Thai security officials were wrong to attack a mosque where armed militants had taken refuge and used excessive force, a government-appointed commission reported Tuesday.
The conclusion that security forces overreacted when they killed 32 Muslim militants with grenades and automatic rifle fire in the southern Pattani province had been acknowledged Saturday by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The commission's report on the April 28 assault on the Krue-sae mosque was released Tuesday at the weekly Cabinet meeting. The group was headed by a former judge, Suchinda Yongsoonthorn, and comprised prominent Muslim academicians and legal experts.
"The tactic of laying siege to the Mosque, surrounding it with security personnel, in tandem with the use of negotiation with the militants, could have ultimately led to their surrender," the report said.
It said that resolving the standoff at the mosque "through peaceful means would have been more appropriate and better served the interests of the security personnel than the use of force."
Thailand is mostly Buddhist, but the southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat have Muslim majorities. The area, near Malaysia, has seen a wave of violence this year that officials blame on a Muslim insurgency. More than 320 people — including policemen, local officials and Buddhist monks — have been killed.
Other clashes between Muslims and government forces on April 28 brought the number of deaths that day at the hands of security forces to 107.
Many of the militants, most armed only with machetes, died in suicidal assaults on police and military outposts whose defenders were armed with automatic weapons. The militants at the mosque had fled there after attacking elsewhere.
Rebels who surrendered after the events revealed that "the militants held strong but irrational superstitious beliefs," said the report. "These include the belief that the chanting of certain words (which do not appear in the teachings of Islam) while conducting operations would make the militants invisible to government officials."
The militants also conducted a ritual involving the sprinkling of specially blessed sand which they believed would keep the authorities from sending reinforcements, it said.
The commission said that the level of force and type of weapons used in attacking the mosque, "especially the hurling of eight hand grenades ... should be judged, albeit with the benefit of hindsight, to be disproportionate to the threat posed by the militants."
To avoid similar tragedies in the future, the commission said the government should have "clear and well-thought-out contingency plans to deal with future emergency situations" and that security forces should have appropriate training and equipment.