Thailand: 1,900+ Buddhists Murdered

+ Violence in the Muslim world rages on and on (Globe and Mail)

Associated Press (Dec 13, 2006): "BANGKOK, Thailand: Two Buddhists were shot dead Wednesday by suspected Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand, and six small bombs later exploded in a small town in the region, wounding two people, police said.

One of the Buddhists was identified as a 55-year-old rubber tapper, who was driving his motorcycle when he was shot three times by a gunman on the back of another motorbike, said police Maj. Suthas Noosrikong of the Lammai police station in Yala province, where the attack occurred. Fifteen minutes later, a gunman pulled up on a motorcycle at the home of another Buddhist man in the same village. The attacker entered the house and fired three times, killing the man, aged 69.

Drive-by shootings and bombings occur almost daily in Thailand's three southernmost Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, where more than 1,900 people have been killed in an Islamic insurgency that flared in January 2004. Police, soldiers and others viewed as collaborators with the government are targeted, along with Buddhists.

Buddhist monks have been beheaded, Buddhist teachers slain, and leaflets distributed around Buddhist villages warning that raising dogs and drinking alcohol are offensive to Muslims.

In separate violence, suspected insurgents detonated six small bombs in shops belonging to Buddhists in Tanyongmas market in the Rangae district of Narathiwat province, injuring a 65-year-old women and a 15-year-old boy, said police Maj. Chalerm Khongying."

+ Thailand's Muslim insurgency has prompted hundreds of Buddhists to flee their homes in the restive south, creating refugee-like communities of Thais in their own country.
+ Seven killed in Thailand's Muslim-majority area
+ Malaysia puts Islamic cult under scrutiny