E/CN.4/2006/5/Add.1 Page 75 Thailand Communication sent on 12 July 2005 348. The Special Rapporteur sent this communication in relation to a series of beheadings of Buddhists by Muslim militants between November 2004 and June 2005. A similar incident was subject of a communication on 14 June 2004, to which the Government replied on 6 July 2004 (See E/CN.4/2005/61/Add.1, at para. 227 to 232). 349. On 15 June 2005 the corps of a retired Buddhists teacher, aged 65, was found in Pattani Province. He had been beheaded by a group of Muslims who left a note next to the head, saying that they would kill two civilians for every innocent Muslim detained by the authorities without evidence. 350. On 5 June 2005 the body of Boonchan Saipeth, aged 59, a rubber plantation employee, was found at his house in Yaha district of Yala province. His head had been left hundred meters away on the road. 351. On 9 November 2005, the decapitated body of Kaew, aged 60, was found in a house in Changpeuk village in Narathiwat province. Police found handwritten letters with the body that threatened more attacks on religious grounds. 352. On 2 November 2005 the head of deputy village chief Ran Tulae was found by a road in southern Narathiwat province. The rest of the body was discovered on the same road a kilometer away together with a note saying the killing was in revenge for the killing of Muslims in November in Tak Bai district. Observations 353. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that there has been no response yet to this communication and hopes that the Government will remedy this situation in the near future. She would like to draw the Government’s attention to Paragraph 8 (a) of Resolution 2005/40 which urges states to step up their efforts to eliminate intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief notably by taking all necessary and appropriate action, in conformity with international standards of human rights, to combat hatred, intolerance and acts of violence, intimidation and coercion motivated by intolerance based on religion or belief. She would also like to refer to paragraph 10 of the same resolution, in which the Commission on Human Rights emphasizes the importance of a continued and strengthened dialogue among and within religions or beliefs, encompassed by the dialogue among civilizations, to promote greater tolerance, respect and mutual understanding. 354. Moreover, as she underlined in her previous report to the Commission on Human Rights (E/CN.4/2005/61, para. 42), “human rights obligations of States […] also consist in ensuring the free exercise of freedom of religion or belief by protecting religious minorities and enabling them to practise their faith in all security. States also have an obligation to bring the perpetrators of acts of violence or of other acts of religious intolerance to justice and to promote a culture of religious tolerance”.

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