more than 1,700 lives since January 2004. In his prepared speech, Viroj pointed out that most of his military career was spent in the Malayspeaking region and that he was still in the learning process when it comes to Islam. Nevertheless, said the newly appointed commander, the Muslimmajority community has shown that it has the capacity to forgive. "I am not here to right the wrong," Viroj said. "But I would be willing to compensate what is doable for the sake of unity," he added. Since the ouster of Thaksin Shinawatra, the current government has made a number of goodwill gestures to the community but leaders here said actions must be backup with words. Other leading clerics attending yesterday's function include Ismail Lutphi Japakiya, the rector of the Yala Islamic College, Waeduramae Mahmingji, chairman of the Islamic Committee of Pattani. by Don Pathan Pattani
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