Thailand: Terrorists Unstoppable and Unsuccessful

Archives

April 17, 2012:  No end in sight for the ethnic and religious in the Moslem south. In the last eight years 5,100 people have died down there. In March there were 73 incidents of Islamic terrorism in the south, most of them non-fatal.  The 60,000 soldiers and police in the south are there to protect the Buddhist minority, as well as seek out 3,000 Islamic terrorists and supporters. A decade ago the population consisted of 1.9 million Moslems and 400,000 Buddhists. Since then, 120,000 Buddhists and 190,000 Moslems have fled their homes because of the violence. While most of the Moslems went to other parts of the three provinces, most of the Buddhists fled the south. Most of the refugees were Moslem because the Islamic terrorists have attacked the Moslems who did not agree with the violence and opposed the terrorists. The Islamic terrorists are intent on driving all non-Moslems out of the three provinces and establishing a Moslem state. Buddhist villages have acquired armed militias for protection over the years and a growing number of Moslem villages have as well.

April 12, 2012: In the south three Moslems were shot dead as they left a mosque. It's unclear if this was an act of Islamic terrorism or related to other criminal activity in the south. Nearly all the many criminal gangs in the south are operated by Moslems.

April 8, 2012: The government will prosecute five Iranians for their terrorist activity last February. One of the suspects fled to Iran and another is being extradited from Malaysia. The government is still not sure the five were connected with similar attacks against Israelis in Georgia and India. Iran has not cooperated with the Thai investigation and denies any involvement.