Thai army seeks to rally support among minority Muslims

YALA, Thailand, Sep 16 (Reuters) The Thai army today sought to rally public support in the mostly-Muslim southern provinces for an end to a 33-month insurgency that has so far defied all efforts to choke it off by force.

As banners hailed ''The Gathering to Reaffirm a Joint Peaceful Means Solution'' to the deadly conflict, commanders hosted about 1,500 ethnic-Malay Muslims at the central mosque in Yala, 1,100 km south of Bangkok and locus of recent coordinated bombings against area banks.

Deputy Army Commander General Vichit Yathip, who presided over the event, urged all the Muslims to help the government to end the violence.

''The insurgents are hurting and killing innocent people, both Muslim and Buddhist, and we need help from everyone here to stop it,'' Vichit said.

His remarks were then translated into Malay, which is not an official language in predominantly-Buddhist Thailand, but is widely seen as central to the identity of local Muslims, who make up about 80 per cent of the south's population of 1.8 million.

As he spoke, rows of young, skull-capped Islamic students sat silently in tight rows. Most clutched the small Thai flags and calendars featuring a scene of Mecca and the daily Muslim prayer times that were handed out as they entered the mosque grounds.

But it was impossible to know whether the generals were reaching their intended audience, disaffected ethnic Malays who may have taken part or supported the insurgency. Local estimates based on news accounts and police records put the death toll at more than 1,700.

Villagers said they had been mobilised by their headman or local imam, at the request of the army, to attend the gathering. Take-away lunches and bottles of water were also distributed after the rally.

Yesterday afternoon, workmen could be seen applying fresh paint to the mosque's white walls and brown trim, setting up tents - including a separate space for women and small children -- to shield visitors from the noonday sun and laying out ranks of red plastic chairs.

The rally's orderly precision, marred only slightly by a late start due to delays in the flights carrying army brass from Bangkok, could not, however, obscure the stakes involved.

The entire event was held over the opposition of Thai political leaders and even some local army commanders, who feared the rally might prove too tempting a target for the shadowy insurgents, whose identities, goals and demands remain murky.

Metal detectors were set up at both the men's and women's entrance to the mosque. Teams of bomb squad officers, regular police and army, as well as commandoes with their faces hidden behind black cloth masks, were all in evidence near the complex.

On the main road into Yala, soldiers manned checkpoints and took up positions at several key intersections.

As an added precaution, local mobile telephone service was switched off just before the arrival of top officers, apparently out of fear they could be used to detonate any bombs remotely. Service was restored shortly after the ceremony.

Roots of the Thai-Malay conflict go back more than 100 years but the latest upsurge in violence dates to January 2004, when militants raided an army arsenal and hit police stations in carefully coordinated attacks.

Since then, a dirty war of shootings, bombings, and disappearances has raged between mostly unknown fighters and police and other security forces.

REUTERS SY VV1452