Extremists Step Up Attacks in Thailand

Bomb and grenade attacks on an airport, a police station and a hotel in Thailand over the last two days have raised fears that Muslim militants in the deep south of the country are seeking to expand the revolt which has so far led to more than 700 deaths.

The prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, is under pressure to find a solution to what is becoming a major security crisis.

Yesterday a group used a grenade launcher to attack a police station while another gang targeted a government office, both in the province of Narathiwat. The previous day, bomb attacks in the province of Songkhla killed two and wounded more than 70.

A bomb at the Hat Yai airport, which killed two, and an attack on a hotel indicate that the militant separatists are prepared to hit targets that will damage Thailand's tourism industry.

Ten days ago a maintenance train operating near the border with Malaysia was attacked and 19 people injured. The same week, an army commander, a Buddhist abbot and his police escort were injured in bomb blasts in Yala province. Four Buddhist monks were killed last year and the continuing attacks on them have led to condemnation from leading Muslim moderates who say that Islamists are brainwashing students.

Critics have accused Mr Thaksin of initially responding to the crisis in a heavy-handed fashion. After the early attacks he announced plans to put villages in the south into colour-coded zones depending on their cooperation with the government, with funds to each zone being disbursed accordingly. This move alienated many who were otherwise unsympathetic to the violence.

Yesterday his tone was more conciliatory. "We are working toward unity," he said. "As for prevention and suppression, we have to work intensely, and we won't leave behind peaceful methods."

This month sees the anniversary of the police attack on the Krue Se mosque in which 32 militants died. Muslims were further alienated by the death last October of 85 peaceful protesters. Most died of suffocation after their arrest in the village of Tak Bai.

Another source of pressure on the government is the disappearance in March 2004 of Somchai Neelapaichit, 53, one of Thailand's leading human rights lawyers, who had been representing Muslims accused of offences in the conflict.

The lawyer's body has never been found and no one has been arrested or charged with his kidnap or murder although five police officers face minor charges in connection with the disappearance.

The chairman of the Thai senate's foreign affairs committee, Kraisak Choonhavan, was critical of Mr Thaksin's initial response to the disappearance, when he made a mocking and unsubstantiated comment that the lawyer may have had personal problems.

The Asian Human Rights Commission has asked King Bhumibol Adulyadej to ensure that the case is properly investigated.

The missing lawyer had made complaints about police treatment of Muslim detainees which he alleged amounted to torture.

One of the men he was defending said last week that he was given electric shocks and that the police had urinated on him. Such claims of routine police brutality towards those arrested have helped to fuel the conflict.

The opposition leader, Abhisit Vejjajiva, of the Democratic party, has criticised the government's handling of the crisis.

Last week, he called for a civilian, rather than a military or police officer, to be placed in charge of development in the region.

Mr Kraisak said: "We have not had tension like this since the 60s and 70s. We have had a relatively peaceful development in the south in the past but this repression is getting a lot of international attention."

The number of attacks indicates the scope of the problem, one that had been temporarily obscured by the tsunami.

Islamists have exploited a sense of neglect felt by many in the deep south, who have long claimed that they are badly treated by the central government and that their needs are ignored.

Although Mr Thaksin recently won a landslide election victory, he took no seats in the deep south.