Thailand's Islamic Rebellion

[Township75]

Source: PBS

An Islamic separatist movement is trying to wrest control of a portion of southern Thailand by using increasingly bloody methods, including beheading Buddhist monks, Winn reports.

One Buddhist grandmother Winn interviewed in the southern province of Pattani said the town's residents used to coexist with Muslims, but they don't trust each other anymore since the independence campaign is surging again. She now carries a gun, and explosives by radicals can be hidden anywhere, including in rubber plantations or along the road.

A video by Mark Oltmanns demonstrates what the military's bomb squad is up against in its effort to safely detonate the improvised explosive devices:

"They used to use simple timers and cell phones to detonate the bombs. When we started using cell phone jammers, they switched to other methods. They've now evolved to use remote controls and walkie-talkies," said Thai Army Col. Thaweesak Chantrasint, commander of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit.



Read more: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/07/thailand-rebellion.html

[Lucky Luciano]

1. The world truly has a lot of assholes.

Beheading Buddhist monks. How charming.

[Township75]

2. It's depressing.

I may have to walk away from news for a bit. It only serves to make me depressed and pessimistic about life and the future.

[Blue_Tires]

3. very sad...

[grahamhgreen]

4. Religious fundamentalism is from evil.

[bemildred]

5. Just a comment: this one has been going on for decades.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Thailand_insurgency

And note that once again the government assuming "emergency powers" to deal with the situation has made the situation worse.

[slackmaster]

7. Thanks for putting it into perspective, bemildred

That's helpful.

[bemildred]

9. My pleasure.

These ethnic disputes are an interest of mine.

[Igel]

15. Indeed.

The problem is that when the government backed off emergency powers, that also made it worse. It just made it less interesting in the West. There's a certain romance to oppressed indigenous down-trodden minority-religion adherents fighting for their rights against a distant, "Other"-centered quasi-authoritarian wave of repression carried out by the military or a government security apparatus. Even if "fighting for their rights" is the right to a job without a good education, beheading monks, and firebombing what are, locally, minority-owned stores and families. People have a right to keep the power in their communities in the hands of people of a certain ethnic and religious cast. At least if we like the people.

The insurgency's been inconsistently ramping up. Has been for a decade or more. Ascribing the blame for its ramping up to others instead of to the people actually involved in the quasi-insurgency, either locals or imports, is to try to account for stuff around the edges. It's partly a function of government attitude, but also changed as neighboring insurgencies suffered setbacks or victories.

[closeupready]

6. I would like to know more about who is driving this separatist movement, where's the money coming fr

from.

[jberryhill]

8. It's not that hard to be an asshole on a shoestring budget

[closeupready]

10. And you know they are volunteering how? Or, is it that you believe they are trust fund babies?

If that's what you believe, you really must be VERY wet behind the ears, kid.

[jberryhill]

12. Would you like to start a thread to discuss me

Or would you care to address the topic at hand?

Beheading someone requires the purchase of a knife.

Buddhist monks are particularly easy, since they do not fight back.

I furthermore find the odds of my being younger than you to be low.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[sudopod]

11. fuckin buzzwords

"A video by Mark Oltmanns demonstrates what the military's bomb squad is up against in its effort to safely detonate the improvised explosive devices bombs:"

[ellisonz]

17. +1

[RyanPsych]

14. oh Religion

why can't you just go away already?

[Igel]

16. It's partly religious.

It's also partly ethnic. The people there feel that they are owed jobs and education, they're owed autonomy, and that if they'd been merged with a different country they'd not be oppressed by that horrible majority.

And it's partly class.

It's partly age. The older people remember living in peace. The younger people suffer more from unemployment, are more radical in terms of religion (having learned in mosques more recently constructed with foreign donations with foreign-trained imams), and tend to consider themselves wiser because of their lack of experience and more tolerant because of their impatience.

They feed off each other. Any one might be sufficient for this kind of thing. Two make it more likely. Three make it even more likely.