Violence meets army chief
Yala - Army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin arrived in the Deep South Thursday to check on the troops but was greeted with more violence, arson attacks and protests from villagers who accuse security forces of carrying out target killings.
In Tambon Sathengnok of Yala's Muang district, gunmen charged into the residence of Jirasak Kumachan, 19, and riddled his body with bullets. He died at the scene.In Tambon Yupoe of Yala's Muang district, gunmen attacked a couple on their way back from a local market, killing the wife, Malee Songkoew, 41, while her husband, Pleung Taptipthong, 50, survived the attack and is being treated in the local hospital. On late Wednesday evening in Tambon Tanaoputeh of Yala's Banangsta district, Hasan Museng, 28, suffered gunshot wounds while riding home. The same evening also saw an arson attack on a local school in Tambon Parehnua in Narathiwat's Bacho district. Arsonists set fire to the school's second floor and damaged a portion of the buildings. Villagers quickly came together to help put out the fire before it spread to other facilities, police said. Meanwhile, about 300 women and children gathered in Yala's Tambon Tanaoputeh to block the Klongpinang-Bangangsta road in protest of the Wednesday evening shooting of Asan Museh, 29. Villagers accused the local ranger unit of killing Asan but offered no evidence to support their claim. Protestors refused to budge as night fell they stated they would only negotiate with Colonel Shinawatra Mandej, the commander of the Task Force 1 that oversees the area. A similar incident took place in Bacho district when around 100 demonstrators, mostly women and children, gathered in front of the local police station, demanding the release of Burawan Kaji, 21, who has been detained at the Fourth Army Forward Command in Pattani. The demonstration lasted for about an hour after authorities agreed to permit Burawan's parents to meet him at the army camp and promised to release him after questioning. Speaking to reporters upon his arrival in Yala, Sonthi said, "I came to hear about the problems here, and to meet with regional and provincial (security) heads." He condemned the beheading on Wednesday of a Buddhist rubber tapper in Yala, and promised to deploy more army rangers around the region. "I am not sure if the people who beheaded that man practise any faith or religion at all, because if they were religious, they could not do a thing like this," he told reporters. The Nation
|
