Article 126

WASSANA NANUAM

Pattani _ Two defence volunteers who survived the bloody insurgent attack in the early hours of Tuesday in Kapho district believe an informer gave the attackers details to help in their raid.

Volunteer Arthit Anant said more than 20 hooded men armed with assault rifles stormed the district office and one shot him close to his neck and twice in his thigh. He had no time to reach for his gun to defend himself.

The gunmen, thought to be separatist militants, walked straight to the store room where 200 firearms were kept. They tried without success to force the lock.

The volunteers had been given weapons training to help the authorities fight insurgents and dispatched to guard the office and its arms cache.

Mr Arthit, 34, said he suspected one of his five colleagues may have provided the gunmen with information.

The attackers, who spoke in the Yawi dialect, knew where the six volunteers were sleeping and that firearms were store! d in the office.

If it wasn't one of the volunteers who gave the information, it might have been local villagers or people who knew of the volunteer training programme, he said.

Mr Arthit added there had been no warning before the attack.

Wounded, he lay on the floor pretending to be dead before the gunmen, who seemed well-trained, fled. They are still on the run.

``I've never been through a more brutal experience,'' he said.

Another volunteer, Masari Jede, 35, said gunshots grazed his left earlobe and hit his left hand. However, he managed to return fire and injure one of the black-clad gunmen.

He said the attackers walked into the office in a U-shaped formation before opening fire. After failing to steal the weapons cache, they robbed the volunteers of their guns and escaped in a pick-up truck.

The nearby Kapho police station was also attacked by the same insurgent group.

The coordinated attacks ended with two motor! cycle bombings in central Pattani several hours later. The onslaught t hat killed two and wounded five defence volunteers was one of the biggest insurgent attacks in recent months.

Meanwhile, Her Majesty the Queen granted an audience to Defence Minister Gen Samphan Boonyanant and Gen Sirichai Tunyasiri, chief of the Southern Border Provinces Peace-keeping Command, at the Taksin Ratchanives palace on Tuesday evening.

Gen Samphan said the Queen, who has extended her visit to the deep South due to the intensifying unrest, advised the authorities to unite and be patient to resolve the deteriorating security situation.

She said the defence volunteer selection process should be made stricter following reports the Kapho attackers may have been helped by insiders.

Fourth Army chief Lt-Gen Pisarn Wattanawongkeeree said the army was now double-checking to see if the volunteers were capable of keeping firearms in their care safe. The backgrounds of new recruits would be screened thoroughly from now on, he added.