Arson in Thailand prompts separatism fear

[dArKeR]

REUTERS , BANGKOK
Saturday, Mar 20, 2004,Page 6

Arsonists set fire to 36 buildings, mostly deserted health clinics and police booths, in a rampage across Thailand's Muslim south that may reflect anger over a missing lawyer, ministers said on yesterday.

Interior Minister Bhokin Balakula told reporters the attacks were carried out overnight in the provinces of Pattani, Songkhla and Yala, where a surge of violence erupted in January when an army camp was raided and many guns were stolen.

More than 20 state schools were also torched that night, probably as a diversion for the army camp raid, in which four soldiers were killed.

That led some officials to believe a new surge of separatism was erupting in a region where a low-level independence war was fought in the 1970s and 1980s.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/03/20/2003107060