Geopolitical Monitor - News

June 9, 2009 (AFP) - Thailand's army chief on Tuesday accused separatist militants of killing 11 people at a mosque in the country's south, denying claims that security forces were behind the attack.

The government ordered General Anupong Paojinda to fly to the volatile region a day after masked gunmen stormed the mosque in Narathiwat province and sprayed worshippers with bullets during evening prayers.

Villagers blamed Thai forces for the attack, one of the worst in a five-year insurgency that has left 3,700 people dead, but Anupongsaid rebels were trying to pin the blame on the authorities for the "barbaric act."

"They absolutely want to raise this issue to a level of international concern, by making it seem like state authorities are violently cracking down on villagers," he told reporters in Bangkok before leaving for Narathiwat.

"After the attack militants made false claims against the authorities. They want to terrify villagers by creating a climate of fear," he said.

Anupong later met regional army commanders, police and security forces from Thailand's three southernmost provinces at a military camp, but officials said he was not due to visit the attack site in Cho-ai-rong district.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva pledged to curb the violence in the south, where a flare-up over the past week has left 27 people dead including those killed on Monday.

"I am worried and regret this attack that has killed or wounded so many people. My government will do its utmost to improve the situation," he told reporters.

"The sooner we resolve the case the better, otherwise they (militants) will use this incident to incite further unrest," he added.

About 1,000 sombre villagers gathered near the mosque on Tuesday, offering prayers for the victims as locals collected the bodies of eight of the dead, including the local imam, witnesses said.

Several villagers said they believed security forces carried out the raid, which also left 12 wounded, saying the masked gunmen had attacked the mosque from several sides and that insurgents would not strike at a place of worship.

"I don't know who the perpetrators are, I have to wait for the authorities to investigate and answer the villagers' doubts," Abdul Rausa Aree, chairman of the Narathiwat provincial Muslim council, told AFP.

Human rights groups have previously accused Thai authorities of major abuses in the south, including the use of unnecessary force in the 2004 siege of a mosque in which 32 suspected insurgents were killed.

Sunai Phasuk, an expert on the unrest for New York-based Human Rights Watch, said that the army was acting "almost as an autonomous power" in the south.

"It's inevitable to have widespread suspicions among the Muslim population that the attack on the mosque last night was a kind of retaliation from the Thai security forces," he said.

"These areas are known to be in... insurgent control."

Thailand's deputy prime minister in charge of national security, Suthep Thaugsuban, said earlier he had ordered Anupong to head down to the region but refused to attribute blame for the attack, saying it was a "sensitive issue."

The mosque assault happened just hours after Abhisit agreed with his Malaysian counterpart to step up cooperation in education and the economy in a bid to solve the region's troubles.

The two countries have often been at loggerheads over the region in the past. The south is a stronghold of Abhisit's Democrat party but the government has failed to stem the violence since he came to power in December.

The current rebellion began in early 2004, but tensions have simmered in the south for decades since Buddhist-majority Thailand annexed the former ethnic Malay sultanate in 1902.

Separately, one man was slightly injured when a bomb hidden in a garbage bin exploded in Yala province, also in the south, early Tuesday.

Tags:  Military - Asia - South - Thailand