Thailand’s Dangerous Blunders

Thailand’s prime minister appears finally to recognize that he has made a potentially explosive situation much worse in the southern part of his country, where Muslims outnumber the Buddhists who predominate in the rest of the nation.

Two weeks ago, more than 1,000 Muslims in Narathiwat province protested against the arrest of six men who allegedly supplied Islamic militants with guns. Police opened fire on the crowd, killing seven. Army troops arrested hundreds more, stacking the detainees one atop another in trucks that later took them to jail. Seventy-eight people were crushed to death or suffocated. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, instead of calling the army to account, blamed the victims. He contended they died because their fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan had weakened them. The furious response from neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia, predominantly Muslim countries, underscored the seriousness of his blunder.

Thailand’s southern provinces have long been known for their poverty, poor schools and lack of jobs. This year’s protests occurred against the backdrop of feared links to Al Qaeda or other radical Islamic groups.

More than 400 people have died in the south since January, many the victims of drive-by shootings by motorcyclists suspected of being Islamic radicals. In April, militants armed mainly with machetes tried to launch simultaneous attacks on police stations across the south. An informant alerted security forces, who killed more than 100 of the assailants, most of them teenagers. Thirty were killed in a mosque where they sought refuge.

Thaksin, instead of recognizing the conditions that have led to unrest, declared that the deaths would end the rebellion. Most analysts doubt formal links exist between the southern Muslim extremists and groups like Al Qaeda, though there may be contacts between them. Thaksin’s blindness could push moderate Muslims not yet demanding more autonomy or independence for the south toward radical action.

Thailand’s king, usually a stranger to politics, felt compelled last week to summon the prime minister and tell him to stop the security forces’ heavy-handed tactics. Another demonstration of the region’s fury occurred last Tuesday, when a Buddhist community leader in Narathiwat was beheaded. A note by the body said the killing was revenge for the deaths of the 85 Muslim protesters.

Thaksin belatedly named an independent panel to investigate the deaths and invited diplomats from Muslim nations to join him for an evening meal breaking the Ramadan fast. Those are helpful gestures, but not enough to slow the violence. The prime minister has to include the south in the nation’s plans for economic development, getting more of the region’s unemployed and undertrained young people into the workforce. International assistance in the name of preventing a new source of Islamic militancy would also be money well spent.