Southern Thailand: Krue Se Mosque

Peace shattered at ancient mosque
29 April 2004
The Nation (Thailand)

Haji Niseng Nilah, the 75-year-old caretaker of Krue Se Mosque, was doing his usual rounds at around 8.30pm on Tuesday when a group of young men carrying bags arrived and told him to get out.

The men informed him that they came from neighbouring Yala province and wanted to pray at the ancient mosque during the night.

'They said I didn't need to guard the mosque ... so I went home,' he recalled.

The sound of prayer could be heard inside the mosque at 5am, he said. But there was something strange in the air, and the shaky voice of the leader suggested something abnormal was happening inside.

'I guessed that something bad was happening, and when I heard the gunfire I rushed to the mosque ... soldiers were killing them in the mosque,' the caretaker said.

At around 5.30am, a group of young men pretended to quarrel and attracted the attention of police officers stationed a few hundred metres from the mosque.

When two policemen came out to investigate, a 60-year-old man pulled out a long machete and slashed one of the officers while a young man attacked the other.

Police shot them dead, but many other young men came from all directions to attack the police post and steal weapons, including an M-79 rifle. The sound of gunfire alerted other police officers, who rushed to the scene and engaged in a brief clash.

One eyewitness said the insurgents carried their injured colleagues into the mosque. There was blood everywhere as the men retreated to the ancient holy building.

Meanwhile, confusion reigned as the assembled police struggled to take charge of the situation.

Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said during the stand-off that he had instructed the forces not to storm the mosque.

He said he would ask Muslim leaders to negotiate the insurgents' surrender and that food and water would be provided for the 32 armed men.

It was Pallop Pinmanee, deputy director of the Internal Security Operation Command, who gave the order to storm the building. He said he had no choice but to act.

Pallop said he had to give the order because he was afraid the crowd would turn against the authorities.

Official sources said Chavalit was extremely upset and ordered Pallop to leave the South immediately.

At 9am, security forces began firing into the mosque. The armed men inside did not return fire, leading to speculation that they were low on ammunition.

But they managed to shoot at commandos when they stormed the building, killing one. The military forces adjusted their plan, and shelled M-79 rounds over the mosque's roof, as well as rocket-propelled grenades.

When voices could be heard inside the mosque speaking in a local Malay dialect, it seemed that the insurgents were hurt and ammunition was running out.

'All of us united ... shared ammunition among us ... we will fight to the death,' the voice was heard to say.

More gunfire was sprayed at the mosque after that, and the drama ended at around 2pm.

Wae-umah Waedallah, chief of Tan Yong Lolo in charge of Krue Se, rushed into the mosque to inspect the 32 bodies. He told The Nation later that he did not recognise the dead, suggesting they might have come from other places.

'It seems as if they wanted to die in the ancient Krue Se Mosque to send us a message about their beliefs ... suicide insurgents willing to die near their God,' he said.

They believed God or some magic power might protect them in the mosque, he added.

Caretaker Haji Niseng, however, said that while youngsters might believe it is good to die in the mosque, it was sad to see bloodshed in such a religious place.

'We all need to pray to ask God to bring us peace,' he added.

Clashes in Thailand's Muslim south leave at least 127 dead
28 April 2004
Agence France Presse

PATTANI, Thailand, April 28 (AFP) -

Clashes between security forces and suspected Muslim rebels in southern Thailand Wednesday left at least 127 dead in the bloodiest day in the history of the troubled region, officials said.

The authorities said police and soldiers battled armed groups who launched coordinated dawn attacks at 10 police stations and security checkpoints in the provinces of Yala, Pattani and Songkhla near the Malaysian border.

Officials said the attackers were mostly teenagers, poorly armed with only machetes and a few guns. Television footage showed their dead bodies being lifted from pools of blood and thrown unceremoniously into trucks.

The last battlezone was at a mosque outside Pattani provincial town, where between 32 and 38 rebels who had holed up there after fleeing security forces were killed when troops stormed the building to end a six-hour standoff.

Smoke billowed from the heavily-damaged brick mosque as police and internal security officials examined the scene. Elsewhere in Pattani, armoured personnel carriers patrolled the streets and helicopters hovered overhead.

Major Chitnart Bunnothok, spokesman for the Fourth Army which patrols the troubled region, said before the mosque raid that 93 attackers had been killed, 12 were injured and one was arrested.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said only two security personnel were killed and that the toll was low because police and army were well prepared and the attackers were only lightly armed.

The attacks were the latest in a series of bombings, raids and murders in Thailand's southern provinces, which over the past four months have claimed the lives of some 65 security forces, government officials and Buddhist monks.

Deputy Director of the Internal Security Command, General Panlop Pinmanee, said it was "absolutely certain" Wednesday's raids were mounted by separatists and that they were trained by militant groups operating in the south.

He said security officials were braced for an attack after an upsurge in separatist incidents in neighbouring Narathiwat province last week which were staged as a bid to divert authorities' attention.

Thaksin said the raiders were attempting to steal weapons, and that he believed they were linked to a group which carried out a January 4 raid on an army depot, killing four soldiers and making off with hundreds of rifles.

"The purpose of the raid was to steal weapons from government security forces which would then have been sold," he said.

The premier did not contradict Panlop's assertion that separatists were to blame, but downplayed the sectarian nature of the trouble, saying that the militia responsible was made up of both Thai Muslims and Buddhists.

Thaksin said the clashes had mostly been brought under control, boosting confidence on the stock market which suffered sharp sell-off at the opening bell before steadying during the session.

Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist nation but about five percent of the population is Muslim, and most live in the five southern provinces bordering Malaysia.

A separatist movement raged in the region until the 1980s when a government campaign largely ended the movement, but trouble flared again in recent years, sparking fears militants had been mobilised by foreign terror groups.

Islamic leaders said they feared Wednesday's unprecedented violence, and the high death toll among the young rebels, would spark a major deterioration in the south where resentment of central authority already runs high.

"I am really concerned that the problems in the south will escalate even further," said Abdul Rosue Aree, deputy chairman of the Islamic Council in Narathiwat.

"The incident will definitely affect Muslim people's feelings. They will have bad feelings towards authorities and the turmoil will continue, it will not be resolved," he said.