Heated allegations of abductions and killings of suspected Muslim insurgents by state officials have resurfaced since Anand Panyarachun, chairman of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), raised the subject during a live broadcast with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Thursday.

Quoting local residents in the three southernmost provinces, Anand said hundreds of people had gone missing since the outbreak of the present wave of violence 19 months ago.

Community leaders said the government’s inability to contain the violence had led many locals to suspect the authorities of being behind disappearances in the area and also to believe that the violence was being orchestrated by rival government agencies.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Chidchai accused the local media of “misunderstanding” a report released on Friday by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which he said expressed “concern”, not criticism, at the government’s handling of the situation in the South.

His was speaking of a statement from the Geneva-based UN committee and the report it issued in Bangkok.

The UN panel criticised Thailand over “persistent allegations” of serious human-rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, and for the country’s use of the death penalty for drug offences.

“We were disturbed by what we heard in recent days . . . that there are certain aspects of the emergency decree that raise real questions about whether they are in line with human rights,” said Ivan Shearer, an Australian legal expert on the panel.

The UN report also drew Thailand’s attention to “persistent allegations of serious human-rights violations, including widespread instances of extrajudicial killings and ill-treatment by police and members of the armed forces”.

The UN committee also reaffirmed its concerns regarding the imposition of new security laws in the troubled Muslim South.

“The committee is concerned at the persistent allegations of serious human-rights violations,” it said in a review of Thailand’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Regarding the emergency measures decreed earlier this month for the three southern provinces, the committee reiterated the concerns voiced by its chairwoman Christine Chanet that the measures gave officials impunity from prosecution for abuse of authority.

Under the measures, introduced to tackle an insurgency in which more than 800 people have died, suspects can be arrested for up to 30 days without charges, rather than the previous 48-hour limit. Chanet said this could lead to detainees being tortured.
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n a related development, Marosa Lorma, 49, a village headman in Pattani’s Mai Kean district, was shot several times on Friday night in his house by suspected Muslim militants and died instantly.

Meanwhile about 30 young men went on a rampage in Narathiwat’s Si Sakhon district and the tambons of Cherng Kiri and Thamayong yesterday, burning tyres and effigies and calling on the local Muslim community to shun assistance from a military-run agency in the southernmost provinces.

Suspected Muslim insurgents set fire to a pile of tyres at eight locations and scattered the roads with spikes.

They also left a letter calling on all Muslims to observe a day of Muslim communal prayer on Friday by not engaging in any activities.

In Yala about 80 police officers searched two communities in Betong and Muang districts for evidence relating to the ongoing violence.

No one was arrested, but authorities documented the arrival of a number of migrant workers who had relocated to the two districts.