Tourists warned to stay away Sat, May 1, , A surge of violence in southern Thailand has cast a shadow over tourism in the 'Land of Smiles', writes Richard S. Ehrlich in Bangkok Muslim guerrillas have told the "people of the world" not to visit southern Thailand, where Thai troops killed more than Islamic militants in Pattani this week. Australia and the United States have since advised their citizens against unnecessary travel to the region. But the stark guerrilla warning included Phuket island, a wealthy, tourist playground off the south-west coast, popular with Irish visitors.
Phuket island is graced by lavish, expensive, self-contained resorts cooled by gigantic "infinity pools" and "jungle pools" set among meticulously coifed foliage, rustic wooden bridges, stone paths and palm trees. Nightlife on the island includes discos and sidewalk nightclubs teeming with prostitutes and souvenir sellers seeking to attract the millions of annual tourists. Wealthy foreigners and Thais have bought so many of the island's exclusive homes that a real-estate boom has started to clog Phuket's extravagant splendour.
But in a harsh wake-up call, the unprecedented warning specifically included Phuket island and was signed by the United Front for the Independence of Pattani - a feared guerrilla group usually referred to as Bersatu, which means "united" in Malay language.
It was posted on the "official website" of the Pattani United Liberation Organization PULO , which forms part of the united front, along with the Mujahideen Pattani Movement and two smaller rebel groups. Pattani's small Krue Se mosque became a blood-spattered slaughterhouse when Thai troops panicked and killed all 32 people inside. Three police and two soldiers also died in the scattered clashes, bringing the one-day death toll to at least Bersatu's naming of Narathiwat and Satun provinces completes the list of five southern provinces where most of Thailand's four per cent minority Muslims live, and where insurgents have long fought for an independent Pattani Raya, or Pattani Kingdom.
Phuket island is northwest of that troubled area, and is Thailand's jewel, a place so prosperous that it enjoys a virtual parallel economy compared to the rest of the country, allowing it to bask in pampered luxury even when Thailand led Asia into an economic meltdown in Pangnga and Krabi also attract tourists, including countless international backpackers who revel in the cheap paradisiac splendour, strange rock formations along the coast, and hedonistic outdoor parties.
