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Thai militias 'poorly trained'
24/10/2007 14:01 - (SA)
Bangkok - Thailand's increasing reliance on poorly trained paramilitary forces is hindering efforts to tackle a Muslim insurgency in the country's deep south, an independent group said in a report released on Wednesday.
"Subcontracting security to poorly trained paramilitaries and militias is no solution," said the report by global security think tank International Crisis Group.
"They often fail to provide security, and their involvement in human rights abuses hands militants a propaganda victory," said Francesca Lawe-Davies, an analyst for the group.
A Muslim insurgency that flared in 2004 in Thailand's southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and parts of Songkhla has claimed more than 2 600 lives.
Drive-by shootings and bombings have occurred almost daily in the Muslim-dominated southern region of the predominantly Buddhist country.
About 6 000 paramilitary rangers are currently deployed in the area, in addition to about 20 000 soldiers and 10 000 police.
The low-paid rangers, without the privileges of career soldiers, are often used to gather intelligence and carry out raids on the hiding places of suspected insurgents.
The government has also trained thousands of mostly Buddhist villagers to serve in militias and has given them shotguns for "self defence".
'Worrying trend'
Analyses of paramilitaries and militias in several conflict zones around the world shows "their use often creates more problems than it solves" because they tend to have worse records than professional troops on human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings and often stoke communal tensions, Lawe-Davies said.
"The appearance of sectarian vigilante groups and private militias, in response to the failure of the state to provide effective security, is an extremely worrying trend," she said.
Many southern Muslims have a deep-seated hatred of the rangers because of alleged human rights abuses.
The 33-page report suggested that village militias should be disbanded.
While it is impossible to expect the government to end the deployment of rangers soon because of shortages of security forces, authorities should train the rangers in humanitarian law to improve discipline and curb abuses, the report said.
- AP
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