Well this will scare the crap out of the radical moslums. IMO wrong move to appease muslims.
Thailand Drops Millions of Paper Doves on Muslim Provinces
quote.bloomberg.com
Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Thai military and civilian aircraft rained 120 million paper doves down on Muslim southern provinces in a goodwill gesture, as Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra tries to ease violence that has killed 400 people.
The birds, folded according to the Japanese art of origami, were dropped on Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, the three Muslim- dominated provinces in the mainly Buddhist nation. Violence has escalated after 78 protesters crammed into military trucks died of suffocation on Oct. 25.
The doves, crafted by Thais across the nation at the urging of the government, may be an empty peace gesture, critics said. ``All the resources that have been dedicated to make paper birds should have been used to find a solution to the problem,'' said Sunai Phasuk, adviser to the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.
For Thaksin, whose Thai Rak Thai party faces parliamentary elections in February, sectarian unrest is the biggest challenge since bird flu killed 12 people this year and led to the slaughter of millions of fowl. The government has lowered growth forecasts for this year and next in Southeast Asia's second- biggest economy.
``Bird flu is a problem, but the violence in the south is probably a more difficult problem,'' said Tino Sarantis, who helps manage about $146 million in Asian stocks for BSI SA in Lugano, Switzerland.
Organized Violence
The government blames Muslim separatists for the killing of civilians. Organized violence started in areas bordering Malaysia in January, when rebels stormed an army base, prompting the government to declare martial law. For more than a century, Muslims in the area have sought a separate state.
The unrest isn't easing and leaves ordinary people increasingly exposed to killings, Thaksin told reporters Nov. 9 before a Cabinet meeting. ``From one or two killings of innocents per day, now there are four or five,'' he said.
Noppadol Hayeeyama, a Muslim who colors fabric for a living in Pattani province, said in an interview this week that he has ``never lived in greater fear.'' The violence is a ``real concern because we don't know when it will end,'' he said.
Sectarian violence, which makes investors edgy, may also be taking its toll on the economy. The central bank on Oct. 28 cut its economic growth forecast for this year to as low as 5.5 percent, blaming high oil prices and bird flu. That's down from as high as 7 percent in July. The agency also cut its 2005 growth forecast to as low as 5.5 percent from as much as 7.5 percent. Thailand's economy expanded 6.8 percent last year.
Different Languages
The problem has been brewing for years because of the lack of communication between local government officials, who speak Thai, and a population where some people speak only Malay, said Supong Limtanakool, who teaches regional security at Bangkok University. Sending ``combatants is like sending American first cavalry to do peacekeeping,'' he said
The government first blamed the Oct. 25 suffocation deaths on human weakness from fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The cause of death was later attributed to too many people being crammed in the military trucks, according to a report by Pornthip Rojanasunan, deputy director of the Forensic Science Institute. The government denied it tried to cover up the deaths.
Opposition parties demanded Thaksin's resign. He refused. Revenge killings in the south have followed.
``Violence has been slowly but steadily entering a new phase,'' Panitan Wattanayagorn, a professor of regional security in Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. ``In the coming few weeks there could be isolated but more lethal incidents.''
On Oct. 29, a bomb blast in Yala killed two people and injured 22. On Nov. 2 a Buddhist village official was beheaded in revenge for the deaths of the 78 Muslims. Eight days later, a Buddhist rubber tapper was beheaded. On Dec 3, a Buddhist school teacher was shot dead in Pattani.
Narathiwat provincial Governor Pracha Terat said people who collect the paper doves may exchange them for eggs, rice and other staples. |
