Rubber worker beheaded and burnt

A rubber-plantation worker was beheaded and burnt beyond recognition in the southernmost Yala province yesterday in what police say was revenge on Buddhists for last week's massacre at a Narathiwat mosque. Kimxiang Saetang's headless body was found in a plantation in Than To district at about 10am yesterday. He may have died two days earlier, police said.

Police found the head in a bamboo hut in front of the plantation, metres from the body.

Also at the crime scene was a machete and a leaflet written in Thai saying: "This was revenge for innocent people killed by officials at the mosque."

Last Monday, a group of assailants killed 11 Muslims at prayer and injured a dozen others in the mosque in Narathiwat's Joh I Rong district.

Two days later, a Buddhist monk was shot dead and another injured in Yala. Police believed the militants targeted the Buddhist monks to create a rift between the region's Buddhists and Muslims.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, during yesterday's House of Representatives meeting, said that his government would allocate funds to the deep South in a way that would be truly in line with the local residents' needs.

He said that he would measure success in solving the region's problems by the ability to reduce the security forces sent in. "I don't think we will keep sending in people and money endlessly to tackle the problems," he said.

The premier stressed that ensuring justice to the locals would be the key in his government's efforts to end insurgent violence in the deep South.

In neighbouring Pattani province, a janitor was shot dead while riding a motorbike to work at a school in Saiburi district yesterday, police said.

Prom Wichianrat, 59, was attacked by a gunman on a motorbike who fired at him with a pistol at around 7.30am.

In another incident in Narathiwat yesterday, Museng Masu, 40, was shot dead in a drive-by shooting attack in Bajoh district as he was walking along a road.

Police said the attack might have been motivated by personal conflict, or was more of the violence that has plagued the predominantly Muslim region since 2004.

Former prime minister Chuan Leekpai has called a meeting with members of Parliament from five southernmost provinces to consult with them on seeking a solution to the violence.

The meeting agreed the structure of ground operations needed to be changed, said Democrat Party spokesman Buranat Samutrak, to boost the civilian role - rather than emphasising military operations.

Deputy Interior Minister Thaworn Senneam, a Democrat, proposed the Office of the Southern Border Province Administrative Centre run the region, replacing the military-run Internal Security Operation Command. The military opposed the idea.

However, the meeting suggested all agencies should work in close cooperation, Buranat said.

Thaworn did not set a time frame for pushing forward the restructuring, saying the existing structure could work for the time being, with the military and government in tandem.

MPs in the meeting said they were confident about the government's plans to solve the problem, but it would take time, he said.