Thai peace plan proves paper thin

Richard S Ehrlich, Asia Times
December 7, 2004

BANGKOK - Thailand air-dropped more than 100 million paper "birds of peace" onto the Muslim-majority south on Sunday, despite complaints it would create tons of garbage and not lessen anger against the army, blamed for the suffocation deaths of 78 Muslim men at Tak Bai district police station in Narathiwat in late October.

In recent days, Thai media has portrayed Thais from all walks of life folding paper rectangles in an intricate way to produce various sized, three-dimensional birds that resemble cranes. According to officials, more than 120 million origami birds were collected and dropped on parts of the three southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani.

About 50 military planes and helicopters lifted off from three air bases in the south on Sunday morning, releasing the paper birds at low altitudes as part of celebrations for His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 77th birthday. The air drop was completed by sunset after more than 150 flights involving giant C-130s, medium-sized BT-67s, small Nomads, helicopters and other aircraft from the army, navy, police and agriculture ministry.

On Monday, the Bangkok Post reported that relatives of those killed in the Tak Bai tragedy had belittled the release of the paper cranes, saying it won't make their loved ones come back to life or end unrest in the deep south. Critics have said the move should not be a substitute for more traditional peace efforts.

Other critics, including political columnists and Muslim officials, described the scheme as an insult because residents would be forced to pick up tons of garbage after the air drops. The estimated 120 million paper birds could result in more than 400 tons of paper being dumped on the three provinces, according to some calculations.

Officials responded to these concerns with schemes to prevent massive litter. The Narathiwat governor's offer agreed to exchange 10 collected paper birds for one egg and 30 birds for a kilogram of rice. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. said, "Whoever picks up the bird I have folded will be given a job if they need it, and will be helped to go to school if they have not been able to do so."

The paper birds "show that the entire nation is united, regardless of religious beliefs", the prime minister said on Thursday. "It is a signal that we love our land and nobody can divide it."

Officials insisted the air drop was popular among southern Muslims, and said some villagers tied plastic rope into makeshift "nests" to catch the falling paper.

A plan for peace
The air drop evolved from an earlier death of civilians when Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl, died from radiation poisoning 10 years after America dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. Sadako, who was diagnosed with leukemia in 1955, believed a Japanese legend that promised anyone who folded 1,000 paper cranes would be granted a wish.

The little girl died that year despite folding more than 1,000 traditional origami birds, but young Japanese, inspired by her perseverance, arranged a cash collection and, in 1958, built a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane in Hiroshima Peace Park.

In Thailand, the original plan was to create 62 million birds to represent Thailand's total population, but many people did not contribute - while countless others sat and folded numerous birds in assembly-line fashion - resulting in an estimated 120 million origami cranes.

"I didn't make any paper birds because I have no time, I have to take care of my baby, and I think it is a bad idea because it is like dropping garbage on them and will make their towns dirty," said a thirty-something Buddhist female from northeast Thailand when asked if she participated.

The origami public-relations move came after the Thai army arrested 1,300 demonstrators on October 25 at Tak Bai, tied their hands behind their backs and forced them to lay face down in army trucks, piled one on top of the other, four or five layers high. When the army trucks transported the demonstrators from Narathiwat province to an army camp in nearby Pattani, forensic teams discovered 78 men had died of suffocation while in the trucks.

Another six people were shot dead during the Tak Bai demonstration, which was called to demand the release of six Muslims detained for allegedly giving weapons to separatists.

The millions of paper birds collected made it impossible to check if any had offensive messages written on them that would "add more fuel to the fire" if read by Muslims on the ground, warned Niran Pithakwatchara, chairman of the Senate committee on social development and human security.

Senator Jon Ungpakorn, from the same committee, said the suffocation deaths made the situation much worse. "Now we are looking at something which could turn out to be another Bosnia," Jon said at a news conference on November 17 at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. "People like myself, who are particularly concerned about human-rights aspects, are being denounced as being 'traitors' now, though we are not. My group is questioned: why are we so concerned about the abuses of human rights in the Tak Bai incident?" Jon said.

"'Some of them died, so what? More should have died.' This is the general attitude that we are facing now," the opposition party senator added.

The Pattani United Liberation Organization, part of a loose alliance of small Muslim separatist groups, responded to the suffocation deaths by offering rewards of up to US$2,250 on their website for the assassination of Thai politicians in the south.

Army officers, meanwhile, want to increase the estimated 15,000 soldiers and marines currently deployed in the south and buy more M-16 assault rifles, along with a dozen second-hand Cobra helicopters from the US to crush the Muslim separatists.

In November, the US Defense Department trained and equipped police on the tourist playground island of Phuket to prevent "international terrorists" staging a copycat of the 2002 Bali island bombing in Indonesia.

The fight continues
Fresh violence flared in the south only hours after the Thai air force dropped the peace birds, Reuters news agency reported. Police said a bomb exploded at an intersection near a market in the southern province of Narathiwat on Monday morning, injuring at least one soldier, according to the news agency. Overnight, the home of a teacher in the same province was burnt to the ground. On Sunday, as the paper birds were being dropped as a symbol of peace, two armed men shot dead a former prosecutor in Pattani province, police said.

Violence between southern Muslim separatists and the Buddhist-majority government has resulted in the deaths of more than 500 people on all sides during the past year, with almost daily bombings, assassinations and other assaults.

The targets are mostly Buddhist security forces, politicians, teachers, monks, plantation workers, shopkeepers and others, while Muslims who have perished include suspected separatists, sympathizers and civilians.

Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco, California, and has reported news from Asia since 1978. He is co-author of "Hello My Big Big Honey!", a non-fiction book of investigative journalism. He received a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.