US embassy cable - 05BANGKOK4118

UNCLAS BANGKOK 004118 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/BCLTV, USPACOM FOR FPA HUSO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, PTER, TH, Southern Thailand 
SUBJECT: VIOLENCE IN SOUTHERN THAILAND MARKED BY INCREASE 
IN CIVILIAN BEHEADINGS 
 
1. (U) Summary:  Assailants, suspected to be Muslim 
separatists, beheaded a Thai civilian in broad daylight at a 
teashop in Narathiwat province on June 22, the fifth 
beheading of civilians, all believed to be Buddhist, during 
this month.  Three male Muslim volunteer teachers were shot 
to death at home in the same province earlier this week.  In 
two separate roadside bombings this month, three Buddhist 
monks have been injured, although none were killed.  Some 
Muslim leaders said the beheadings were reprisal attacks for 
the arrest and/or suspected extra judicial killing of 
suspected Muslim separatists.   End Summary. 
 
2. (U) A disturbing increase in civilian beheadings, believed 
to be the work of unidentified Muslim separatists, has hit 
the troubled far south of Thailand.  In Narathiwat province 
on June 22, Lek Pongpa, a 34-year-old itinerant clothing 
salesman from the Northern province of Nan, was beheaded at a 
teashop after being shot twice by two armed men riding on a 
motorcycle.  The shop owner, who along with other onlookers 
witnessed the incident, was quoted in local press accounts as 
saying that the victim tried to flee after being shot twice, 
but one of the attackers chased after him and cut off his 
head with a machete. On June 19, two Lao national migrant 
workers reportedly were beheaded where they were working at a 
chicken farm in Pattani province. Two other beheadings took 
place in separate incidents in Pattani and Yala on June 5 and 
14.  One victim was a 65-year-old retired teacher, the other 
a 59-year-old rubber tapper.  In some of the recent cases, 
the attackers left notes with the bodies of victims stating 
that more civilians would be killed to avenge the arrest of 
innocent Muslims.  (Note: There have been a total of 10 
beheadings reported since violence in the South began 
following a raid on a military camp by Muslim separatists in 
Narathiwat in January 2004. Two took place in May and June 
2004, three others in November 2004.  The beheadings occurred 
in the following provinces: Narathiwat: 4, Pattani: 4, and 
Yala: 2.  End Note.) 
 
3. (U) In a June 20 incident that may have led to the latest 
beheading, three men described as "volunteer teachers" at an 
Islamic religious school in Pattani province, were shot and 
killed, reportedly while conducting evening prayers.  Media 
reports indicated that RTG officials claim the men were 
killed by Muslim insurgents, who wanted to "silence them" for 
cooperation with local officials.  Muslim civil society 
leaders and officials have described those killings 
otherwise, alleging that they were a type of extra judicial 
killing by Thai police.  The Governor of Pattani claimed that 
printed material advocating the liberation of Pattani were 
found at the murder scene.  Thai police claimed that at least 
one of the victims was a suspect in other violent attacks in 
southern Thailand. 
 
4. (U) Attacks on Buddhist monks continue in Narathiwat 
province.  Two monks, together with three women and two 
policemen escorting them on their morning alms round, were 
slightly injured by a small roadside bomb on June 22.  This 
is the second time this month that Buddhist monks accompanied 
by police or military escorts have fallen victim to roadside 
bombing incidents. 
 
5. (U)  There continue to be nearly daily shooting incidents 
of low-level government officials in the south.  A deputy 
village headman in Yala province was gunned down in his house 
on the night of June 21.  Media reports claimed that 
suspected militants attempted to behead the victim before 
fleeing after the man's son entered the house. 
 
5. (SBU) Comment: Over the last 19 months, over 700 people 
have lost their lives in various acts of violence in southern 
Thailand.  The people who live and work in the southern 
border areas have for many years lived with guns and violence 
as part of their lives making it difficult to differentiate 
between separatist and "routine" violence.  Most Muslims and 
the Thai government acknowledge that some of the killings are 
personal business scores or other vendettas. Nonetheless, the 
clearly intentional use of beheadings, and the apparent 
targeting of Buddhist monks, constitutes a worrying mix that 
for Thais of all backgrounds and faiths and adds a shocking 
emotional crescendo to the already heightened ethnic and 
religious tensions in the affected communities.   End 
Comment. 
BOYCE