Human Rights Watch tells terrorists in southern Thailand to stop targeting civilians

Human Rights Watch has condemned the actions of the Islamist terrorists in Thailand. From Human Rights News:

Separatist insurgent groups in southern Thailand must stop targeting civilians in their effort to establish an independent state, Human Rights Watch said today. In the past week alone, insurgents have killed and injured more than 30 civilians in targeted attacks in the country’s southern provinces.

What makes Human Rights Watch think that the terrorists will care about what they have to say?

“Insurgent groups are targeting civilians to show their power and highlight the Thai government’s weakness,” said Brad Adams, director of the Asia division at Human Rights Watch. “But it’s illegal, and morally indefensible, to attack civilians in pursuit of political goals.”

[...]

I doubt that the terrorists are concerned with either the legality or morality of their actions. The problem is that they believe they have God on their side.

Human Rights Watch expressed deep concern about the enormous and growing numbers of attacks by insurgent groups on civilians since the renewal of violence in southern Thailand in January 2004.

According to a study released by the Thai Journalist Association and Prince of Songkhla University, insurgent groups are responsible for most of the 5,460 violent incidents in the southern border provinces of Thailand between January 2004 and August 2006 which resulted in 1,730 deaths and 2,513 injuries. Civilians – including government employees and local officials – have been the principal targets of daily attacks, totaling 60 percent (or 1,873) of the victims, followed by police (16 percent, or 481), soldiers (12 percent, or 373), and others (12 percent, or 369).

The statistics would have been more useful if they had separated out "government employees and local officials" from regular "civilians". But in any case, many more civilians are affected than are counted by the study, since they have been fleeing to escape the violence and threats of violence.

The study found that the majority of victims were Muslims; 924 Muslims were killed and 718 injured, compared with 697 Buddhists killed and 1,474 injured. The religion of the remaining victims is unknown.

“The insurgents claim to be defenders of the Muslim population against abuses and exploitation at the hands of the mainly Buddhist Thai authorities,” said Adams. “But hundreds of Muslims as well as Buddhists have died in their attacks.”

I appreciate that Human Rights Watch wishes to point out the hypocrisy of terrorists who murder Muslims while claiming to be protecting Muslims. But the numbers don't support the claim that "the majority of victims were Muslims" — they show 1642 Muslims and 2171 Buddhists among the casualties whose religions are known.

It is true that more Muslims have been killed than Buddhists, and that could be because the terrorists are more precise when they target Muslims, i.e., they specifically murder those whom they consider to be traitors.

Common insurgent tactics include drive-by shootings from motorcycles or pickup trucks and the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The use of such devices, apparently emulating tactics used by insurgents in Iraq, has increased the intensity and lethality of attacks on civilians since June 2006. Human Rights Watch has documented disturbing evidence that insurgent groups have engaged in beheadings and in mutilation of corpses as a form of punishment of Buddhist and Muslim civilians suspected of being informants, or of collaborating with Thai authorities.

At least 17 victims have been beheaded, and more than 40 Buddhists and Muslims have been hacked to death with machetes, over the past two years.

I noted the religious significance of beheadings in this previous post on the situation in southern Thailand.

There have been hundreds of insurgent attacks on teachers and schools since January 2004. Some districts have shut down all government schools due to security concerns after attacks. Buddhist monks in Narathiwat decided to stop taking alms after a bomb ripped through a column of monks, along with the soldiers guarding them, on October 22. That was the latest in a series of attacks on Buddhist monks — including shootings, bombings and hacking with machetes. On November 8, the entire Buddhist population from three villages in Yala’s Than To and Bannang Sata districts fled their homes and sought refuge at a Buddhist temple after armed insurgents killed Boon Iamsa-ard, 68, and his daughter Aree Iamnirand, 28, and then burned down their house.

Since the new spate of violence began in 2004, insurgent attacks have become increasingly coordinated and targeted against civilians. On September 16 insurgents targeted department stores and related locations in Hat Yai district of Songkhla province, killing four civilians and injuring 59. Another series of coordinated explosions took place on August 31, targeting commercial banks in Yala. On June 15 and 16, insurgent groups launched a series of bombs attacks in 31 of 33 districts in the southern border provinces.

“Increasingly, insurgent violence is being used to scare away Buddhists and keep Muslims under control,” said Adams. [...]

Human Rights Watch called on the Thai government and insurgent groups to institute concrete measures to protect civilians and immediately cease all attacks that do not discriminate between combatants and civilians. In addition, Thai authorities and insurgent groups should permit independent, impartial and effective investigations of allegations of human rights abuses, and ensure that those found responsible be held accountable.

“Neither side in the conflict in Thailand’s southern border provinces pays enough attention to human rights issues,” said Adams. “The failure to address human rights concerns adds to the growing hostility, making peaceful conflict resolution through dialogue an impossible goal.”

Does Human Rights Watch really believe that the terrorists will "permit independent, impartial and effective investigations of allegations of human rights abuses, and ensure that those found responsible be held accountable"?

I don't understand why human rights organisations always act as though they were under the obligation to treat every side in every conflict as if they were all equally morally culpable. The Thai government has on occasion acted in a heavy-handed and callous manner that did not distinguish between insurgents and civilians, but the insurgents have been deliberately targeting civilians. Surely, there is a world of difference between callousness and premeditation?

The violence has actually gotten worse since a coup in September put a more conciliatory government into power. From Yahoo News:

Since September, the month of [former Thailand prime minister] Thaksin's removal, Dougherty [of Bangkok-based security consultants Hill and Associates] said the daily violence was claiming almost three times as many civilians victims as before, a clear indication of a shift in tactics.

In one week alone, 90 percent of casualties were civilian, the remaining 10 percent being described as "officials" — anything from soldiers and border police to village volunteers and local government bureaucrats.

And where are all the voices who condemn Israel every time a Palestinian civilian is killed, even if the death resulted from terrorists using civilians for cover?

南無阿彌陀佛