A climate of fear still grips one village

KING-OUA LAOHONG Bangkok Post 27.12.2008 04:09

Two forensic police collect evidence at the scene of a bomb blast which seriously injured two soldiers from a teacher escort team in Yala’s Krong Pinang sub-district yesterday morning. MUHAMMAD AYUB PATHAN

NARATHIWAT : Three years after the brutal killing of two marines, a climate of fear still grips Tanyong Limo village at Rangae district in Narathiwat province.

The village was the scene of the gruesome killing of Sub-Lt Winai Nakhabut and Petty Officer Khamthon Thong-iat on Sept 21, 2005. The officers were beaten and tortured before being stabbed to death.

The pair, from the Third Marine Regiment, came to Tanyong Limo to investigate a shooting at a tea shop which killed two villagers and wounded five others.

They were taken hostage by villagers who mistook them for the tea shop attackers.

After the killings of the two marines, eight more residents were killed in three years, said Kuseng Dorkhor, a local resident.

Tuwae-apel Nigaji and his younger brother Al-aesan, wanted in connection with the murder of the two marines, were shot dead.

They fled to Malaysia after police issued warrants to arrest them for being leading members of a separatist group involved in the killings of the two marines. Tuwae-apel returned to the country to fight the charges and was released on bail while his younger brother and other suspects were still in hiding.

"Less than two months after returning home, Tuwae-apel was shot dead. One week later, Kuseng, a motorcycle repairman and also a suspect in the killings of the two marines, was gunned down.

"Three months later, Al-aesan was shot dead in a rubber plantation in the village," one villager said. The killings of three men left the villagers in fear.

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