Unidentified gunmen killed two people and wounded two others — including a police officer — in Thailand’s Muslim-dominated south Saturday, officials said, as the prime minister vowed to bring prosperity to the troubled area. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra made an emergency trip to the south Friday to mend relations with Muslim leaders, who said earlier that officials investigating attacks there had been heavy handed and disrespectful.
| Regardless of anything they'd have done, with the possible exception of buying turbans and kowtowing toward Mecca, they'd have been heavy handed and disrespectful. |
Thaksin was expected to return to Bangkok later Saturday. Saturday’s violence came as Thaksin delivered a weekly radio address in which he pledged economic development in the southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala to help stop the attacks. He said the south has abundant natural resources and a promising economic future, and partly blamed the recent unrest on poverty.
| ... which is a result of having large concentrations of Muslims. |
"Once those people who want to take care of their families are given a chance (to prosper) by the government, there should be fewer people wanting to kill others," he said.
Keep fooling yourself Thaksin. Economic prosperity won’t change what it says in the Quran or change Muhammed’s legacy of murder and imperalism. |