Travel Forum / Destinations / Asia / January 2004

Curfew may be imposed; 12 arrested

Wassana Nanuam and Yuwadee Tunyasiri

A curfew may be declared in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces,
which are already under martial law.

Defence Minister Thammarak Isarangkura na Ayudhaya said it was being
considered following a series of machette attacks on Buddhist monks
and students.

Three monks have died and one was seriously injured. Two students were
also wounded.

A curfew would facilitate all-out military and police operations
against separatist bandits. "Now that the bandits have gone berserk,
our men must become crazed too, to fight them," Gen Thammarak said.

The situation had become serious with several groups of outlaws
joining the rebels to launch separate attacks and share the benefits.

"It is serious because they have started harming people," Gen
Thammarak said.

He said the hunt for the gunmen who attacked a military camp in
Narathiwat on Jan 4, and for the weapons they stole, was continuing
with 100 troops from the Lop Buri-based Special Warfare Command Centre
sent in to help.

They are the same team that killed the 10 ethnic Burmese members of
God's Army who seized Ratchaburi Hospital in January 2000.

The units reached Songkhla on Monday night and later left for Yala and
Narathiwat.

Gen Thammarak said the military would also set up a new coordinating
centre for operations, to be headed by Fourth Army chief Lt-Gen
Pongsak Ekbannasingha.

Meanwhile, an army source said 12 people had been arrested on
suspicion of being involved in the attacks on monks.

The suspects, 11 Thais and one Malaysian national, were rounded up
last night in Narathiwat's Cho Airong district.

They were being interrogated and the operation would be expanded if
information lead to others who may have been involved