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Fighting fuels fund cuts in
southern
Thailand
NARATHIWAT - Prime
Minster Thaksin Shinawatra took the fight against
insurgents operating in Thailand's southern
provinces one step further on Wednesday after a
series of bomb blasts rocked the region with the
introduction of a drastic measure that could deny
funds to villages whose administrations are
believed to be sympathetic to militants.
The proposed initiative, the first of its
kind since the anti-communist struggle of the
1970s and 1980s, could cut off financial help from
development funds to villages in the deep south
classified as "red zones", areas plagued with
violence, said Thaksin, who made the announcement
while speaking to villagers during a visit to
Narathiwat province, where he began a three-day
tour of the region on Wednesday.
Just
hours before the prime minister arrived in the
province a series of bomb blasts occurred across
the country's deep south, with one injuring six
people. Three soldiers and three civilians were
hurt when a bomb exploded near a market in
Narathiwat's Ragae district. "Six were wounded and
among them two soldiers and one villager were
listed in serious condition," a police spokesman
said.
The roadside bomb was placed some 50
meters from a Krung Thai Bank cash machine, where
soldiers regularly patrol, the spokesman added.
A second bomb exploded earlier in Ruso
district, also in Narathiwat province, but no one
was injured. In that blast, police initially were
called to a house fire, where a bomb hidden near
the house was detonated as they were were about to
leave the scene, Ruso police station
superintendent Colonel Watcharin Ammarapitak said.
In neighboring Yala province, a bomb
exploded and wounded two people on the campus of
Rajabhat University: "The bomb exploded ... inside
the campus seriously injuring Pongpoj
Vachirasukhum, the deputy university president for
student affairs, and one student [passing by] was
slightly injured," police in Yala told Agence
France-Presse. The bomb was hidden under Pongpoj's
car, which was destroyed by the blast.
Thailand's three Muslim-majority southern
border provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani
have been the staging grounds for a violent
separatist rebellion since early last year, with
political, business and criminal disputes
resulting in almost daily killings.
Thaksin's tour of the southernmost
provinces was scheduled to supervise government
efforts to tackle unrest caused by suspected
Muslim separatists. That he scheduled his visit to
the region just one week after the general
election seems to underline the magnitude of the
challenge he faces in his second term in resolving
the southern violence.
In related news,
the cabinet approved measures on Tuesday to
establish a new infantry division of 12,000 troops
to be based permanently in southern Thailand. The
new division will add to the more than 25,000
regular forces already stationed in the three
southern provinces and will comprise combat,
medical, engineering, interrogation, communication
and psychological warfare units.
(AFX) |
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