Thursday, April 29, 2004, 12:00 A.M. Pacific

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Thai militants' failed raids result in bloody aftermath

By Richard C. Paddock
Los Angeles Times

PATTANI, Thailand — After battling authorities for months, the Muslim militants needed guns, so they planned a daring raid. Armed mainly with machetes, they would launch simultaneous attacks on police stations across southern Thailand, killing as many officers as they could.

Unknown to the extremists, however, someone in their group had tipped off the police. When the rebels attacked 12 police stations at dawn yesterday, police and soldiers were lying in wait and gunned them down. By the end of the day, 107 fighters were dead, most of them teenagers.

Thai security forces, which recently suffered dozens of casualties at the hands of the extremists, held nothing back. When 30 of the fighters took refuge in a mosque, the troops fired tear gas, bullets and grenades into the building, killing every rebel inside.

Asian Muslims at a glance


Countries with significant Muslim minority populations:

Thailand: Muslims make up about 5 percent, or 3.1 million of Thailand's population of 62 million. They have long complained of discrimination in jobs and education in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, Thailand's only Muslim-majority provinces.

India: The country's 150 million Muslims — nearly 14 percent of the population of 1.1 billion — makes India home to more Muslims than any other country but Indonesia. Periodic riots between Muslims and the country's dominant Hindus have killed thousands over the years.

Philippines: Muslims represent about 5 percent of the country's population of 85 million people. There are two main Muslim separatist groups. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has been fighting for self-rule in the south for more than two decades The Abu Sayyaf has a 13-year history of kidnappings-for-ransom and beheadings and envisions an Islamic enclave.

China: About 50 million Muslims make up just under 4 percent of China's 1.3 billion people. They are concentrated in the southwestern province of Xinjiang, where opponents of Beijing's rule say the government represses them.

Sri Lanka: Muslims number 1.3 million, or about 7 percent of the country's population of 18.6 million. Muslims have been the target of systematic killings at the hands of the country's rebel Tamil Tigers, who are Hindus. Muslims remain marginalized in a country dominated by Buddhist Sinhalese.

Singapore: About 15 percent of its 4 million people are Muslims. A ban on traditional Muslim head scarves at schools caused an uproar in multiracial Singapore in 2003.

Myanmar: Muslims make up about 4 percent of Myanmar's 53 million people, most of whom are Buddhist. In the early 1990s, around 250,000 Muslims from the Rakhine state fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape alleged religious persecution, but most of the refugees have since returned.

Cambodia: Approximately 600,000 Muslims, mainly part of the Cham ethnic group, make up less than 5 percent of the primarily Buddhist country's 13 million people.

The Associated Press

The militants' death toll made yesterday one of the bloodiest days in modern Thai history. It also highlighted the extent of a growing rebellion in southern Thailand by Muslims who say they are mistreated by the Buddhist majority.

Only 17 militants were arrested during the day's fighting. Three police officers and two soldiers were killed.

Authorities defended their troops' response to the rebel assault.

"They came to attack, so the police and soldiers just defended themselves," said Interior Ministry Permanent Secretary Siwa Saengmanee.

Some worry now that the lopsided death toll could inspire more hatred of the government among Thailand's Muslims, who live mainly in the south and make up about 5 percent of the country's population.

But Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters in Bangkok that the rebels' deaths would help bring an end to a rebellion that has festered for decades in the southern provinces.

"It will be hard for them to do these kind of bad things again," the prime minister said.

Under Thaksin, Thailand has played down its growing rebellion and the presence of international terrorists — in part to avoid scaring off tourists and investors. But now, it will be difficult for this Southeast Asian nation to escape comparisons with its neighbors, Indonesia and the Philippines, where bloody clashes between Muslims and Christians or government forces are common.

For years, Thailand has been a way station for terrorists connected with the al-Qaida network and its regional affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah. At least two initial meetings to plan the October 2002 Bali bombing were held in Thailand. Last year, a militant cleric known as Hambali, allegedly a top figure in al-Qaida, was arrested in central Thailand. Authorities also broke up what they said was a plot by Muslims in southern Thailand to bomb popular tourist destinations around the country.

It is unclear whether al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiyah have forged links with the rebel movement in southern Thailand, but authorities believe some extremists from the region may have received training in Afghanistan or Indonesia.

Southern Thailand, particularly the provinces of Pattani, Yala and Songkhla, have been volatile for years. The Thai government made some concessions to the Muslim community there and successfully defeated the rebel movement a decade ago. This year it became clear that the extremists had regrouped.

On Jan. 4, rebels raided an army barracks, killed four soldiers and set 20 schools on fire. In March, they torched dozens of government buildings in coordinated attacks. More than 60 police and public officials have been killed this year. Also among the rebels' victims were Buddhist monks who were hacked to death in the street.

In recent weeks, the government has moved in heavily armed troops to patrol the region and imposed martial law in some areas. A wave of abductions has eliminated government critics, including Somchai Neelahphajit, a well-known Muslim human-rights lawyer who had alleged that police tortured terror suspects he represented. He has not been seen for nearly six weeks.

Some fear that the government's heavy-handed approach is backfiring and fueling the growth of the extremist movement. The rebels may also be moved to violence by Thailand's decision to send 450 troops to Iraq in support of the U.S. occupation.

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