Yala locals SCEPTICAL of security pledges after bomb blitz

Standing close to Thanakorn’s family were members of the Royal Thai Army fan club, uniformly dressed in purple shirts and holding banners denouncing insurgency violence.

When finally he came face to face with General Udomdej, Thanakorn listened patiently to the promises of how authorities would move quickly to get him back on his feet after last week’s bomb attack.

Thanakorn’s first furniture store, along with all the surrounding shophouses, was burnt to the ground in April last year. A car-bomb set off the blaze and within minutes the entire block of wooden shophouses had gone up in flames.

He relocated his business to the adjacent block. Both properties belong to his uncle, Boonchai Boonpungmannee, who stood by him the entire morning awaiting the arrival of the Army chief.

Despite the losses, Thanakorn remains level-headed about the whole thing. He doesn’t think the insurgents singled him out. “It’s because I had a wooden shophouse and wooden houses are flammable,” he said.

It was the same rationale that authorities and analysts offered for last year’s attack that wiped out his first furniture store, as well as the February 2011 car-bomb that gutted 12 wooden shophouses just half a block away.

Because insurgency in the three southernmost provinces – like any other sub-national conflict around the world – is a form of communicative action, what better way to discredit the state security apparatus than creating a massive fire and smoke?

Thanakorn said he has no plans to relocate outside the conflict-affected region. His uncle Boonchai echoed that sentiment.

“This is our community. I’m too old to relocate,” said Boonchai, who has two daughters in Bangkok and two sons working in the United States, one as a doctor and the other as a scientist.

As the family and the fan club stood waiting for General Udomdej, Boonchai gave journalists a tour of his burnt-out shop, pointing out where the explosive had been hidden. The furniture, plates, cups and other collectables are no more, either melted beyond recognition or burnt to a charcoal crisp.

Later, Thanakorn said the Army chief told him that the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC) had been instructed to assist him in recovering his business.

It was not clear whether that would translate into financial assistance in resurrecting what had been an uninsured business. But after seeing two stores razed to the ground, Thanakorn doesn’t have much choice but to hope for the best.

The adjacent block that was wiped out by the bomb attack last year is still an empty lot.

His daughter was quick to point out that authorities have yet to start the rebuilding.

Thanakorn said the authorities had agreed to provide a financial package to help the business owners start again in the burned-down block. Construction of the shophouses would begin next month, he added.

Thanakorn’s second shop was destroyed by a fire set off by an explosive placed inside the store by a person pretending to be a customer.

It was one of about 30 small bombs that exploded across the city of Yala between last Thursday night and Saturday morning. The idea of the attacks, apparently, was to discredit the security measures that had been put in place on Thursday evening when an initial wave of some 20 bombs were detonated.

During his visit, Udomdej, who is also the defence minister under the current military-backed government, urged local residents to work together to make the area a safer place, rather than relying solely on the authorities.

Yala’s police chief and a number of his deputies have been transferred to inactive posts in the wake of last week’s attacks. But after a three-day bomb blitz, along with the continuing inability to curb separatist violence elsewhere in this restive region, Thailand will need to do more than transfer senior police officials if it wants to restore much-needed confidence among residents of the far South.

 

DON PATHAN is a freelance security analyst and a consultant based in Yala. He is also a founding member of the Patani Forum (www.pataniforum.com).