Article 79

Troops flee angry mob in South

Deny claims woman was hit by birdshot

WASSANA NANUAM WAEDAO HARAI

About a dozen para-military rangers fled for their lives late on Saturday night as hundreds of angry villagers converged on their position accusing them of shooting and wounding a local woman.

The rangers were manning a checkpoint outside Ibatu school in Sungai Padi district of Narathiwat when the villagers moved in on them, shouting abuse.

The number of villagers grew from tens to hundreds in a matter of minutes. Beating sticks to create a din, they began throwing rocks and demanded the soldiers leave the village.

The rangers ran into the school and locked the main entrance to the building. A truckload of men joined the crowd, forcing the rangers to make a hurried exit out the back, climbing down from the second floor and escaping.

The squad leader, 2nd Lt Virat Rattanakul, said he and seven of his men had been patrolling the predominantly Muslim village for a week. They were stationed outside the school as part of a mandatory patrol during Her Majesty the Queen's current visit to the province.

On Saturday evening, his squad stopped a motorcycle driven by a teenage youth, with a pillon rider, for a security check. Neither were carrying identification cards and were warned, but the driver became upset. He said he never carried an ID card and did not need one. The two then sped off.

Lt Virat said that half an hour later the crowd began to gather and tension built. The standoff seemed intended to provoke the soldiers into violence, he said.

Leading the crowd were women and children and the men trailing behind formed a human chain to trap the cornered soldiers.

Lt Virat said it was fortunate they managed to climb down from the second-floor windows of the school and escape through the back door.

``I've never seen anything so barbaric and frightening in my life. They were going to beat us up,'' he said.

He insisted his superiors had specifically instructed his squad not to use force to disperse the crowd, as that would have played into the hands of the separatist insurgents.

Lt Virat said many Ibatu villagers were sympathisers of regional militant networks like the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) and Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo).

The soldiers were hesistant to patrol the village because residents turned their backs on them. Lt Virat said local hostility toward the rangers had grown after the checkpoint was set up.

He insisted none of the rangers had fired the birdshot which reportedly injured a female motorcyclist identified as Fareedah Samsuding, 37. The incident was thought to have touched off the row leading to the standoff.

Lt Virat said the allegation was baseless. He accused the two angry motorcyclists of inventing the story to arouse local anger against the soldiers.

Ms Fareedah said her son was driving the motorcycle and she was riding pillion. As they were passing the school, her son saw one of the rangers shooting at a bird and within seconds she felt pain in her left leg, which began bleeding.

Her son later told the villagers about the incident and they decided to protest.

``No one here likes the police or the soldiers. They shouldn't set foot in our village. We want to be left alone,'' she said.

Saina Esaw, 32, said the soldiers' presence did not make them feel safe. On the contrary, they had to worry about the danger from soldiers as well as from insurgents. She said that in June the army tried to take away a village prayer leader they accused of stealing weapons on April 28. But the villagers got together to demand justice and the prayer leader was later released.

The Fourth Army issued a statement yesterday saying the school incident was just a misunderstanding and had been orchestrated by elements out to frame the soldiers. Fourth Army commander Pisarn Wattanawongkheeree called for calm but insisted the soldiers would need to impose law and order in Ibatu.

Gen Pisarn said a doctor had confirmed Ms Fareedah had not been shot. A sharp rock fragment may have caused the injury, he said, adding a birdshot pellet would have inflicted a more serious wound.