Thai army dragnet douses peace hopes in rebel-hit south

PATTANI, Sept 13 (AFP):- A bomb suspect held for two weeks without charge in Thailand's insurgency-battered south says an army dragnet following the coup is calcifying hostility towards the kingdom-and undercutting a fresh bid for peace.
The decade-long conflict has claimed more than 6,100 lives across Thailand's lush, forested Muslim-majority southern provinces, where shadowy rebels are fighting for a level of autonomy from the Thai state.
Most of the victims are civilians caught up in the near-daily bombings, shootings-and occasional beheadings-that define a war largely ignored by Thais and forgotten by the wider world.
From a remote hamlet cocooned by fruit trees, 23-year-old Ri says he was arrested on suspicion of planting one of a series of bombs that rocked the provincial capital Pattani.
"They took me to an (army) rangers' base. I told them I was innocent, but they still held me. I don't know why," the student, whose identity has been changed by AFP, said of his arrest in July.
The blasts, which occurred two days after the May 22 coup, killed several people and wounded scores more-appearing timed to remind the junta that new political realities in Bangkok had little bearing on the battle for the deep south.
Thailand colonised the area more than a century ago and has tried to corral the local Muslim population into accepting its rule through assimilation schemes, cash inducements and hard military power.
But they have comprehensively failed to staunch the insurgency, which has ground on since 2004.
In that time security forces have been accused of widespread human rights abuses-including extra-judicial killings.
The three southern provinces bordering Malaysia are also smothered by emergency powers allowing suspects to be held without charge for more than five weeks.