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Thai Govt Blasted After Scores of Deaths

BANGKOK - Thailand's government is facing withering criticism after almost 80 Muslims suffocated to death while in army custody, with one newspaper blaming the tragedy on the prime minister's flawed leadership.
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BANGKOK - Thailand's government is facing withering criticism after almost 80 Muslims suffocated to death while in army custody, with one newspaper blaming the tragedy on the prime minister's flawed leadership.

Only six people were previously believed to have been killed when troops and police opened fire to quell a riot outside a police station on Monday in Narathiwat province.

But the huge leap in the toll to 78, and the manner of the deaths, was expected to fuel tension in the three southernmost provinces where 440 people have died in violence since January.

In a front page editorial on Wednesday, the Nation newspaper blamed the tragedy on Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's "contempt for human rights" and his iron-fisted approach to a region that is home to most of Thailand's six million Muslims.

"Now this flawed trait of his leadership is threatening to plunge the country into the bitterest and most detrimental divide between people and state," it said.

"Thaksin may not have been directly responsible for them being crammed into military trucks like pigs headed for slaughterhouses, but the troops' demonstration of hatred and disregard for humanitarianism simply reflected how the country is being governed," the Nation said.

The Thai Post, a Thai language newspaper, criticised the government's heavy-handed campaign in the south.

"Efforts to resolve problems with eye-for-an-eye measures, cannot bring about lasting solutions ... Only restraint and peaceful measures will ease problems and restore confidence to the affected community," the newspaper said in a editorial.

FORCE ALONE WON'T WORK

The Bangkok Post said the tragedy could drive Muslim youths into the hands of militants "bent on creating an Islamic state in southern Thailand".

"The government must realise that brute force alone will not pacify the restive South. And it will never succeed in winning the war against Islamic militants without the support and cooperation of local Muslims"

Speaking on Tuesday as reports emerged of the additional deaths, Thaksin said his government had lost patience and would take drastic action against those instigating the violence.

"If we're soft, they'll think we're caving in. I won't have it," Thaksin was quoted as saying in the Bangkok Post.

Monday's victims were among hundreds of Muslim men arrested after a 1,500-strong rally was dispersed by troops firing live rounds, tear gas and water cannon outside the Tak Bai police station in Narathiwat, which borders Malaysia.

They were demanding the release of six villagers accused of handing government-issued weapons over to Islamic militants.

With an election expected early next year, Thaksin is under pressure to resolve the trouble that analysts fear could create a fertile breeding ground for militant networks such as Southeast Asia's al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah.

"What happened in the province provides a cruel picture of the nation's future: the deep South will continue to burn," the Nation editorial said.
 
 

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