If foreigners are involved [in training Thai muslims]

Monday May 21, 2007
Bangkok Post

One of the major and recurring questions about the resurgence of murderous violence in the South in January of 2004 has been whether foreigners are involved. Given the nature of international terrorism and crime, it is a valid question. Both separatist and Islamist gangs are known to operate in neighbouring countries. It has become clear in the past three years that outside involvement, if any, is low-key. Now, senior army officers are saying that training by foreign terrorist experts is taking place. There are problems with the military statements. Scepticism remains high. For one thing, although foreign terrorists have been arrested in Thailand, none has been linked to the southern gangs behind the violence. While outside involvement is definitely possible these days, the evidence so far is that Thai Muslims will not hide or shield foreign troublemakers. The refusal by Thai villagers and by any Muslim authorities is what has led to the arrests of foreign militants.

Thai authorities have stopped some highly important international terrorists in recent years. Indonesian chief of operations Hambali and the Malaysian operative Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, better known as Lillie, were seized in Ayutthaya. They were pretending to be foreign visitors until Muslims reported them to police as suspicious characters. Singaporean Arifin Ali, a Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) trainer, was arrested in 2003 in the South when villagers reported him to authorities even though he supposedly had a Thai wife.

Two senior army officers now believe that foreigners are helping the southern separatists. Col Akara Thiprote, a military spokesman, said that the brutality of the southern atrocities proves outsiders are involved. Thais would never teach such cruel killing methods as beheadings, he said, adding that Thais do not know how to behead a victim, and must have been taught. A few days later, Gen Wattanachai Chaimuenwong said that terrorism experts from Indonesia and Cambodia were training Thai insurgents.

The evidence of Col Akara and Gen Wattanachai is far from compelling. But critics have been far too quick to scoff at the claim. The JI terrorist group is centred in Indonesia, but operates throughout lower Southeast Asia. Its top operatives are believed to be working with Islamic separatists in the southern Philippines, a region once thought to be resisting outside influence. JI cells have been broken up in Singapore and Malaysia, and the group's ideology calls for an Asian caliphate that extends from the Philippines to Burma, through Thailand.

Gen Wattanachai, whose most recent field assignments have been in the North, believes that Indonesian and Cambodian experts are instructing Thai insurgents in weapons training, bomb making and general war tactics. He also believes that the southern gangs may be preparing for bigger operations such as organised attacks on military bases. The general believes there are not many foreign instructors, but that they are ''the real warriors, tough fighters''.

That may be so, and it is arguably not the general's job to know all the nuances of national policy. Still, Gen Wattanachai is a veteran with long experience of the nation's relations with Burma. He should be careful of his words about foreign countries, particularly the neighbours. Just hours after his interview last week with the media, Cambodian officials showed testiness over the general's remarks. Without proof, preferably arrests, Thai authorities must be ultra-careful about making charges against specific nationalities. After all, it was Cambodian police who arrested three alleged al-Qaeda members, two of whom turned out to be Thai Islamists.

It is certain that southern Thai extremists are getting aid, comfort and basic terrorist training from Islamist websites and from foreign-produced books and CDs. The roadside improvised explosive, or IED, is straight from the training manual of al-Qaeda in Iraq, as are the 29 terrorist beheadings conducted by Thai insurgents. The 700 Thai men who trained in Afghan camps prior to 2001 have obviously passed on their expertise.

It is less clear at this point that foreign terrorists are actually training or leading the Thai gangs. Authorities must get to the bottom of every report of outside involvement. If foreigners are working inside Thailand against the nation, they must be rooted out ruthlessly.