Published on April 26, 2006 - Sonthi orders review of lists, saying they may reflect personal grudges

Army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin yesterday admitted the existence of "blacklists" used by authorities to catch suspected insurgents in the Malay-speaking South.

General Sonthi went as far as saying that the way individuals came to be listed was questionable and personal grudges might be the underlying motive, but did not accuse any agency of using the list for illegal killings.

Reports about the lists surfaced in mid-2004 with each security agency, including the military and police, believed to have prepared its own version. The people on these lists were said to be targets of manhunts or summary executions by rogue officials.

Sonthi instructed intelligence agencies to review the lists, saying most of the people on the list were simply enemies of the people who had listed them. Many entries need to be deleted if they really had nothing to do with the violence, he said.

Suspicions of extra-judicial killings have pitted Malay Muslim villagers against government security units in at least two stand-offs - one at Ban Lahaan, where a local imam was shot dead, and another at Tanyonglimo, where two marines were beaten to death.

Sonthi's surprise revelation hits at the heart of the agencies' strategy to contain the violence in the restive region.

Many people on the lists are said to be ustaz, or Islamic religious teachers. Security officials claim the ustaz make up the backbone of the current generation of militants blamed for the violence in the South.

The violence has killed more than 1,200 people since January 2004.

Sonthi was in the deep South to review the situation with security agencies on the ground.

According to one list with 300 names seen by The Nation, people have been arrested and killed, many under questionable circumstances. Relatives of some of the 300 blacklisted individuals have sought legal assistance, charging officials with extra-judicial murder.

The government passed an emergency decree, which later became a law, in September 2005, granting immunity to government officials in the line of duty. The law also authorised security officials to detain suspects for up to 30 days without formal charges.

Anand Panyarachun, chairman of the National Reconciliation Commission, has criticised the law, calling it "a licence to kill".

The Nation
Pattani