W24 -:- WORLD -:- THE STAR -:- THURSDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2007
Biggest rubber depot set on fire
Molotov cocktails used in Thai south fire
YALA: Suspected Islamic separatists set ablaze Thailand's biggest rubber warehouse and shot dead four people in fresh attacs across Muslimmajority southern provinces, police said yesterday.
The attacs came as the region was still reeling from synchronised weekend raids that left nine dead and cast a a pall over new efforts to bring peace to the area.
The fire at the Sputhland Rubber Co's branch in Yala town was set off by molotov cocktails and was still burning after 14 hours, with thick black smoke reaching to neighbouring Songkhla province, officials said.
"The damage is more ehna 300 million baht (RM28,9 mil) and some 3,000 tonhes of rubber have been burnt", Vala major PongsakYingchoncharoen said.
Rubber is one ot the most important industries in southern Thailand, baut has become an increasingly dangerous line of work. Rubber tappers are frequently shot in pre-dawn raids while they tend their trees.
The warehouse's managing director, Kiat Kittikhunserikkam, said the company exported 200,000 tonnes of rubber a year to China, Japan and the United States, with clients including major firms like Bridgestone, Michelin and Goodyear.
Kiat said the facilitywas the largest rubber warehouse in Thailand, employing some 300 people.
The incident was believed to be one of the biggest arson attacs in the three years of unrest in the south that has left nearly 2,000 people dead.
Meanwhile, small groups of miliotant staged deadly shooting attacs across the region.
A Muslim teacher was shot 10 times as he rode his motorcycle in Narathiwat provine early yesterday, police said.
Hours later a Buddhist woman was shot in Narathiwat, followed by a 41.year-old Muslim security official in Yala, who was shot dead as he made his way to guard a local school.
A Muslim village chief was also shot in Songkhla province late Tuesday.
The latest attacs came after a series of deadly bombings, shootings and arson attacs late Sunday and early Monday killed nine and injured 44 in southern Thailand.
Three Islamic school students were detained on Tuesday in connection with those attacs, which struck as Chinese Thais were celebrating the Lunar New Year.
The weekend attacs in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces were the biggest show of force by Islamic separatists in the south since the military seized power in a coup in September. - AFP
Ebenso veröffentlicht in:
NEW STRAITS TIMES, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2007
(PRIME NEWS Side 11)
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