Word: thais
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...four-year strife between separatists and army troops in Thailand's south has cost some 3,000 lives, yet is probably the world's least covered Islamic insurgency. The fatal 2006 beating of an idealistic Thai schoolteacher has, however, led to Citizen Juling, a documentary that more than makes up for lost exposure - with nearly four hours of raw video footage probing both that crime and society's knee-jerk response. "I left everything in so viewers could come to their own conclusions," says writer turned filmmaker Ing K, who collaborated with photographer Manit Sriwanichpoom and opposition politician Kraisak Choonhavan...
...Thai army has at times responded harshly to the insurgency and is accused of being behind numerous extrajudicial disappearances. In the Tak Bai incident of 2004, 87 detainees died while under army transport - most suffocated after being crammed into the backs of trucks. At the same time, insurgents have burned down more than 200 schools and almost 100 Thai teachers, symbols of central authority, have died. On Nov. 5, two car bombs injured over...
...Although Thaksin is legally barred from re-entering Thai politics and faces jail time should he return home, he still enjoys wide support among many Thais, particularly those from the impoverished northeast. It was their votes in last December's elections that brought to power the People?s Power Party, a reconstituted version of Thaksin's banned party. Thailand's current Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat is Thaksin's brother-in-law and is considered by government critics as little more than a puppet. Indeed, the opposition alliance that has occupied Thailand's seat of power, Government House, for more than...
...about his refuge woes. Several countries, he has claimed, have offered him honorary citizenship. Although Thaksin didn't specify his possible future home, the Bahamas did express initial willingness to host the former premier when he fled Thailand this summer after his wife was found guilty of tax evasion. Thai media have also reported that the Central African Republic might take Thaksin in if he's willing to invest some of his fortune in one of Africa's poorest countries...
...living in Bangui, the Central African Republic's capital, probably isn't high on Thaksin's destination list. After all, the former Thai premier has a fondness for luxury shopping and golf - and has indulged both diversions fully since he was forced from office two years ago. (In a sign that Thaksin may be resigned to a longer exile, he gave up one of his last official connections to his homeland on Tuesday, that of President of the Professional Golfers Association of Thailand.) Loss of pride aside, Thaksin can at least take heart in the august company of others...