Thai troops told to steer clear of Muslim women
Wed 25 May 2005
BANGKOK, May 25 (Reuters) - The Thai army is to impose "iron rules" on soldiers stationed in the country's restive Muslim south after complaints of improper sexual relations with young Muslim women, an army spokesman said on Wednesday.
"If anybody is found guilty of doing something wrong in the eyes of Muslim tradition, they will be sacked," Colonel Somkuan Seangpattaranetr told Reuters.
The guidelines were drawn up after a senator from Narathiwat, one of the three southernmost provinces convulsed by a year of unrest, said soldiers drafted in to boost security had struck up illicit liaisons with young Muslim women.
Senator Fudruddin Boto said army commanders should take "male behaviour" seriously since the relationships between Buddhist soldiers and Muslim women risked inflaming the violence, which has claimed nearly 700 lives since January 2004.
"Muslim villagers complained that some daughters had abandoned their parents to marry non-Muslim guys, and some army officers committed adultery with married Muslim women," he said.
Hundreds of similar cases in the neighbouring provinces of Yala and Pattani were "causing fury among strict Muslims", he said.
Yapa Wajanalertsakul, vice president of Narathiwat's Central Islamic Committee also said he had received complaints and wanted to talk to the army to defuse tensions.
"I think the problems should be solved as fast as possible or the cases could worsen the violence," Yapa said.
The government has wavered between reconciliation and aggression in dealing with the near-daily shootings and bombings in the southernmost provinces, scene of a low-key separatist rebellion in the 1970s and 1980s.
Neither approach seems to have helped in curbing the attacks, or of finding out who is behind them, or what they want.
Security analysts fear it is only a matter of time before the unrest attracts the attention or support of international militant groups such as Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, or Jemaah Islamiah, its regional affiliate.
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