Freedom of Religion in Thailand - Societal Abuses and Discrimination

Societal Abuses and Discrimination

There were no reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious belief or practice; however, religious groups closely associated with ethnic minorities, such as Muslims, experienced some societal economic discrimination. Such discrimination appeared to be linked more to ethnicity than to religion. Continued violence in the far southern regions of the country contributed to negative stereotypes of Muslims held by persons from other geographic areas of the country. Killings clearly targeted at Buddhists increased ethnic tensions between Muslim and Buddhist communities in the far south.

Violent acts committed by suspected separatist militants in the Muslim-majority provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, Songkhla, and Yala affected the ability of some Buddhists in this predominantly Muslim region to undertake the full range of their traditional religious practices. During the reporting period, 13 suspects were arrested and were in the process of being tried for the deaths of a Buddhist monk and two novices in an October 2005 attack on a Buddhist temple in Pattani Province.

There were almost daily attacks by suspected separatist militants in the country's southernmost provinces on both government officials and Buddhists and Muslim civilians. On March 14, 2007, assailants ambushed a van in Yala Province killing eight Buddhist passengers including two teenage girls. That evening, 2 bombs exploded outside a nearby mosque and teashop, killing 3 Muslims and injuring 20. On March 19, 2007, gunmen killed three Muslim students and injured seven others at an Islamic boarding school in Songkhla Province. The violence contributed to an atmosphere of fear and suspicion in the southern provinces. As a result of a series of increasingly provocative attacks, the level of tension between the local Muslim and Buddhist communities continued to grow. Government officials and observers expressed concern that the violence could result in open communal conflict.

On October 11, 2006, a monk was injured by a bomb in Narathiwat Province. Three others were injured in a separate incident on October 23. The monks were performing the morning ritual of receiving donations of food and were guarded by three armed soldiers, one of whom subsequently died from the explosion.

At the end of the reporting period, no one had been arrested for the 2004 killing of three Buddhist monks and the beheading of one civilian Buddhist rubber tapper, or for the 2004 attacks on Buddhist temples and one Chinese shrine in the southern provinces of the country. The Government continued to investigate these incidents in the context of security operations involving the ongoing separatist violence in the South. Buddhist monks continued to report that they were fearful and thus no longer able to travel freely through southern communities to receive alms. They also claimed that laypersons sometimes declined to assist them in their daily activities out of fear of being targeted by militants. In response to the killings, the Government stationed troops to protect the religious practitioners and structures of all faiths in communities where the potential for violence existed and provided armed escort for Buddhist monks, where necessary, for their daily rounds to receive alms.

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