By Max Constant
BANGKOK
An international rights group has condemned a bomb attack that killed three people, including a four-year old Muslim girl and her father, in front of a school in Thailand’s Muslim majority south as a “warcrime” that “cannot be justified”.
The incident -- in which teachers, parents, and police officers were injured -- was the latest in a series of violent attacks in the three southern provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, which have been plagued for decades by a separatist insurgency.
Pramote Krome-in, a spokesman for the military junta's Internal Security Operations Command (the unit of the military devoted to national security) has since underlined that the father and child were Muslim.
Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement Wednesday that those responsible for the bombing -- just as parents were dropping off their children early Tuesday -- showed "incomprehensible brutality”.
“Calling this a war crime does not fully convey the harm done to the victims or the far reaching-impact such attacks have on children in the region,” he added.
The bomb, hidden in a motorcycle, exploded on Tuesday morning as police directed traffic in front of Ban Taba school in the Tak Bai district of Narathiwat.
“A father and his four-year old girl on the way to the school were injured and died later at the hospital. Four policemen and four civilians were injured,” Police Lieutenant Colonel Nopadol Kingtong, an investigator at Tak Bai police station, told Anadolu Agency soon after.
A 23-year-old man who was one of the eight people hospitalized later died of his injuries.
Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters that security would subsequently be increased in anticipation of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which starts Sep. 12.
Analysts have claimed that previous Eid al-Adha holidays have coincided with an increase in activity by insurgents, who are accused of using such periods to recruit locals.
According to Human Right Watch -- which has published numerous reports on the insurgency -- more than 200 schools have been burned down or targeted in bomb attacks since violence increased in the Thai south in 2004, and at least 182 teachers have been killed, sometimes in their classrooms.
“There is no justification under international law for claims by insurgents that attacks on civilians are lawful because they are part of the Thai Buddhist state or that Islamic law, as they interpret it, permits such attacks,” said the rights group in its statement.
UNICEF also reacted to the attack, voicing “deep concern” in a statement Tuesday about the continuing violence in the south and its impact on children.
"UNICEF is shocked and saddened by this incident. Schools must be places of learning, discovery and recreation for children," Thomas Davin, UNICEF's Representative for Thailand said.
"No children, nor any caretakers or education professionals should live or learn under fear of such attacks. All schools must become safe heavens."
It called on all parties to do everything in their power to ensure that children are protected and no more fall victim to violence.
Since 13 bombs hit tourist areas Aug. 11 and 12 in the country's upper south, the number of violent incidents in the south has been on the rise.
Last Saturday, a remote control bomb placed on the tracks near Khokpo train station in Pattani province exploded when the Sungai Kolok – Hat Yai train was passing.
It tore apart the last carriage of the train, killed one railway employee and injured another, as well as the train station chief and a defense volunteer.
Police have attributed the attack to a local cell of the insurgency movement they claim is led by a man named Seri Waemamu, who is on a list of wanted insurgent suspects.
The blasts occurred a few days after a round of talks between the military government and Mara Patani, an umbrella organization of rebel groups claiming to represent insurgents, ended inconclusively.
The talks, which took place in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur with the local government acting as a facilitator, could not finalize the Terms of Reference for further negotiations, according to Gen. Ansari Kerdphol, the lead negotiator of the military government delegation.
This meeting came amid concerns from local analysts that Mara Patani does not represent active groups operating on the ground.
The southern insurgency is rooted in a century-old ethno-cultural conflict between Malay Muslims living in the southern region and the Thai central state, where Buddhism is considered the de-facto national religion.
Armed insurgent groups were formed in the 1960s after the then-military dictatorship tried to interfere in Islamic schools, but the insurgency faded in the 1990s.
In 2004, a rejuvenated armed movement – composed of numerous local cells of fighters loosely grouped around an organization called the National Revolutionary Front or BRN – emerged.
The confrontation is one of the deadliest low-intensity conflicts on the planet, with over 7,000 persons killed and over 11,000 injured since 2004.
