Yala Car Bomb : Weak Excuse

The recent Monday's   and  Sunday's car bomb in Yala   shows once again that the violent  group of Patani Liberation movement in the deep South have every intention of continuing their bloody attacks. They clearly are working to step up the number of casualties, by increasing the ferocity of each attack. The latest of a string of vehicle bombs - three cars, one motorcycle - in central Yala town seemed to be aimed at a truckload of paramilitary rangers.But as usual, the great majority of casualties occurred among innocent bystanders and the owners of shops and houses along the street.The failure of security forces to check such violence is worrying on at least two levels. First, authorities had promised after the first Yala bomb - and the second, then the third - that they were stepping up defensive measures. Each bomb, each murder, each destruction of houses and shops brought another promise.On Monday, after an improvised bomb blew up a saloon car parked on Siroros Road, police offered a weak excuse. Officers had increased security measures in the southern town. "Perhaps officers got tired," offered Yala police chief Pol Maj Gen Chot Chawanwiwat.The second is the increasing availability of weapons and methods for the insurgent groups. There may be no direct foreign involvement in the southern violence, but there is plenty of indirect influence. The rebels without a discernible cause in the four southernmost provinces have never had a shortage of inspiration. From the terrorist training camps of Libya's Col Moammar Gadhafi to the videos and internet forums, the Patani Liberation movement  in Thailand  South never have wanted for examples of how to work their terrorism, intimidation and extortion.

In recent years, the terrorists of Iraq and of Indonesia have obviously given ideas to the southern insurgents. Car bombs, which emerged in the Libyan conflict of the late 1970s, recently have been a weapon of the Indonesian branch of al-Qaeda, the Jemaah Islamiyah.

The insurgents have beheaded more than 50 Thais including security forces and spy for the government intelligent work , based on the model of Thai Military cruel operations since two centuries ago   and that of the recent Iraq war.

Based on the past copycat performance of the Patani Liberation movements of the deep South, authorities have two more tactics to beware of. The first is a book bomb. Police in Indonesia have intercepted at least four bombs hidden in hollowed-out thick books, addressed to prominent personalities opposed to the JI.  none has actually reached the addressee and exploded - thanks to good detective work and community awareness.

In a more worrying development, a JI agent detonated a suicide bomb in Indonesia last week. That blast killed the bomber, and wounded 17 policemen at a station mosque during Friday prayers.

This presents a unique threat to Thailand. Even at their worst, the southern rebels never have resorted to the despicable suicide bomb. This terrible type of terror is only a threat, but authorities must be aware that the southern insurgents could well decide to adopt it from their Indonesian "brethren" on the basis of the worst treat and cruel practice from the Thai security forces and the worst words from the Thai extreme Nationalist public .                         

The sad fact is that authorities remain on their back foot in the South. The decision to revitalise the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre, staffing it with credible and knowledgeable officials, is a positive step. The recent army request for Indonesian advice on the southern conflict is a welcome development. It finally breaks the military's wrong perception that the Patani  Liberation movement in Thailand south are an isolated force, and have no outside connections or resources.

Much remains to be done. It is no excuse that officers "got tired", when Patani liberation movement  have been able to detonate four vehicle bombs. Much more consideration must be on Muslim Malay of Patani oriented center of solution, if the Thai government really need to end  centuries long political conflict.

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Southern Border Provinces Administration Act

The Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center (SBPAC) has become a juristic entity, following the enforcement of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Act.
The Act was approved by the National Assembly in November 2010 and took effect on 30 December 2010 after it was published in the Royal Gazette. It covers all districts in the five southern border provinces, namely Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Songkhla, and Satun.

Does SBPAC allow real  freedom of  Conscience to the people?

According to the new Act, SBPAC is a special government unit under the direct supervision of the Prime Minister and is not under the jurisdiction of any particular government agency. The Secretary-General of SBPAC, a senior civil servant equivalent to the status of a permanent secretary, serves as chief of this organization.
First established in 1981, SBPAC was disbanded in 2002 but was later revived in 2006. The Abhisit Vejjajiva administration proposed a bill on the restructuring of SBPAC, which received Cabinet approval in October 2009. The objective was to improve the integration of work in various agencies to develop the southern border provinces and tackle problems there effectively in a systematic manner. The strength of this law is that there will be unity in operation and evaluation, starting from the policy-making level to the implementation level, with the participation of all relevant sectors.
Under the Southern Bborder Provinces Administration Act, the Office of the National Security Council will work out administration and development policies to be submitted to the National Security Council and the Cabinet for approval. These policies will be revised every three years, or before three years, depending on necessity and the evolving situation. These policies will take into consideration local culture, religion, history, and way of life. Also participating in giving ideas and suggestions for the policies will be representatives from the public and private sectors, civil society, members of the media, religious leaders, and local wise men, known as prat chao ban. These people are members of the provincial administration and development advisory council.

Does Poverty the main cause of conflict south?

SBPAC will follow these policies to map out southern border provinces development strategies, and as guidelines for operations by all relevant agencies. They involve political, economic, social, religious, and cultural issues, as well as education, public health, natural resources, technology, foreign affairs, psychological operations,andmanagement.
The Southern Border Provinces Development Strategy Committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, will approve the strategies, projects, and budget allocations to support development in the southern border provinces. The committee consists of political office holders and permanent government officials, as well as representatives of civil society and other organizations. Permanent government officials on this committee include the Secretary-General of the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board, the Secretary-General of the Office of the National Security Council, the Budget Director of the Bureau of the Budget, the Secretary-General of the Internal Security Operation Command, and governors of the southern border provinces.

In addition, SBPAC is responsible for protecting the rights and liberties of local people and ensuring justice for them. It will receive complaints and provide assistance for local people, and solve problems concerning officials behaving inappropriately. SBPAC will also offer assistance and rehabilitation for the people affected by the treatment of officials due to unrest in the deep South.
The Southern Border Provinces Development Strategy Committee will meet on January 24, when the Prime Minister will hold a briefing on the policies and operations of the committee and SBPAC in its new structure. 

Does New SBPAC change the situation?

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Anatomy of a Forgotten Conflict

A Bangkok military seminar in February concluded that the conflict in southern Thailand, now entering its sixth year, "will get worse before it gets any better." In the same week, insurgents gunned down a village chief, blew up two people and shot two soldiers, mutilating and burning the corpses. Some 3,300 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since 2004. Exactly how much worse does it need to get?

British academic Duncan McCargo counters such heartless defeatism with Tearing Apart the Land, an introduction to a scandalously underreported conflict. Most of the 1.8 million people in Thailand's three southernmost provinces are Malay-speaking Muslims, but they make up only 2% of a largely Thai-speaking Buddhist country. For a century, attempts at assimilation have been met with resentment and rebellion. The current hostilities erupted under former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose hard-line response to what he dismissed as banditry turned sporadic militant attacks into a full-blown insurgency.

Conflict South: More time more deaths

The militant movement remains secretive and nebulous. Most attacks are carried out by small cells of youths — "self-managed violence franchises," McCargo calls them — enraged by a history of Thai oppression and modern-day abuses by soldiers and police. Their pitiless creed is summed up by a note left for the authorities beside a decapitated victim. "You caught someone who was innocent," it read. "We killed someone who was innocent."

Ranged against this ruthless foe are the bumbling and sometimes brutal Thai security forces. McCargo is scathing about them. The army subcontracts much of the fighting to ill-disciplined paramilitaries, he writes, keeping its best-trained troops close to Bangkok to stymie or stage coups d'état. The police, McCargo says, are "vicious and incompetent." His unsparing criticism is supported by groups like Human Rights Watch, which, in a 2007 report, attributed 21 "disappearances" to the security forces, including that of campaigning Muslim lawyer Somchai Neelaphaichit.

So far, Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thailand's new Prime Minister, hasn't helped much. He has extended an emergency decree that makes it hard for rights-abusing soldiers and police to be prosecuted, and his vow to boost the halal-food industry and other local projects does not address the conflict's complex roots. By blankly rejecting Amnesty International's recent claims that the Thai military was systematically torturing Malay Muslims, Abhisit also struck a yoga position familiar in Thai politics: saving face by burying your head in the sand.

For McCargo, the only long-term solution combines firm action against the perpetrators of violence and "substantive autonomy" for the three southernmost provinces. The problem is that, for the rest of this intensely nationalistic country, autonomy is regarded as a back door for separatism, a word whose closest Thai equivalent translates emotively as "tearing apart the land." Such sensitivities make public discussion of bold solutions impossible, laments McCargo. As his book suggests, putting the land back together isn't impossible. Tragically, it isn't imminent either.

By Andrew Marshall

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The Ancient City of Yarang

Location 

The ancient city of Yarang is located in the governing area of Tambon (sub-district) Wat and Tambon Yarang , Yarng district, Patani province. Traveling to the ancient city, one can use the route of Siroros(highway 401) from Patani province down to Yala province. At 15 kilometers , turn left at the cross road to highway 405 (Yarang-Mayo) and then turn left again or turn north at 1.2 kilometers, about 400 meters from highway 405 is the ancient city of Baan Jalek, it lie about 16.6 kilometers from Patani down town.

The Ancient City of Yarang

The ancient city of Yarang was one of the biggest communities in the early historical period in the south of Thailand and believed to be the location of the ancient domain name “ Langkasuka” or “Langkasiao”. Refer to historical evidence appeared in the contemporary documents of China, Java, Malaysia and Arabia, it showed that the ancient city of Yarang was an important city near the sea with extensive territory. It used to be a wealthy land and often played very important roles in politics and economics to nearby lands. Goods were traded widely such as woods, egalloch, cinnamon, camphor etc. with foreign traders since 12th century Buddhist era (6-7th AD). The prosperity had been developed continuously over several periods of hundred years. There was evidence in the form of dikes, moats, and traces of ancient mounds in the area of Yarang district, Patani province.

For the shape of ancient city of Yarang, it was estimated that the city’s plan was big in an oval shape covering nine square kilometers . It was the city which built overlappingly and consisted of three cities connected to each other from the area of Tambon Wat to the north in the area of Tambon Yarang which consisted of :-

1. The ancient city of Baan Wat   Its center was a square yard in the middle of the city surrounded with moats with more than 25 ancient mounds, especially in the west and north in the compound of Baan Jalek.

2. The ancient city of Baan Jalek   Its center was at pond surrounded with quadrilateral moats and it was next to the ancient city of Baan Wat about one kilometer to the north

3. The Ancient City of Baan Prawae  Small moat and mound. The city’s plan was an uneven-quadrilateral shape. There was soil citadels both in four corners of the city and there was a waterway which was connected with an ancient moat of Baan Jalek at the northern corner of the city on both side.

Beyond the traces of moats and mounds of the three ancient cities, with in this group of ancient cities, not less than thirty ancient mounds were scattered.

The Base of Buddhist Pagoda
Excavated at Baan Jalek No. 3

 Excerpt:

The Pamphlet of  Excavation and Renovation of Yarang Ancient City Project, Patani Province.

Office of Archaeology and National Museum - Zone No.10,   Songkhla Province

Fine Arts Department

Source : PaTaNi RiVeR

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Muslim Malay of Patani

The Patani Malays or Muslim Malay of Patani are living primarily in Patani Raya, the southern provinces of Thailand. The majority or approximately 2 million live in the provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Satun and Songkhla near the border to Malaysia. Patani Raya, once a semi-autonomous Malay-speaking sultanate, is the heartland of Muslim South Thailand. North of these five provinces, there are almost a million other Malays in the central-southern provinces. Another million live in the greater Bangkok area. The Malays are not recent immigrants. Their descendants settled on the lower Kra Isthmus centuries ago, yet they have never willingly assimilated into modern Thailand. Few have found their way to local or central government, however this is changing.  Language and Dialects The Malays of South Thailand can be divided into three linguistic groups: 1) Those who speak Patani Malay dialect and use the Jawi/Arabic script (the Patani Malay speakers). 2) Those who are semi-assimilsed. They speak and read Thai, the national language (the Thai speakers). They can speak Patani Malay but cannot read Jawi. 3) Those who are assimilated. They speak and read Thai only.  Education The government policy is compulsory education for primary grades, so a growing segment of people are more literate in Thai language. Malay school children often drop out after primary education, uninterested to continue their studies in Thai medium. Some further their schooling in private religious schools where they study Thai secular subjects and Islamic subjects.  Livelihood The provinces of South Thailand are primarily rural with only about 12% living in urban areas. Most Malays are agriculturists, growing rice, fruit, vegetables or rubber. Although rice is the staple food, the local economy is not based on wet-rice agriculture. The southern provinces depend on rubber and fruit orchards and fishing. However, as world prices for rubber and tin declined in the 1970s, some Patani Malays went to work in the Middle East or Malaysia, while others became more involved in fishing. Those involved in fishing must now be part of a boat crew owned by Thai or Chinese business men. Culture The Malays of South Thailand live in close-knit communities. They place a high value on social acceptance within their community. Many Patani Malay Muslims feel threatened by the Thai Buddhist majority in Thailand. Young people are being strongly influenced by what they see on TV and films. Drug abuse and immorality is increasing much to the concern of civic and religious leaders. There is a high incidence (70 to 85%) of HIV and AIDS among Patani Malay drug addicts in the towns of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Satun and Songkhla.  Religion The Patani Malays are strongly Muslim and the majority belong to the Sunni sect of Islam.

Patani Malay Population in Patani Raya, Thailand and other countries Patani Raya Population 1998 Est. Pop. 2005 Est. Malay Muslims (% of total population) Narathiwat 662,234 754,000 603,000 (82.0%) Pattani 599,219 685,000 552,000 (80.7%) Yala 429,501 493,000 339,000 (67,9%) Satun 256,800 303,000 205,000 (67.8%) Songkhla 1,210,921 1,390,000 322,000 (23.2%) Total: 2,021,000 Diaspora of Patani captives and immigrants in Central and East Thailand Population 1998 Est. Pop. 2005 Est. Malay Muslims (% of total population) Nonthaburi 826,464 986,000 42,000 (4%) Ayuthaya 730,740 788,000 38,000 (4.8%) Bangkok 5,647,799 6,360,000 261,000 (4.1%) Nakhonpathom 711,116 820,000 61,500 (7.5%) Phetchaburi 456,527 470,000 12,000 (2.5%) Nakhonnayok 241,939 260,000 15,500 (5.9%) Trat 221,904 240,000 7,000 (2.8%) Rayong 515,008 574,000 6,500 (1.1%) Conburi 1,053,433 1,185,000 19.000 (1.6%) Chachoengsao 636,323 698,000 44,500 (6.4) Total: 506,000 Assimilated Malay in South Thailand Population 1998 Est. Pop. 2005 Est. Malay Muslims (% of total population) Ranong 151,868 165,000 18,000 (10,9%) Phuket 221,835 250,000 43,000 (17.1%) Pattalung 498,805 520,000 43,000 (17.1%) Nakonsithammarat 1,511,857 1,600,000 99,000 (6.2%) Krabi 351,548 370,000 128,500 (34.7%) Trang 584,154 610,000 83,500 (13.7%) Prachupkhirikhan 468,880 500,000 5,000 (1%) Suratthani 861,233 900,000 18,000 (2%) Total: 452,000 Patani Malay immigrants and their diaspora in other  countries  Est. Patani Malay Malaysia 490,000 Indonesia 150,000 Saudi Arabia 55,000 Total: 695,000  Source: Pataninews.net

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