Fundamentalists kill Thai marines held in the mosque
Tanyong Limo (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Two Thai marines held captive by villagers in the insurgency-racked south were beaten and stabbed to death yesterday by young Islamists who rushed into the house where the two marines were being held.
The young men went to the house after a woman caused a commotion by yelling that security forces were about to attack, provincial officials said. The Marines were suspected of being government hitmen.
"I rushed to the house and saw a wooden club lying beside the bodies, which were stabbed and bloodied around the abdomen," said Niphon Naraphitakul, a senior official in Narathiwat province. "It all started when a woman guarding the house shouted that it was about to be stormed. Then at least two youths were seen entering the place," he said.
Government officials had been trying to negotiate the pair's release as scores of villagers, mostly women and children, blocked the entrance to the remote Muslim community. At the request of the villagers - who distrust the predominantly Buddhist security forces, army, government and media - Malaysian journalists were brought across the border to hear their grievances. The marines were killed before the reporters could enter the village.
"Villagers said the two marines were among the group of gunmen who shot their fellow villagers last night," said one police officer.
Defence Minister Thammarak Isarangkura Na Ayutthaya denied the pair had had anything to do with Tuesday's shooting, in which one person was killed and four wounded, saying they had turned up in plain clothes shortly afterwards purely by chance. "It is a misunderstanding by the villagers".
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29/10/2004
