Thai Muslims warn of "unexpected" incidents in response to Gaza

Jan 6, 2009, 3:30 GMT

Bangkok - Hundreds of Thai Muslims on Tuesday staged a second day of demonstrations outside the Israeli embassy to Bangkok, warning of 'unexpected' incidents around the world unless Israel ceases its attack and occupation of the Gaza Strip.

About 700 members of the Muslim Group for Peace rallied in front of the embassy wearing 'Stop Gaza Slaughter' T-shirts and waving banners reading 'Boycott Israel' and 'Israel is the Real Terrorist.'

'Muslim Group for Peace and Thai peace lovers severely condemn the barbaric behavior of Israel and call for Muslim leaders to get involved and solve the problems in order to stop Israel violating the International Agreements,' the group's leader Mureed Teemasean said in a prepared statement.

'If the situation has been ignored it may result in many unexpected incidents to the world,' he warned.

Mureed also called on the Thai government to take a stronger stance in criticizing Israel's invasion of Gaza that has claimed more than 500 Palestinian lives.

The group, which organized a similar protest outside the embassy on Monday, then burned Israeli and US flags in front of the Ocean Tower II Building which houses the Israeli embassy on the 25th floor.

Muslims are a minority in Thailand, accounting for about 5 per cent of the population which is predominantly Buddhist.

An exception is Thailand's three southernmost provinces - Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala - where 80 per cent of the 2 million people are Muslim.

The area has been the scene of constant violence since January, 2004, when Muslim militants attacks an army arms depot and stole about 300 war weapons, prompting several bloody reprisals on the rebels that inflamed local antagonism against authorities.

Clashes, bombs, assassinations and beheadings have claimed some 3,000 casualties in the area over the past four years.

   The three provinces comprised the independent Islamic sultanate of Pattani more than 200 years ago before it fell under Bangkok's rule.

   A separatist struggle has simmered in the area for decades.