Pilgrims leave Bangkok airport

2008-11-30 17:01

Bangkok - More than 450 Muslim pilgrims stranded at Bangkok's besieged international airport for four days were bused Sunday to a military base where they were to board a plane for the haj.

Sen. Anusart Suwanmongkol said buses transported the pilgrims from Suvarnabhumi airport to the U-Tapao naval base, about 140km southeast of Bangkok. There, they were to board an Iran Air flight arranged by the Iranian Embassy to Saudi Arabia.

"We are going to Mecca. There is only Allah," said Mohammad Rosi, one of the 459 pilgrims, before he boarded his bus.

The pilgrims arrived in Bangkok from Thailand's Muslim-majority southern provinces on Tuesday, hours before anti-government protesters took over Suvarnabhumi, forcing the country's main gateway to shut down.

A separate group of 250 Thai Muslims left on Friday from Hat Yai in southern Thailand without coming to Suvarnabhumi.

Stranded

The 459 in Suvarnabhumi had remained stranded in the airport as the government and protesters debated about how to get them to Mecca. Several attempts fell through, partly due to fears by Iran Air that U-Tapao would also be overrun by protesters, preventing its plane from leaving.

The haj is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most Muslims, who save up for years to go on the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Thai Muslim leaders had warned that a failure to help the pilgrims reach Mecca by a Monday deadline could damage relations between predominantly Buddhist Thailand and Saudi Arabia. It also could have further damaged the Thai government's credibility in the country's south where an Islamic insurgency has flared since 2004.

More than 3 300 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the violence. Attacks have generally taken the form of drive-by shootings and small-scale bombings intended to frighten Buddhist residents into leaving the predominantly Muslim area.

Muslims in the three southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat accuse the central government of discrimination, especially in jobs and education.

- AP