Over 200 billion baht spent to pacify unrest in Deep South
More than 200 billion baht have been spent by successive governments during the past 11 years since 2004 to cope with the unrest problem in the Deep South, according to the latest report from the Police Operations Centre of Southern Border Provinces and Isra News Centre.
The above figure does not include spending drawn from the Central Fund by various governmental agencies for their activities in the restive region such as the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre, the National Police Office and the Internal Security Operations Command.
Total death toll resulting from insurgency-related incidents for the past 11 years has been revised down to 3,705 from over 5,000, according to the same report. The deaths include 339 policemen, 466 soldiers, 2,482 civilians, 15 Buddhist monks, 101 teachers and 33educational officials.
The number of injured was registered at 9,076. These include 1,353 policemen, 2,315 soldiers, 5,234 civilians, 24 monks, 122 teachers and 23 educational officials.
A total of 1,965 weapons of various kinds have been seized by separatists during the same period. These include 413 weapons, mostly M16 assault rifles, which were seized by separatists in the attack of an armoury of the 4th Development Battalion or Peleng camp in Narathiwat in 2004. Of all weapons captured by the separatists, only 700 were recovered. These include 207 M16s, 102 AK47s, 66 shotguns, 22 HK rifles, 281 handguns and 22 other guns.
The discrepancy between seized and recovered weapons shows that 1,265 weapons are still in the hands of the separatists or the other outlaws.
A total of 15,713 violent incidents were recorded for the past ten years until December 23, 2013 or an average of 4.31 incidents a day. Of these, there were 7,536 shooting incidents, 2,764 bombing incidents, 1,602 arson attacks, 94 murders, 311 assaults, 171 cases of arms snatchings, 2,912 cases of harassment and 243 cases of armed clashes.
Bombing incidents on yearly basis are as follows: 103 cases in 2004; 242 cases in 2005; 344 cases in 2006; 471 cases in 2007; 250 cases in 2008; 284 cases in 2009; 266 cases in 2010; 333 cases in 2011; 276 cases in 2012 and 320 cases in 2013.
Authorities have managed to identify 11,189 separatists and sympathizers. Of these, 314 are religious leaders, 207 core members and 2,291 armed separatists.
Of the 685 security-related cases lodged with the court, 421 cases were dismissed and 1,474 defendants were convicted out of 265 cases. 57 defendants were condemned to death, 111 were given life imprisonment and 276 were given heavy jailterm not exceeding 50 years.
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Note : Graphic by Krungthepturakij newspaper