PATTANI, Thailand, 30 October 2004 — Bomb blasts rocked southern Thailand yesterday as Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra promised to get to the bottom of the deaths of 78 Muslims in military custody and punish any “wrongdoers”.
Speaking on national television as he faces the biggest crisis of his four-year-old government, Thaksin did not apologize for the actions of his troops and denied his administration was mistreating Thailand’s Muslim minority. “I am ready to be fully accountable and responsible. But I wish to emphasize that I have done everything in all sincerity ... without any religious prejudice,” a subdued Thaksin said.
“This is a matter of maintaining law and order and has absolutely nothing to do with religion.” The mainly Muslim south of the Buddhist country is seething with anger after 78 men suffocated to death while crammed into army trucks after a violent protest on Monday. Thaksin, under pressure from close ally the United States, regional neighbors and the UN rights body, said he would set up an independent commission to “investigate the incident with the aim of bringing wrongdoers to justice”.
The panel of legal and cultural experts will be headed by Pichet Soonthornpipit, a former inspector general of Parliament.
“The government must not hide anything as it has no hidden agenda,” Thaksin said, but it was not clear what powers Pichet would have. Rights groups want a full judicial inquiry.
Earlier yesterday, two bombs exploded about an hour apart at a food stall in southern Yala province. Two civilians and 10 police were wounded.
A bomb on Thursday killed two and hurt 22 in Narathiwat province.
At Friday prayers, Muslims demanded justice. “Why did this have to happen to our Muslim brothers?” Mayawewe Keada told Reuters at the Wadi Al-Husein Mosque, about 50 kilometers from the scene of Monday’s protests.
