– THAILAND’S EMERGENCY SITUATION

A bomb attack last Saturday, 03/20/2008, at a hotel in Patani province, popular with local and foreign NGOs and journalists, left two people dead. According to Thai police the number of fatalities in South Thailand, since attacks flared-up in 01/2004, reached 3004.

A local Muslim insurgence called PULA is operating in the three Muslim provinces in the south – Patani, Yala and Narathiwat, on the border with the Muslim country Malaysia, which were a Muslim Autonomy Emirate  Patani-Raya up to 1933.

Following the attack the Thai government held, on Friday 03/21/2008, an emergency cabinet meeting on measures to end violence, which became an increasing threat to the tourist industry in the South.

Srawut Aree, a professor of Muslim studies at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, told the AFP news agency that “The problem is the government still cannot recognise real actors behind violent attacks. Militants have never issued statements or claimed responsibility”.

 

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