The two sides of a story of the death of two Muslim youths

The killing of two Muslim youths in Tambon Puloh Puyo, Nong Chik district of Pattani by security forces on the night of Monday April 18 in the aftermath of an attack on a paramilitary outpost by suspected insurgents has the potential of developing into the so-called "a drop of honey" case if not properly handled.

The followings are an account of a chain of events that took place on that night in Tambon Puloh Puyo.  It started with an unknown number of insurgents launching an attack on the paramilitary outpost.  No rangers were wounded in the attack and a ranger unit, led by an army commissioned officer, was dispatched to pursue the attackers.  As the pick-up truck carrying the rangers was approaching a bridge, it came under gunfire and, this time, one ranger later identified as Chalermpol Srisook, 35, was fatally shot.  He was pronounced dead shortly after he was taken to the hospital.

A brief gunfire ensued between the ranger unit and suspected insurgents at the scene.  After the end of the clash, a search of the scene found two Muslim youths lying in pools of blood.  One of the youths, 16-year old , Hassan Mama was killed at the scene and the other, 19-year old Abdulloh Waeyae, was seriously injured but died afterward at the hospital.

The army claimed that the two Muslim youths were insurgents but the victims' families and neighbours claimed that they were innocent and law-abiding citizens.

Colonel Santi Sakhuntanark, commander of the 43rd paramilitarn ranger battalion, said the two Muslim youths, riding on one motorcycle, heading toward the ranger unit shortly after the clash and they refused to stop after being told by the rangers who had no choice but to shoot at them.  One hand grenade was later found beside the two youths, the colonel added.

"We are confident that the youths were insurgents because we found a hand grenade near their bodies.  And before we started shooting at them, they were told to stop their motorcycle but they refused so we had to do our job.  Also, if they were innocent, they should not have come to the scene of fighting.  They simply popped out of nowhere," said the colonel.

The victims' parents gave a different version of their story however.

38-year old Mrs Pasiah Hamoma, mother of Hassan Mama, said that prior to the violent incidents, her son left the house in a motorcycle with Abdulloh who had just returned from Malaysia.  Shortly afterward, she said she heard some gunshots and was afraid that her son might get hurted.

Mrs Pasiah said she then received a phone call from Abdulloh saying he got shot and asking for help to have him rushed to the hospital.  "Then the phone went dead," she said, adding that she then alerted a civil defence unit located in the village to rush to the scene while she went direct to the district hospital.

She admitted that she didn't know her son was already dead and she didn't expect that Abdulloh would succumb to his death either.

She said that she could not accept the army's claim that her son was an insurgent.  "He was fatherless after his father was shot some years ago.  Abdulloh's mother also died when he was still young.  Why the soldiers had to kill them?  What wrong they did?"  She repeatedly asked in tears.

The Muslim elders in the same village of the two victims said the killing of Abdulloh and Hassan was already bad enough.  Even worse was that security forces also arrested eight other youths in the neighbourhood of the scene of attack under suspicion that they might be involved in the attack of the rangers.

It appeared that the security forces merely picked up any Muslim youth they found walking on the street, said the Muslim elders.

The latest killing of the two Muslim youths was compared by some critics to a similar incident four years ago in Tambon Bana, Muang district of Pattani, when two Muslim youths were shot dead and two others injured on Songkran Day.  The youths were accused of being insurgents.

But a subsequent investigation showed that it was a drunken soldier who started the shooting indiscriminately at the youths who were all innocent.

One unnamed army officer bitterly complained that soldiers in the field often felt demoralized each time security forces were accused of bullying or mistreating innocent villagers.  They were scarcely praised for doing their job to maintain peace and order, he said.

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Caption : The funeral of two Muslim youths