EDITORIAL : THE BANGKOK POST, THAILAND

Murder taints Thai holy day

Wat Suan Kaew in Yaha district of Yala and many other Buddhist temples in the violence-prone three southernmost provinces were virtually empty and eerily quiet yesterday, whereas temples in the rest of the country were abuzz with human activity as worshippers celebrated the important Buddhist holy day of Visakha Bucha.

There was no celebration or candlelight procession as has been the traditional practice; instead, Buddhist worshippers marked the event in a subdued and sombre mood under the watchful eyes of security forces. There was a good reason to keep the event brief and formal because of the heightened security threat. The last two monks residing at Wat Suan Kaew had been killed a day earlier as they were on their way to receive alms; they were the victims of a roadside bomb explosion believed perpetrated by Islamic extremists.

Monday's attack against the two monks was premeditated and intended to kill, as indicated by the size of the bomb: an improvised explosive device weighing about 20 kilogrammes that had been buried under a dirt road which was routinely used by the monks. Two soldiers who were providing protection were badly injured.

Like the selective attacks against rubber tappers in plantations owned by Thai Buddhists, it was suspected that the targetting of Buddhist monks was intended to scare them away from the region and to drive a wedge between Buddhists and Muslims. Lately however, some of the attacks against monks and Islamic clerics and religious teachers are believed to be acts of revenge perpetrated by both sides in this dirty war.

Buddhist monks are no longer "collateral damage" in the deep South. They are soft targets marked by the extremists. Besides the Monday bombing attack, there have been three attacks since last December, resulting in one monk being killed in Kok Pho district of Pattani and four hurt. The most grisly attack took place on Oct 16, 2005, at Wat Promprasit in Panare district of Pattani, when suspected extremists raided the temple and hacked to death a monk and a temple boy.

Security experts have made the observation that the fatal attack on the Al Frugon mosque in Ban Ai-payae in Cho Airong district of Narathiwat on June 8, 2009, which left 10 Muslims dead and 12 injured, may have fuelled revenge attacks against Buddhist monks by the extremists. Four days after that incident, a monk was killed and another injured by suspected extremists although no culprits were arrested. The killing of the monk in Kok Pho district on March 5 was also said to be a revenge attack for the slaying of an imam at a mosque in the same district two days earlier.

In most of these cases of suspected revenge killings, it was apparent that the perpetrators remained unpunished and even if some of them were caught _ as was the case in the Al Frugon mosque massacre _ there has been widespread and deep suspicion among the Muslim people that justice will never be served.

It is heartening that security authorities have had some success in easing tensions and mutual distrust between Buddhist and Muslim communities over some of these revenge killings. But the key issue concerns justice, which remains elusive for many Malay Muslims in the strife-torn region. Unless justice is actually done, and seen to be done, there will continue to be elements out there who are ready to take the law into their own hands and inflict untold pain on innocent and defenceless people, who always are the easy victims in any violent conflict.