Word: pattani
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...publicity stunt. In the Muslim south, an area already weighed down by corruption, poverty and violence, the arrest of three prominent citizens has been met with suspicion. "People down here are shocked and angry," says Chid-chanok Rahimula, a political scientist at the Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani in southern Thailand and an acquaintance of one of the accused, Dr. Waemahadi. "The three are all well-known and well-respected in the south. No one here believes they were members of JI." The accused have denied being involved with JI, but police claim they have strong evidence, including documents...
...already surrendered and were handcuffed. Television cameras showed them being marched into a shack, six shots were heard, then six bodies wrapped in white sheets were carried out. But here in the deep south, it's the police who are afraid. Among the Malay Muslims of Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala, Songkhla and Satun provinces, hatred of the mostly Buddhist police runs deep?stemming from what Muslims contend are decades of religiously motivated violence and discrimination. "They used to beat us at will. People disappeared every day," claims Yuso Pakistan, a former Muslim separatist. Locals also claim that police are deeply enmeshed...
...question is: Who is killing them? As the deaths began to mount, the government at first blamed Muslim separatists. A group calling itself the Pattani Islam Mujahadeen grabbed attention by posting the bounty for cop killings. But the Mujahadeen have never made any political demands, and some doubt they even exist. Vairoj says they do, and claims he made contact with them in the jungle. A few, he says, have received combat training in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Dangerous as this group may be, however, almost no one believes there are enough Mujahadeen in Thailand to have wreaked all this mayhem...