SONGKHLA — Security officers have detained two men accused of engineering the coordinated bombing attacks that rocked Songkhla province in May.

Usman Daman, 27, and Adae Che-ubong, 29, were arrested this morning by soldiers and police officers in Songkhla province and taken to the headquarters of 41st Army Ranger Unit for interrogation, security officers say. 

According to police, Usman and Adae are behind the three bombs that targeted state agencies and commercial areas in Songkhla's Haat Yai district on 6 May. The car bombs injured 10 victims and severely damaged buildings in the district, but no fatalities were reported. 

Haat Yai, Songkhla province, 6 May 2014.

Police also told reporters that the two men are connected to an insurgent cell that exchanged gunfire with security officers in Saba Yoi district on 4 December. 

At least 6,200 people have died since secessionist violence broke out in the southern border provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat in 2004. The violence also occasionally spills into some districts of Songkhla province.

The bloody campaign has been waged by shadowy Islamic militant groups seeking to revive the independent sultanate of Pattani that was incorporated into modern Thailand in the early 20th century.

In contrast to the rest of country, where the vast majority of Thais are Buddhist, the Deep South is dominated by Muslims who speak a Malaysian dialect and often do not consider themselves Thai. 

For comments, or corrections to this article please contact: [email protected]

You can also find Khaosod English on Twitter and Facebook
http://twitter.com/KhaosodEnglish
http://www.facebook.com/KhaosodEnglish

TAK — Medical workers have come to the aid of an elephant that stepped on a land mine along Thai – Myanmar border in northern Thailand.

Plai Puu Cha, 17-year-old elephant, was helping construction workers build a reservoir in Tak province when he accidentally stepped on one of thousands of land mines buried along the border between Thailand and Myanmar.

The elephant’s owner, Arkom Kiricharoen, said it took reservoir workers six days to transport the elephant from the far-flung construction site to an elephant hospital in Lampang province operated by the Thai Elephant Conservation Center.

Elephants are routinely used as draft animals in northern Thailand’s mountainous regions. 

Sitthidej Mahasawangkul, the director of the elephant hospital, said medical workers have been working to heal the infection in Plai Puu Cha's right leg since the elephant was admitted to the hospital on 10 December.

Sitthidej said the elephant suffered "extensive damage" and bleeding, but added that the blast did not seem to affect his bones. Plai Puu Cha will be able to leave the hospital "seven months from now," he told reporters.

"He's still a young elephant, so we are not that worried about his recovery," Sitthidej said. 

Eighteen of Thailand’s border provinces are lined with unexploded land mines, according to the data released by Thailand Mine Action Centre, a governmental task force dedicated to clearing the mines. 

Many of the devices are concentrated along Thai-Myanmar border, with one estimate indicating that 70 percent of the two countries' borderline is covered by mines. 

The mines were planted by a variety of armed forces during the brutal wars between the Burmese army and ethnic minority groups over the past 60 years. 

Thousands of people have been killed and maimed by the landmines, including a number of animals. In 2011, eighty-four people were killed by mines along the Thai-Myanmar border, CCTV reported last year. The latest documented case of elephant killed by the land mines occurred in September 2011. 

SAKON NAKHON — Residents of Nong Pai Yai village in northeastern Thailand are demanding local authorities install electricity in their village, twenty-five years after they first submitted a request.

Pom Jairew, 53, said she was among the first group of villagers who went to the District Office to apply for electricity, when her daughter was still a baby.

"Now my daughter is already 25 years old and married," Pom said. 

According to Pom and other residents of Nong Pai Yai, local electricity authorities told them to wait while their request was processed. But the electricity never arrived. 

"They told me to wait. They said it's like going to hospital, you have to wait in line" said Kawi Nampha, a 70-year-old woman who was born and raised in Nong Pai Yai. "In the end people could not endure the wait, so they contacted the District Office again, but the officials also told them to wait."

Twenty-five years later, their patience has run out. Today the villagers banded together to stage a small protest and demand officials make good on their word.

Villagers in Nong Pai Yai village demand electricity, 12 Dec 2014.

"I'm sorry for the little kids in the village," Pom said at the protest. "They can't read books at night because there's no electric lights, they can't watch TV. They can't even own mobile phones because there's no electricity for their chargers."

She continued, "The only way we know about the outside world is to listen to the radio."

Twelve families now live in Nong Pai Yai, which is only two kilometres away from the local District Office in the northeastern province of Sakon Nakhon. Whenever the village holds weddings or funerals, villagers are forced to borrow a small generator from a nearby community, and children have to finish their homework before dark.

Prawit Suphon, 40, said he and his fellow villagers decided to contact the press this time rather than seek help again from authorities again.

"The District Chiefs would slam their fists on the table and shout at us, scolding us for not knowing the meaning of waiting in a queue," Prawit told Khaosod. 

According to official numbers from 2010, the situation in Nong Pai Yai is rare: 99.7% of all Thai households are said to have access to electricity.

Responding to Khaosod's request for comment, an official at the local electricity authority in Sakon Nakhon province said they could not process the villagers' complaint at the moment because their supervisor "is not in the office."

"We have a policy of providing electricity to every household in Thailand, but we must follow the procedure. We have to wait for the supervisor,” the official explained. 

BANGKOK — The wife of Thailand’s Crown Prince has resigned her royal title, according to a statement announced in a Royal Gazette late Friday night.

“The King has granted permission to announce that Princess Srirasmi, the wife of Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, has informed in a written document that she has resigned from her royal status,” the brief statement says.

Srirasmi married the Crown Prince in 2001, and the couple’s 9-year-old son is considered second in line to the Thai throne. 

A strict lese majeste law prohibits media in Thailand from reporting anything that could be deemed critical of the Royal Family. Those found guilty of lese majeste can be punished by up to 15 years in prison under Section 112 of Thailand's Criminal Code.

For comments, or corrections to this article please contact: [email protected]