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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (41656)	4/30/2004 11:24:09 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793963

yourish.com comments on the Thai fighting: Muslims in Thailand don't understand why Thai police killed so many of their own in the last few days. Perhaps the answer to that question can be found in this lead paragraph: Thailand is reeling from Wednesday's unprecedented violence in its three southern, Muslim-majority provinces, where troops and police shot dead 108 gun- and machete-wielding Islamic militants after coming under attack in a series of dawn raids. I believe the questioner in the next paragraph is wondering why such "excessive force" was used. "The people are upset and angry," said Yosoff Samail, 60, head cleric at the central mosque in the provincial town of Pattani, where troops with rocket-propelled grenades and teargas stormed another mosque and killed more than 30 insurgents inside. "They want to know why the army killed those in the mosque. Why did they use heavy weapons? Why didn't they ask the chief Islamic leader what to do?" he said after Friday prayers attended by more than 1,000 faithful, many spilling onto the streets. Let's see. Perhaps the fact that they were shooting at police stations in dozens of separate areas in an attempt to overthrow the government might have had something to do with it? Across the border in Muslim-majority Malaysia, where sympathy is strong for Malay-speaking Thai Muslims, opposition politicians branded the mosque shootout the "massacre of Pattani". "This is an oppression, a massacre against Muslims," said Sallehuddin Ayob, youth chief of the Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), adding that no one had proved the dead were terrorists. No, no one had proven they were terrorists. On the other hand, they were machete- and gun-wielding young men who attacked police stations throughout Thailand. I'm thinking necessary force was used. But the UN has found another whipping boy besides Israel, apparently. Among the dead were 19 soccer players, an entire team from the same Muslim village. The players, all aged between 19 and 26, had planned to steal weapons from soldiers and police, local people said, but armed only with machetes against the troops' automatic rifles, they didn't stand a chance. In Geneva, Acting United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan called on Thai authorities to carry out "swift and transparent investigations" into the killings. Ramcharan noted that under an international covenant and U.N. principles on the use of force, authorities are required to refrain from using force exceeding that strictly required. Right, the poor soccer players, who intended to steal weapons and then use them against soldiers and police, didn't stand a chance because they were killed before they could steal the weapons and kill people with them. Poor, misunderstood children. (Social Darwinism at work.) Hm, what does this incident have in common with Israel? Why is the Human Rights Commission going to investigate the killings? Let's think... word starts with an M... oh, yeah. Muslims. No, there is no bias at the UN. None at all. Say, where's that Human Rights Commission investigation into the Sudan? How about Syria's mass roundup and execution of the Kurds? No? Didn't think so. yourish.com