Thai peace plan proves paper
thin By Richard S Ehrlich
BANGKOK - Thailand air-dropped more than 100
million paper "birds of peace" onto the Muslim-majority
south on Sunday, despite complaints it would create tons
of garbage and not lessen anger against the army, blamed
for the suffocation deaths of 78 Muslim men at Tak Bai
district police station in Narathiwat in late October.
In recent days, Thai media has portrayed Thais
from all walks of life folding paper rectangles in an
intricate way to produce various sized,
three-dimensional birds that resemble cranes. According
to officials, more than 120 million origami birds were
collected and dropped on parts of the three southernmost
provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani.
About
50 military planes and helicopters lifted off from three
air bases in the south on Sunday morning, releasing the
paper birds at low altitudes as part of celebrations for
His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 77th birthday. The
air drop was completed by sunset after more than 150
flights involving giant C-130s, medium-sized BT-67s,
small Nomads, helicopters and other aircraft from the
army, navy, police and agriculture ministry.
On
Monday, the Bangkok Post reported that relatives of
those killed in the Tak Bai tragedy had belittled the
release of the paper cranes, saying it won't make their
loved ones come back to life or end unrest in the deep
south. Critics have said the move should not be a
substitute for more traditional peace efforts.
Other critics, including political columnists
and Muslim officials, described the scheme as an insult
because residents would be forced to pick up tons of
garbage after the air drops. The estimated 120 million
paper birds could result in more than 400 tons of paper
being dumped on the three provinces, according to some
calculations.
Officials responded to these
concerns with schemes to prevent massive litter. The
Narathiwat governor's offer agreed to exchange 10
collected paper birds for one egg and 30 birds for a
kilogram of rice. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
said, "Whoever picks up the bird I have folded will be
given a job if they need it, and will be helped to go to
school if they have not been able to do so."
The
paper birds "show that the entire nation is united,
regardless of religious beliefs", the prime minister
said on Thursday. "It is a signal that we love our land
and nobody can divide it."
Officials insisted
the air drop was popular among southern Muslims, and
said some villagers tied plastic rope into makeshift
"nests" to catch the falling paper.
A plan
for peace The air drop evolved from an earlier
death of civilians when Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl,
died from radiation poisoning 10 years after America
dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. Sadako, who
was diagnosed with leukemia in 1955, believed a Japanese
legend that promised anyone who folded 1,000 paper
cranes would be granted a wish.
The little girl
died that year despite folding more than 1,000
traditional origami birds, but young Japanese, inspired
by her perseverance, arranged a cash collection and, in
1958, built a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane in
Hiroshima Peace Park.
In Thailand, the original
plan was to create 62 million birds to represent
Thailand's total population, but many people did not
contribute - while countless others sat and folded
numerous birds in assembly-line fashion - resulting in
an estimated 120 million origami cranes.
"I
didn't make any paper birds because I have no time, I
have to take care of my baby, and I think it is a bad
idea because it is like dropping garbage on them and
will make their towns dirty," said a thirty-something
Buddhist female from northeast Thailand when asked if
she participated.
The origami public-relations
move came after the Thai army arrested 1,300
demonstrators on October 25 at Tak Bai, tied their hands
behind their backs and forced them to lay face down in
army trucks, piled one on top of the other, four or five
layers high. When the army trucks transported the
demonstrators from Narathiwat province to an army camp
in nearby Pattani, forensic teams discovered 78 men had
died of suffocation while in the trucks.
Another
six people were shot dead during the Tak Bai
demonstration, which was called to demand the release of
six Muslims detained for allegedly giving weapons to
separatists.
The millions of paper birds
collected made it impossible to check if any had
offensive messages written on them that would "add more
fuel to the fire" if read by Muslims on the ground,
warned Niran Pithakwatchara, chairman of the Senate
committee on social development and human security.
Senator Jon Ungpakorn, from the same committee,
said the suffocation deaths made the situation much
worse. "Now we are looking at something which could turn
out to be another Bosnia," Jon said at a news conference
on November 17 at the Foreign Correspondents Club of
Thailand. "People like myself, who are particularly
concerned about human-rights aspects, are being
denounced as being 'traitors' now, though we are not. My
group is questioned: why are we so concerned about the
abuses of human rights in the Tak Bai incident?" Jon
said.
"'Some of them died, so what? More should
have died.' This is the general attitude that we are
facing now," the opposition party senator added.
The Pattani United Liberation Organization, part
of a loose alliance of small Muslim separatist groups,
responded to the suffocation deaths by offering rewards
of up to US$2,250 on their website for the assassination
of Thai politicians in the south.
Army officers,
meanwhile, want to increase the estimated 15,000
soldiers and marines currently deployed in the south and
buy more M-16 assault rifles, along with a dozen
second-hand Cobra helicopters from the US to crush the
Muslim separatists.
In November, the US Defense
Department trained and equipped police on the tourist
playground island of Phuket to prevent "international
terrorists" staging a copycat of the 2002 Bali island
bombing in Indonesia.
The fight
continues Fresh violence flared in the south only
hours after the Thai air force dropped the peace birds,
Reuters news agency reported. Police said a bomb
exploded at an intersection near a market in the
southern province of Narathiwat on Monday morning,
injuring at least one soldier, according to the news
agency. Overnight, the home of a teacher in the same
province was burnt to the ground. On Sunday, as the
paper birds were being dropped as a symbol of peace, two
armed men shot dead a former prosecutor in Pattani
province, police said.
Violence between southern
Muslim separatists and the Buddhist-majority government
has resulted in the deaths of more than 500 people on
all sides during the past year, with almost daily
bombings, assassinations and other assaults.
The
targets are mostly Buddhist security forces,
politicians, teachers, monks, plantation workers,
shopkeepers and others, while Muslims who have perished
include suspected separatists, sympathizers and
civilians.
Richard S Ehrlich is a
Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco, California,
and has reported news from Asia since 1978. He is
co-author of "Hello My Big Big Honey!", a
non-fiction book of investigative journalism. He
received a master's degree from Columbia University's
Graduate School of Journalism.
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2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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