Peace Cranes Can't Solve Thailand's Civil Strife

Bombarding Thailand's Muslim-majority southern provinces with millions of origami paper birds failed because of the government's longtime neglect and continuing abuse of its Muslim population

By Andrew Lam, Pacific News Service

December 08, 2004 - Last April in Bangkok, I saw a man selling birds at a Buddhist temple's entrance. Worshippers, he told me, often buy and then release these birds as a way to garner good karma. When I asked the birdman whether he would catch these birds in the first place if there hadn't been such a market for them, he looked confused. No one had ever asked him this question.

A similar question could be asked of the Thai government in its dealing with its Muslim minority.

Prime Minister Shinawatra Thaksin, in his effort to pacify Thailand's restive southern provinces, recently bombarded the inhabitants with white paper origami in the shape of cranes by the millions -- a spectacle heavy on symbolism but light on substance. The question: If the Thai government had been fair and just in dealing with its Muslim minorities all along, would it have to resort to theatrics in search of elusive peace?

On Dec. 5, 2004, military planes flew sorties over southern provinces rocked by Muslim unrest and insurgencies, dropping 100 million origami cranes in the name of peace. Red, white and blue smoke -- the colors of Thailand's flag -- trailed the jets. Organized dances and aerobic classes were carried out in towns and villages, and village children competed to pick up the paper birds.

The efforts by and large did not work. Immediately after, two bombs went off, another was defused and the owner of a tea shop in Pattani province was slain by gunmen. Assailants also threw grenades at the homes of two policemen in the same province, while in Yala, arsonists set fire to a state school.

The reality is that, paper birds notwithstanding, the rage of Thailand's Muslim minorities remains woefully unaddressed, and in fact the Thai government still treats them brutally.

From culture to language -- many people in the southern provinces speak Yawi, not Thai -- to economic status, Muslims live as an ostracized and marginalized minority, though in the southern-most provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat they are the majority. Muslims make up about 10 percent of Thailand's 60 million people.

Police brutalities and crackdowns are routine in the south. Human rights activists have railed against the torture and disappearance of suspected separatists for years.

In the past few months, clashes have escalated. More than 500 people have died this year alone, and two major incidents in the area have left Buddhist-Muslim relations at their worst ever. In April, police ambushed with machine-guns hundreds of machete-wielding youths, leaving 107 dead. They followed up by shooting to death seven unarmed protesters in October, and packing hundreds more on top of one another into trucks. Eighty-seven people died from suffocation in the airtight, sweltering vehicles.

Resentment against the government is growing, along with allegations of abduction and torture and the disappearances of various Muslim activists, including Muslim human rights lawyer Sonchai Neelaphaijit while under police surveillance in March. Malaysia and Indonesia, both states with a Muslim-majority population, now worry that the unrest will fan a growing radical Islamic flame throughout the region.

Human Rights Watch in a letter to Thaksin warned him that his "government's inadequate responses to previous human rights abuses have created an environment in which security forces trample the rule of law and violate human rights without fear of accountability."

Meanwhile, the insurgents make little of the prime minister's peace gesture. "Even if you used 500 baht (U.S. $13) banknotes to fold 100 million paper birds and dropped them...." the Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO) said in a message posted on a website, "it would not stop the suffering of those who have been severely oppressed."

Thaksin, who not long ago dismissed the insurgents as members of local youth gangs, now finds he may have a full-scale war on his hands. Yet the controversial billionaire-turned-politician seems keen on playing strongman. His party is fanning anti-Muslim rhetoric for popularity's sake. Anti-Muslim sentiment from the majority Buddhist population is rising, along with nationalism. Thaksin is set to win another four years in parliament next year.

It's been reported that one paper bird among the millions was folded by the prime minister himself, and that within it he promised the finder either a scholarship or a job. For the rest of those hopefuls who rushed into muddy rice fields and rivers looking for a better life, however, the paper birds, when unfolded, remain a creased and blank piece of paper.

PNS contributor Andrew Lam (lam@pacificnews.org) is a journalist and short story writer.