With dwindling support from funding partners in Europe and the USA, we need to call on the support of those who benefit from our work.Ĭlick here to find out the ways you can support UCA News.Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand, formerly known as Siam, is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. And we report on the emerging life of new Churches in old lands where being a Catholic can at times be very dangerous. We report the stories of local people and their experiences in a way that Western news outlets simply don’t have the resources to reach. Our journalistic standards are as high as any in the quality press our focus is particularly on a fast-growing part of the world - Asia - where, in some countries the Church is growing faster than pastoral resources can respond to – South Korea, Vietnam and India to name just three.Īnd UCA News has the advantage of having in its ranks local reporters who cover 23 countries in south, southeast, and east Asia. Every week, we publish nearly 100 news reports, feature stories, commentaries, podcasts and video broadcasts that are exclusive and in-depth, and developed from a view of the world and the Church through informed Catholic eyes. ….As we enter the first months of 2022, we are asking readers like you to help us keep UCA News free.įor the last 40 years, UCA News has remained the most trusted and independent Catholic news and information service from Asia. “There is no justification for deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on civilians, which can be war crimes,” Adams said. Over the years some two dozen Buddhist monks have been killed in targeted attacks by Islamic insurgents in the three restive provinces while numerous others have been wounded. “This vicious campaign of violence against civilians by separatist groups violates international law and undermines their cause,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW, after suspected insurgents set off an improvised explosive device beside Buddhist monks on their morning alms round in Pattani province, killing one and severely injuring another. This vicious campaign of violence against civilians by separatist groups violates international law and undermines their causeĪt the same time, however, suspected Muslim insurgents have targeted numerous unarmed civilians, including teachers and Buddhist monks, in acts of violence that have been widely condemned by rights advocates. “There is no credible and effective mechanism to help investigate complaints from ethnic Malay Muslims concerning abusive, corrupt or inept officials, problems that have generated discord among the population,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) has noted. Rights advocates have argued that heavy-handed policies by Thai security forces, including the summary arrest and alleged torture of suspected insurgents, have worsened the situation by alienating a large segment of local Muslims. The Islamist insurgency in the three Muslim-majority provinces erupted in 2004 and Thai authorities have been unable to suppress it since. Suspected insurgents have been known to target innocent civilians, both Buddhists and Muslims, in the three Muslim-majority southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia, where hardline Islamists have stated their aim of ceding the provinces from Thailand to create a separate Muslim sultanate.Ī day before the three family members were massacred in Pattani, Thai rangers shot and killed a suspected insurgent and arrested two others following an exchange of gunfire in the same province after the latter had allegedly thrown an explosive device at a defense volunteer outpost. The car and its occupants may have been targeted at random, according to police, in an ongoing separatist insurgency during which tit-for-tat violence between Muslim separatists and Thai security forces has claimed thousands of lives over the years. The Islamist insurgency in the three Muslim-majority provinces erupted in 2004 The two gunmen dismounted and continued shooting at the car before dousing it in petrol and setting it on fire. Officials described the drive-by shooting as a terrorist attack during which two heavily armed gunmen riding pillion on two motorcycles shot the driver, whereupon his pickup careened out of control and came to a halt in a ditch at the side of the road. The assailants targeted the vehicle and continued shooting at least 30 rounds at its occupants from M16 or M19 assault rifles, according to police. Donate to UCA News with a small contribution of your choice
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