SOUTHERN VIOLENCE: MIDDAY BOMB ATTACK IN

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 BANGKOK 002149 SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/MLS; NSC FOR WALTON E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/26/2019 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PREL PTER TH SUBJECT: SOUTHERN VIOLENCE: MIDDAY BOMB ATTACK IN NARATHIWAT AUGUST 25 MEANT TO SEND A SIGNAL REF: A. BANGKOK 1508 (JUNE 8 MOSQUE ATTACK AND REPRISALS) ¶B. BANGKOK 2096 (THE HDC DIALOGUE RESUMES) Classified By: DCM James F. Entwistle, reason 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (S) Summary: A car bomb exploded August 25 in front of a restaurant in the deep southern province of Narathiwat, injuring over 40 people; no one was killed, however. The incident bears many of the hallmarks of an insurgent style attack, though mid-day bombings are still rare for an insurgency that typically carries out targeted killings in the early morning or early evening hours. While the overall level of violence in Thailand's deep south is lower in 2009 than 2008 and the peak year of 2007, Narathiwat province in particuar has seen a surge in incidents since the June 8 massacre at a mosque left 10 dead and 12 injured. A perceived connection between that attack and a village defense project sponsored by Queen Sirikit led to many banners being posted in the deep south on her birthday, August 12, blaming her project for violence in the south, among other issues; this development has not been reported in the Thai media. End Summary. ¶2. (C) Comment: Insurgents did confirm to a close embassy contact late August 25 that they had carried out the attack, intended as a signal for Buddhists to leave the deep south. With local elections scheduled for September 6 and a string of election-related acts of violence occurring in recent weeks, however, not all deep south violence is automatically insurgency related. The posting of the anti-Queen banners on her birthday, a national holiday, was both unusual and significant, but the fact that the banners were professionally printed on vinyl, written in perfect central Thai rather than the local Malay dialect, and touched on issues which don't resonate in the south suggests those behind it were not local but national actors. Most in the know blame the red-shirts seeking to take advantage of inaction in the mosque attack case to undermine the Queen in particular and the monarchy in general. End Comment. Lunchtime Bomb -------------- ¶3. (SBU) The Narathiwat Provincial Defense Office reported that at 12:30 p.m. on August 25, a bomb exploded inside of a pickup truck parked in front of a busy restaurant in Narathiwat town. The explosion -- which damaged vehicles and buildings in the immediate vicinity -- did not kill anyone, but injured 42 people, 17 of whom where subsequently hospitalized. The Provincial Defense Office and Provincial Police told us that the district chief, deputy district chief, provincial election commission officials and associate judges, and defense volunteers all were present at the time of the bombing. The bomb was apparently placed in a household liquefied petroleum gas tank and weighed approximately 50 kilograms, according to a local journalist and other sources, making it one of the largest bombs to be deployed in the southern violence, which has claimed over 3000 lives since entering a more violent phase in January ¶2004. The provincial police reported that the truck used in the attack belonged to a district land official from Pattani who was killed August 5. Multiple Choices for Motive: Bash the Buddhists... -------------- -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Press and local officials were quick to attribute the attack to the separatist insurgent movement. Conventional wisdom in the South holds that attacks occur more frequently during Ramadan, which commenced August 21. The presence of a number of government officials eating a mid-day meal, all Thai Buddhists, also suggests this explosion was a statement by insurgents. Phongsak Chutichaowakun, chairman of the Narathiwat Industry Council and Chamber of Commerce, as well as the head of the local chapter of the Village Defense Force project sponsored by Queen Sirikit, claimed to us later August 25 that the attack was intended to intimidate Thai Buddhists. Narathiwat's Buddhists have been frequent targets of insurgents' violence; BANGKOK 00002149 002 OF 003 of the 119 school teachers killed in the deep south since 2004, 52 died in Narathiwat -- 50 were Buddhist, and the two Muslims were killed trying to protect Buddhist colleagues. ¶5. (C) Phongsak noted that all of the customers at the restaurant were Buddhists, as is the owner. Phongsak interpreted the attack as a message from the Muslim insurgents that Buddhist restaurants should not be open during the day during Ramadan in a Muslim stronghold. During an August 18 meeting with us, Phongsak and fellow members of the Narathiwat Industry Council and Chamber of Commerce had expressed feelings of frustration, intimidation, and marginalization by Malay-Muslims and characterized the ongoing conflict as a religious issue. They also spoke in derogatory terms about the Muslim religion and their Malay Muslim neighbors, a clear sign of raw nerves in Narthiwat. ¶6. (C) Sunai Phasuk, a researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW) and regular Embassy contact with good connections in both security forces and the insurgent movement, told us August 26 that he spoke with the insurgents by phone late on August 25. Despite the lack of deaths, the insurgents claimed that the bomb was intended to inflict mass casualties and send a message to the Buddhists to get out of Narathiwat, and that they had chosen the time and location to inflict maximum possible damage. When Sunai pressed the insurgents about attempting to kill during Ramadan, he said they told him that since the people in the restaurant were all "kaffir" (infidels),it did not matter. ...or Revenge for no justice in Mosque shooting.... -------------- -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Another potential motive for this attack could be the perceived lack of progress in the investigation of the June 8 shooting at al-Furquan mosque (ref A). Police officials in Yala, Yala Vice-Governor Gritsada Bunrat, and Narathiwat Vice-Governor Natthaphong Sirichana told us August 18-19 that while only one arrest warrant had been issued to date, three more should be issued the week of August 24. Haji Abdullozak Ali, chairman of the Narathiwat Islamic Committee, told us August 18 that Narathiwat Muslims remained angry about the June 8 mosque attack and knew Buddhists were to blame: "Shia and Sunni may kill each other in Iraq, but it doesn't happen here." Abdullozak Ali said he had appealed for calm among the Malay-Muslim community, asked them to allow officials sufficient time to conduct their investigations, and not to hold public protests in the interim. He said the people want to know the facts about the case and expected an equal application of the law and justice. The alleged connection to the Queen leads to birthday banners -------------- -------------- ¶8. (S) Part of the delay in arresting those known to be involved in the June 8 shooting is the perceived connection of the participants to the Village Defense Force project sponsored by Queen Sirikit and administered by Royal aide-de-camp GEN Naphol (ref A). Sunai told us that on the Queen's Birthday, August 12, that his contacts reported seeing banners in every district of Pattani, written in mistake-free central Thai, blaming her for problems in the south -- specifically her sponsorship of the Village Defense Force project -- as well as her involvement in politics and her alleged ownership of an infamous large blue diamond stolen by a Thai housekeeper in Saudi Arabia in 1989. The latter issues are commonly raised by red-shirts and anti-monarchists in the north and northeast of Thailand, but are not on the southern agenda. Sunai noted in addition that pamphlets and banners written in Thai by the Malay Muslim insurgents are usually homemade and invariably strewn with poor spelling. ¶9. (C) We had heard about the anti-Queen banners from a separate NGO source during our August 16-19 visit to the southern provinces (septel). Yala Vice-Governor Gritsada appeared surprised when we mentioned these banners to him on August 19, but he confirmed that the banners were written in perfect central Thai and mentioned issues that do not BANGKOK 00002149 003 OF 003 resonate down south, like the blue diamond. Gritsada said Pranai Suwannarat, the director of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center (SBPAC) had agreed these banners were the likely work of the UDD, not the insurgents. Sunai told us that the widespread presence of the banners indicates the strong organization and funding available to the UDD in Pattani province. ¶10. (S) There is widespread awareness among officials that the perceived connection between the June 8 mosque attack and the royally sponsored Village Defense project must be addressed, but typical Thai hesitancy to address a sensitive issue connected to the Royal family head-on has prevented more decisive action. FM Kasit, who has taken a personal interest in addressing the southern violence and has led several large delegations of Ambassadors from EU and OIC countries to the south, told HRW's Sunai late August 25 that he planned to report to the Queen the harm caused by GEN Naphol's militia, both in terms of fostering renewed violence and in acting as an obstacle to the still-secret efforts at dialogue (ref B). JOHN