About 200 people paraded the charred remains of a Buddhist woman through Yala town Wednesday to challenge Thailand's military strongman and protest the unending violence in the country's Muslim- majority south.The 26-year-old woman was shot earlier in the day and her body then burned beyond recognition in an attack blamed on Islamic militants who have fought the government for three years in the southern region adjoining the Malaysian border.
The villagers wrapped her body in a white cloth and placed it at the staircase leading into a government building where General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, head of the Thai junta, was meeting with local leaders.
Angry residents of her village said they wanted to show Sonthi how gruesome the attacks have become and to demand protection for the Buddhist minority in the province, one of three provinces along the border hit by unrest.
"Eight Buddhists have been killed and burned like this on the same road," a relative of one victim said. "All the victims were from our village."
Watcharaporn Boonmak was ambushed by gunmen as she rode her motorcycle through a Muslim village in Yala, one of the three southern provinces roiled by three years of separatist insurgency in which more than 2,000 people have been killed.
"She might have been shot in the stomach before they set fire to her and her motorcycle," a Yala police officer said.
One of her relatives said people heard Watcharaporn, a garage clerk, screaming and crawling along the ro
ad for help but nobody dared respond for fear of reprisals. Even by the standards of a conflict that has seen well over a dozen civilians beheaded, it was a shocking incident."It is the most cruel and brutal thing I've seen in my life," said Jaran Kongchuay as he joined hundreds of Buddhists bearing Watcharaporn's charred body on a hospital stretcher to the provincial hall to face Sonthi.
There, Sonthi told them he was working with local officials to find ways of reducing the daily violence. "I promise that we will do everything possible to better protect innocent villagers," he said.
Yala has suffered the brunt of a recent escalation in attacks by the shadowy militancy. There is never a claim of responsibility for the violence.
Sonthi was on a two-day trip to meet Muslim religious leaders, as well as local government and military chiefs. Sonthi said as he arrived in Pattani that insurgent attacks had become more lethal even though the number of incidents had fallen.
"The attacks have decreased in number but the militants have adjusted their strategies to be more violent and brutal in order to terrify people," he said.
Sonthi said he feared the Islamic separatists were trying to spark a broader communal conflict, and urged both Buddhists and Muslims to work to reduce tension between the faiths. "Don't fall into their trap," he said. "Villagers must be patient. The militants want to create a sectarian war."
Sonthi is the first Muslim to head the army in mainly Buddhist Thailand. After he seized power in a coup in September, he installed a government that promptly unveiled a raft of peace measures for the region, only to see the violence worsen.
And there was more of it Wednesday.
A 19-year-old Buddhist man and his 47-year-old mother were killed in Yala province in a drive-by shooting. In neighboring Narathiwat province, a 50-year-old Muslim village chief was shot in another drive-by killing just 100 meters from his home.
Ten people were killed Monday.
In the worst incident, Buddhist defense volunteers shot and killed four Muslims - including two teenage boys - after an altercation with mourners leaving the funeral of a Muslim village chief who was blown up in a booby-trapped vehicle earlier in the day.
While regretting the incident, details of which remain murky, an army spokesman said the volunteers' actions were justified. "They were acting in self-defense as Muslim mourners were hurling stones at Buddhist villagers." Army-installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont left hospital Wednesday after three days of medical checks, insisting that he is in fine health.
But he looked pale and weak as he left the hospital where he was admitted Monday for a check-up amid rumors he might resign.
Surayud's aides have rejected any suggestion he might quit and also denied reports of a split between the premier and junta leader Sonthi.
Surayud, a former army chief, was installed after the military ousted Thaksin Shinawatra in September. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
