Thread: More assasinations in Southern Thailand

Aree condemns 'inhumane' beheading

(dpa) - The leading Islamic member of the Thai government on Monday condemned the continued violence in the southernmost provinces, where Muslims are a majority of the population.

Interior Minister Aree Wong-araya singled out the murder and decapitation of a rubber farm worker as "inhumane and brutal."

On Sunday a rubber tapper and his wife, both 38, were killed in an insurgent ambush in Yala Province and then the man was beheaded.

Aree, who is from Bangkok, called the act "beyond any definition of brutality" and said he had never seen such cruel incidents during his working life in the civil service.

"If the killers were real Muslims, they would not do this. We must verify who is influencing the murderers," he said.

Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in connection with the southern insurgency since January 2004 when strife in the southern provinces bordering Malaysia resurfaced. Of those at least 22 have been decapitated.

Meanwhile, on Monday a bomb on a railway line in Narathiwat Province next to Yala province wounded two policemen.

Suspected insurgents placed suspicious materials across the rail line and when police inspected the site the insurgents set off the bomb by remote control. A second bomb in another part of the province exploded about the same time but caused no injuries or damage.

On Sunday night a soldier was killed and five others injured when a bomb exploded under their patrol vehicle.

Bangkok Post