Reflections
on what happened
in Southern Thailand
By
Chaiwat
Satha-Anand -
TFF associate
Thammasat University,
Bangkok
Read also Facing
the Demon Within of February 6, 2004 by the
author.
Bangkok May 2, 2004
People called me, mostly the press
both Thai and international, asking how to make sense of
the incident. For some of my friends who might not have
followed what happened in Southern Thailand on April 28,
2004, let me offer a brief reflection.
The government killed 108 men who
attacked 10 official sites (police stations among others)
in three provinces (Pattani, Yala and Songkhla). The
attackers were mostly young (some below 20, at least one
around 60), most used knives (official figures were more
than a hundred with only 4 M16, 2 HK and a
few guns). It was reported that in some cases these
people charged the police stations with knives in their
hands and engaged in brutal hand-to-hand combat with the
police. But in an incident which took place in Songkhla,
it seems the attackers were young soccer players from a
local school. A good team with good winning record: good
kids and nothing like the drug-related goons the
government claimed. Of course, all of them were killed by
authorities' bullets. There were 5 policemen killed
in the incident.
The longest struggle took place at
the historical and unfinished Kru-Ze mosque in the center
of Pattani, near the tomb of a deified
Chinese woman, who according to legend was said to
be the one who put the curse on the mosque. I was
asked to meet with the Chairman of the National
Human Rights Commission, Prof.Saneh; we were thinking on
how to help mitigate the violence. Some friends
watched TV and wondered if this was in Southern Thailand
or in Palestine? Some of those who were killed
carried copies of Qur'an in their backpacks and some use
the Palestinian/Arab-style cloth to cover their heads.
I then received a phone call from a
friend who was in communication with some field officers.
She asked me what could be done? I said
that only through dialogue could this be solved,
especially at the mosque. She asked if I was willing to
go to the South and negotiate between the
security forces and those who were inside the
mosque shooting out and without consulting anyone, I said
"yes". She consulted with her contact and informed
me that they decided against the negotiation; those
inside the mosque were criminals and would be taken
out.
I reminded them of the
cultural significance of the mosque but no one
listened. I found out later that there was an order from
the Deputy Prime Minister against attacking the
mosque and advised the field commander to use
negotiation no matter how long it took.
However, the field commander, an army general, refused to
obey and ordered an attack of the mosque. All 34 people
inside were killed. For this breach of command, he was
removed from the field. But he told the press that he
ordered the attack not because of the threat from
those "bad guys" inside the mosque because there were so
many security forces surrounding the site, but he was
afraid of the local people who began to show
signs of resentment against the violence and it's
getting late into the afternoon, he was afraid that
anything could have happened when
nightfalls. The killing was over by 3
p.m.
It saddened me so much
because perhaps I thought naively that all this
could have been avoided.
From January 4 of this year, there
have been much violence in the South, the targets
had most of the time been government officials. Then it
moved to include monks, young and old and the rift
between Muslims and Buddhists widened. Early this
month, another deputy Prime Minister went down
to meet all kinds of people and came up with a peace
plan, he even called it a nonviolent plan,
designed as a therapy to cope with what he saw
as the prognosis of the problem, more violence. Because
the plan was radical ( stop the "disappearances" of
people engineered by government
officials immediately, treat dual citizenship not as
a security threat but an asset,provide amnesty to
all regarding aspirations of separatism, among
others.), it was met with resistance within government
circle.
The government, especially the
Prime Minister, considered this way of handling the
conflict a success for the state. I am not certain
it is. This has something to do with the politics of
death. The government might think that killing more means
success in dealing with violence in the South. But
given the manner in which these people attacked,
mostly with knives, I feel that they thought of death
differently and maybe their victory lies in their deaths
for the cause they believe to be just.
When the government attacked
the Kru-ze mosque and went in to kill those inside,
it seems to indicate to the people that state power
stands triumphantly against God, Your God. I wonder
how a Muslim in Aceh, Kelantan or Mindanao would
feel looking at such a scene on TV in
SE Asia and elsewhere in the world? But I am also
saddened when I read that the government's approval
rate was high: 92% approval of the ways it responded.
I felt like something was
lost, a kind of decency, gentleness, a sense of respect
for sacred places which constitute a measure of
how "civilized" a society is. All those was lost -
together with the dangerous rise in political
cost. I don't know how long it will take for
Thai society to deal with this problem, to heal the wound
that cuts deep into the alienated part of its
imagined community. This is different from the killings
during the democratic uprising in May 1992. The
ethnic divide was and is dangerously
conspicuous.
And for some of you who are
historians, I was asked by the press why it happened
on April 28. I told them that the last time the
most violent fight between the Malay Muslims and the
authorities took place was in 1948 with more than 400
Malay Muslims dead and 30 policemen were killed. That
incident was called "Perang Dusun Nyor" (dusun
nyor war) by Malay historians. It occured on April
28, 1948.
I look at the violence in the world
around me and feel it's grip tightened and wonder what
the victims as well as their families feel this very
moment. Tomorrow, I shall send a representative of our
Peace Information Center to visit the families of those
who were dead to tell them that we care.
Maybe there is much much more to be
done along the road for peace and nonviolence. I pray to
God for the courage and perseverance of us all.
With peace,
Chaiwat
©
TFF & the author 2004
Read also
Facing
the Demon Within of
February 6, 2004
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