Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has declared that he has a sore throat and will not speak to reporters for a week. Even he may have realized that every time he talks he seems to make things worse for himself. The subject is the growing violence and instability in Thailand’s three mostly Muslim southern provinces. The prime minister’s most controversial recent idea is to designate 358 of the 1,580 southern villages as “red zones” – pariahs that would not receive government development aid. These are the zones that the government has labeled centers of terror attacks that – along with its own militarization of the region – have made the deep south a region of tension and fear. “Why should I give them money to buy bombs?” the prime minister told reporters after announcing the plan two weeks ago. Full Story
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