Cambodian Muslims go South [of Thailand]

A group of Cambodian Muslims show their passports at Khlong Luek border pass in Aranyaprathet district of Sa Kaeo. Authorities fear Muslims from Cambodia may join insurgent groups in Thailand’s restive deep South. TAWATCHAI KEMGUMNERD

Many Malaysia-bound, 'not interested' in strife

27/08/2012
Wassayos Ngamkham
Bangkok Post

Despite being closely monitored by Thai security authorities, Cambodian Muslims continue to enter Thailand through the Khlong Luek border pass in Aranyaprathet district of Sa Kaeo.

Most of them travel further to the southern border provinces of Thailand and enter Malaysia there. Thai immigration police know a number of Cambodian Muslims do not return to their homeland by the same route and likely stay in Malaysia as illegal workers.

Some Thai authorities are concerned about Cambodian Muslims' entry and wonder if they might get involved in the insurgency in the far South.

Most Cambodian visitors say, however, they pay no attention to the violent conflict in the southern provinces.

Bomb injures 28 in southern Thailand provincial capital

Oct 19, 2009
DPA

Pattani, Thailand - An explosion Monday at a crowded morning market in Yala City injured 28 people, two of them critically, army sources said.

The bomb, planted inside a motorcycle that was parked near a pork meat vendor at Yala's open-air market, exploded at 7:30 am, injuring the civilians and three soldiers, First Army Region chief Lieutenant General Phichit Wisaijorn said.

He blamed Muslim separatists for the latest act of violence.

'We had received a tipoff to prepare for a car bomb, but they used a motorcycle instead,' Phichit said. Police reportedly checked the parked motorcycle minutes before it went off, but failed to detect the bomb.

Thailand's three southernmost provinces - Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala - have been plagued by violence since January 4, 2004, when Muslim militants raided an army depot, killing four soldiers and making off with 300 weapons, escalating the separatist struggle.

An estimated 3,500 people have died in clashes, bombings, revenge killings and beheadings in Thailand's so-called deep south

Besides a long-simmering separatist struggle in the region, which borders Malaysia, the three provinces have a recent history of lucrative but illicit trade in smuggling, drugs and protection rackets.

About 80 per cent of the region's 2 million people are Muslims. Of the 300,000 Thai Buddhists who lived in the region, some 70,000 have reportedly left their homes over the past six years.

Although the region, which centuries ago was the independent Islamic sultanate of Pattani, was conquered by Bangkok about 200 years ago, it has never wholly submitted to Thai rule.

Analysts said the region's Muslim population, the majority of whom speak a Malay dialect and follow Malay customs, feels alienated from the predominantly Buddhist Thai state.

No one wants to live under Thai colonial rule [- and No one wants to see their country invaded by Thai soldiers either! Go home, Thailand!]

The Nation

BANGKOK, Jan 24 — The Thai Foreign Ministry should be commended for making the problems in the deep South one of its top priorities.

Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya led a high-level delegation of Thai ambassadors, and envoys from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, to Pattani, the heart of the Malay-speaking South, where he held meetings with a wide range of people.

Participants included students who receive grants and scholarships from the government, Islamic religious leaders, governors of the southernmost provinces and military top brass.

Kasit gave each group time to make its case, as well as letting them know the ministry’s concerns. Kasit reminded the officials assigned to the restive region that the entire world is watching, and stressed the need to be more sensitive with regards to cultural differences.

The international community has good intentions and the issue of human rights is one of its biggest concerns, he said.

He was correct to say that Thailand has an obligation to explain to the Thai people, as well as the international community, the progress the government has made in this trouble-plagued region, where more than 3,200 people have been killed since January 2004.

As a way to strengthen ties between the local community and the state, Kasit said budget allocations should be spread out to include local NGOs working at the community level. While it might not take a rocket scientist to figure out that that these ideas are good, Kasit and the ministry should not get caught up in a false sense of confidence. Good intentions are not policy. Tough decisions will have to be made if the problem in the deep South is to be resolved.

Like other ministries, Foreign Affairs will have to get the rest of the country to prepare for what could be a rough journey. As it stands, any move to accommodate the deep South will be costly in political terms.

The rest of the country will look at it as favouritism when, in fact, meaningful effort to improve the livelihood of the region is long overdue.

For too long the Muslim-majority region has been neglected in more ways than one. We know about the historical mistrust and we know that the Patani Malays have always questioned the legitimacy of Thai rule. But instead of trying to come to terms with the past and working towards improving the social mobility of the local Malays so they felt they had a stake in this country, the state repeatedly tampered with the issue of identity.

It was believed that, eventually, the Patani Malays would become “Thais” like the Chinese in Yaowarat or the Lao in Isaan. They were wrong. No matter how we look at this, tension in the South always comes back to the question of identity, the question of human dignity.

Like it or not, the Patani Malays have their own history, myths, heroes and legends, and these happen to be a completely different set of narratives from those of the Thai state.

In spite of the fact that armed separatist movements surface every generation or so, there is no overwhelming evidence to suggest that the local Muslims want to break away from Thailand. If anything, we believe that they want to be part of Thailand, but on their own terms.

Like others, Kasit needs to know that any move to accommodate the Patani Malays will not be easy. It is, indeed, hard for any Thai to swallow the notion that there are actually Thai citizens out there who refuse to come to terms with the ideologies that define what this nation-state is and should be.

For too long, the state has worked hard to mould the Patani Malays into something they are not and do not wish to be — at least to the point where they don't challenge the authority or question the legitimacy of the state.

But for the Patani Malays, this has been something they cannot compromise on, as Malay identity and Islam are inseparable. An attack on one is an attack on the other.

Historically, state officials, including aristocrats sent to the region over the past century, see themselves as benevolent rulers. A century after the region came under the direct rule of Bangkok, we continue to believe that sending good and honest officials to administer over the Malay-speaking region will help improve the situation.

Today, with a new generation of insurgents forming a web of cells in the region, we are still scratching our heads over what to do. For five years, the military-led initiatives have tried everything under the sun — both carrot and stick have been employed and yet the Patani Malays just won’t get in line.

We don’t seem to understand that, from the Malays’ perspective, a benevolent Siamese colonial master is still a Siamese colonial master.

This may be a bit hard for us to swallow, but many people in the three southernmost provinces actually see Thai officials and residents as foreign occupiers — which naturally makes the local people colonial subjects.

This is probably why extremely few local people have stepped forward to point the finger at suspected insurgents. They may not agree with the brutal methods employed by the insurgents but we can’t deny the fact that they share the same overall sentiment.

Perhaps it’s time to think outside the box. Perhaps we should start to look for ways to change the equation so that the Patani Malays feel they have a stake in this country, a shared destiny. Our initiative has to go beyond giving local Malay Muslims free trips to Bangkok and Chiang Mai to show them grand temples and whisper in their ears, “This is yours, too”.

Funny how none of these trips ever include a visit to the Praya Tani cannons in front of the Defence Ministry.

What would we say? “This used to be yours, but not anymore. Learn to live with it buddy; you are a defeated people?”

Bombs destroy immigration posts in southern Thailand

2009/01/14
Bernama (Malaysia)

GOLOK (Southern Thailand), Wed.: Two bombs exploded at the Malaysia-Thailand checkpoint this morning, destroying three new posts belonged to the Thai immigration at the Golok bridge.

The first bomb went off at 6.30am local time (7.30am Malaysian time), destroying three of the six posts.

Fifteen minutes later, another bomb exploded nearby, forcing the closure of the busy bridge which connects Golok in Thailand and Rantau Panjang in Kelantan, Malaysia.

Thai deputy consul-general in Malaysia, Niran Boonjit, told Bernama that no one was injured in the incident.

“The posts will be used by the immigration department as temporary office and have not started operations yet. There was nobody near the place when the explosions occurred,” he said.

A Thai police spokesman told Bernama in Bangkok that both bombs, weighing one and two kilogrammes, were triggered using digital watches.

Members of the media were not allowed near the scene.

The bridge, which is opened daily between 6am and 10pm, had been reopened and the situation returned to normal.

“The situation is under control. Everything is back to normal at the entry gate,” Niran said.

A worker at the checkpoint, Mokhtar Che Mat, said workers, fearing for their safety, ran helter-skelter for cover upon hearing the explosions.

A tour guide, Shaari Jusoh, said the loud explosions could he heard in Rantau Panjang, some 300 metres away.

Kelantan police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi, when contacted, said police were on the alert and had taken steps to ensure safety at the border.

He reminded Malaysians to be extra careful when visiting restive southern Thailand provinces.

More than 3,500 people have died since suspected separatists resumed their armed campaign to seek independence for the three Muslim-majority provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala.

Amnesty International says Thailand Abusing Muslim Detainees

By Ron Corben, Voice of America
Bangkok
13 January 2009

A report by Amnesty International into the violence into Southern Thailand, says Thai security forces have applied "systematic" torture on detainees as part of efforts to end a Muslim insurgency. Amnesty is to call for the Thai government to end the practice.

The Amnesty report says Thai security forces are systematically engaging in torture and other ill-treatment in the violence-plagued southern provinces in efforts to end a five-year Muslim insurgency.

The report says torture is being applied through beatings, burning by candles, burying of people to their necks, electric shocks, and exposure to intense heat and cold. Amnesty said at least four people have died as a result of the torture.

The report covers the period from March 2007 through to May 2008. It says the abuses occurred under a military-appointed government following a 2006 coup and under the civilian administration that came to power in December 2007 elections.

The report cited more than 20 unofficial detention centers in border provinces, which it said left detainees "vulnerable to abuse."

Amnesty's Asia-Pacific Program Deputy Director Donna Guest said the report's aim is to raise awareness of abuses that could no longer be ignored.

"We have documented the use of torture by the security forces in the south of Muslim suspects," Guest said. "We have found this to be systematic. Now there are many policies in the government which we commend prohibiting and punishing torture by officials. But it goes on anyway, and it is just too widespread over too long a period to ignore."

Thai security forces stepped up operations in mid-2007 in special military-police combined sweeps of up to 300 personnel in raids on villages leading to a large number of arrests.

The operations marked a further effort by security forces to end the insurgency that began in 2004. Since then it has claimed about 3,500 lives mostly civilians and just over half Muslims. While Thailand is a majority Buddhist country, the population in the southern border provinces with Malaysia is largely Muslim.

Amnesty also noted insurgent attacks have been "particularly brutal." Since 2005 insurgents have engaged in bombings, beheadings, and drive-by shootings of both Buddhist and Muslim security forces and civilians. Other targets have been state schools and teachers.

Amnesty researcher Benjamin Zawacki said he recognized the "enormous pressures" security forces are under in attempting to end the insurgency.

Security forces often faced with poor intelligence and evidence gathering have turned to torture to intimidate detainees to withhold support from the insurgency, but Zawacki said the use of torture is counter-productive.

"Being able to bring insurgents to justice through confessions that come about through torture is not a sustainable solution," Zawacki said. "It is actually counter to their interests because it only causes more bad feeling in the South and runs counter to the government's desire to win the hearts and minds in the South."

The new government led by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has vowed to improve the judicial system in the South. The region is under military control through martial law and emergency decrees. But analysts say any moves to boost civilian control in the south may be resisted by the military.

2 bombs in southern Thailand wound 71

Police officials survey the site of a car bomb which exploded near an outdoor meeting of village chiefs in southern Thailand's Narathiwat province November 4, 2008. (Surapan Boonthanom/Reuters)

Wednesday, November 05, 2008
By SUMETH PANPETCH

SUKHIRIN, Thailand (AP) — Suspected Muslim insurgents detonated two bombs at a tea stall and shopping area Tuesday in insurgency-wracked southern Thailand, killing one person and wounding at least 71, police said.

It was the largest attack in several months in Thailand's restive south, which has been gripped by a Muslim insurgency since 2004.

The first blast appeared to target a meeting of 300 village chiefs and local officials from Narathiwat province who were leaving their monthly meeting when the explosion occurred in the building's parking lot, said police chief Maj. Gen. Surachai Suebsuk. The bomb was hidden inside a parked car.

The building in Sukhirin district also housed an indoor fruit market that was busy with shoppers when the blast occurred about noon, at the start of the normally crowded lunch hour, he said.

"The insurgents aimed to kill," Surachai said. "Most of the wounded were civilian officials who were leaving the meeting and heading for their cars."

Minutes later, a second bomb hidden in a motorcycle went off outside a nearby tea shop, Surachai said. The police chief had initially said that three bombs exploded but then said the last blast was caused by an exploding tire, not a bomb.

Cell phone signals were cut off in the area to prevent attackers from triggering new explosions by mobile phone, he said.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the blasts.

Violence in the south is usually blamed on Muslim insurgents. The southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani have been terrorized by regular attacks since early 2004, when a separatist movement flared after a lull of more than two decades.

Attacks generally take the form of drive-by shootings and small-scale bombings intended to frighten Buddhist residents into leaving the area. Suspected insurgents mainly target people seen as collaborating with the government, including soldiers, police, informants and civilians.

On Aug. 21, two bombs in Narathiwat killed two people and wounded 30. The two fatalities were a Thai reporter and a rescue worker responding to the first attack when a second explosion went off.

The last large-scale coordinated attack occurred Feb. 18, 2007, when a string of bombings and shootings by suspected insurgents killed eight people and wounded almost 70 in four provinces.

More than 3,300 people have been killed since January 2004 in the three provinces, which are the only Muslim-dominated areas in the Buddhist-majority country.

Thailand's population is about 90 percent Buddhist, and many of the country's Muslims feel they are treated as second-class citizens.

Muslim claims upset Hun Sen

Friday April 04, 2008
ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT
Bangkok Post

PHNOM PENH : Comments by the Surayud Chulanont government last year about the involvement of Cambodian Muslims in Thailand's southern insurgency have upset Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. Speaking at the Fourth Asia-Pacific Regional Interfaith Dialogue yesterday, Mr Hun Sen said tolerance and respect of other religions were important for peace and harmony.

Mr Hun Sen's remark comes two days before he is due to meet former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled by the 2006 coup. The pair will play a game of golf together in Angkor City.

''Conflicts among certain religious followers take place due to differences in cultures and civilisations, and discrimination against each other,'' the Cambodian leader said.

''The problem in Thailand's south is its internal affair, but certain military spokesmen said Cambodian Muslims were crossing the border to help Thai militants,'' he said.

Cambodia, which denies the claims, asked Thailand not to make such remarks. Despite those requests, the military carried on making the assertions.

''I told former prime minister Surayud Chulanont that those comments were a big mistake. You [Thailand] have to solve your own problems and should not bring hard times to Cambodian Muslims.

''I asked Gen Surayud to make corrections,'' said the Cambodian premier.

''Stupid and unwise spokesmen created a small problem for everyone and their neighbours.''

Hun Sen also criticised the tendency for some commentators to link Muslims with terrorism.

The two-day Interfaith Dialogue is sponsored by Australia and New Zealand and is the first time a Buddhist country has hosted the regional meeting of various faith leaders.

Thailand implicates Cambodian Muslims of having links with Thai insurgents in the far South

PM: Rebels hold talks in Geneva
Insurgents hope to gain international attention

Wednesday March 19, 2008
Bangkok Post REPORTERS

At least two insurgent groups have been holding discussions in Geneva with the aim of bringing the southern unrest to international attention, Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said yesterday.

Mr Samak's statement came after the cabinet held talks on the situation in the far South, amid increasing concern about the scale of the violence following a car bomb attack at the CS Pattani hotel on Sunday.

Mr Samak told a press conference after the cabinet meeting that there are six active insurgent groups, and two of them have tried to internationalise the southern issue.

''They are having a discussion in Geneva. I have read a report on the discussion,'' Mr Samak said.

''The government hasn't recognised the negotiations. Many concerned parties disapprove of negotiating with the insurgents. That's all I can say.''

Mr Samak said the government was working out careful measures to deal with the southern conflict and try to stop it becoming an international issue.

The stance remains unchanged since the violence flared up in 2004, when Thaksin Shinawatra was prime minister.

Mr Samak said some of the explosive devices used in bomb attacks in Pattani were from the eastern province of Trat. He cited evidence from a bomb near the hotel which did not go off.

Trat borders Cambodia, where some Muslims are believed to have links to the rebel groups in the far South.

With the situation appearing to intensify, attention has turned to Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung.

He admitted the southern problem is too much for him to handle alone.

''I admit it is too big an issue. It is not that I don't pay enough attention to it, but I'm trying to find a way to solve the problem. This time, the opposition has to help the government out. I cannot handle it alone,'' said Mr Chalerm. He is expected to visit the far South tomorrow, ahead of a meeting on Friday of all relevant agencies to discuss the issue.

Meanwhile, an army source said the meeting in Geneva may have been held by members of the the Pattani United Liberation Organisation and the Barisan Nasional Pembedasan Pattani.

They had used foreign bases such as Switzerland and Sweden to propagate their activities to the international community, the source said. The two groups demand better living conditions for people in the Muslim-dominated southern border provinces. They have called for a special administration zone but they did not press for the secession of the region, the source said.

The same source said Gen Vaipot Srinual, former chief of the Armed Forces Security Centre, had met and talked with leaders of insurgent groups in Yala on Sept 16, 2006 - only three days before the coup took place on Sept 19.

At the talks, some insurgent leaders tabled their demands for fair treatment of Muslim people. But they did not call for the secession of the southern region, the source said.

Details of the negotiations were compiled into a report for presentation to relevant agencies. However, the report had not been put into practice so far. Negotiations were often held at the personal level and did not gain recognition from governments. the source added.

However, the new generation of hardline rebel groups such as the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Coordinate and the Gerakan Mujahidin Islam Pattani had denied the peace efforts all along.

The bomb attack on the CS Pattani, viewed by some security experts as one of the safest hotels in the far South, was an indication the hardline groups were bent on derailing the peace efforts at all costs to establish an independent Pattani state, the source said.

''These groups are aware that they could not defeat the state forces. They have tried to create violence and take the issue to the international level so that the UN would interfere,'' the source said.

Meanwhile, signs of trouble continued in Yala's Muang district as a group of rebels in a pick-up truck hurled a grenade into a mosque in the early hours of yesterday.

Two people were injured and taken to hospital. The bombing caused partial damage to the mosque.

Thai PM Blames Foreign Militants For Separatist Unrest

"Thai officials have in the past accused extremists in Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines of training Islamic militants, but have always backed away from the comments afterwards."

BANGKOK (AFP)--Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on Friday blamed foreign militants for instigating separatist unrest in mainly Muslim provinces of southern Thailand.

The region along Thailand's southern border with Malaysia has suffered more than four years of separatist violence that has left more than 2,900 dead.

Thailand has long insisted that the conflict is entirely domestic, but newly elected Samak told reporters he believed foreign militants had a hand in the unrest.

"Other people are staging attacks on our soil. We have concluded that our people are not doing this kind of thing," Samak said at his weekly news conference.

"But I don't want you (media) to say anything about Indonesia or the Philippines. We must preserve good relations. Let me visit the region first and I will tell you more later," he said.

Thai officials have in the past accused extremists in Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines of training Islamic militants, but have always backed away from the comments afterwards.

Samak controversially took over the post of defense minister after becoming elected prime minister, taking over from the military regime that toppled his ally Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006.

Only the third civilian ever to hold the post, Samak said he would be briefed on the southern conflict by security chiefs within the next few days.

He also said he would discuss the situation with Malaysia during an official visit to Kuala Lumpur later this month.

The Thai government usually denies any foreign role in the unrest.

In January, the spokesman for the previous military regime said Al-Qaeda was financing the Thai insurgents - only to be quickly contradicted by then-prime minister Surayud Chulanont.

After four years of battling the insurgents, Thailand has made little visible progress even in identifying the people or groups behind the attacks.

No group has claimed responsibility for the violence, and the government has yet to publicly identify any of the militancy's leadership.

Ousted premier Thaksin had been widely blamed for exacerbating the conflict with his heavy-handed tactics.

After the coup, hopes had risen that the Muslim general who toppled Thaksin would have more success in reining in the violence.

But despite a series of olive branches, the unrest became even deadly and more gruesome under military rule, as militants began mutilating corpses.

Cambodian-Muslim arrested in Sa Kaeo while carrying fake Thai citizenship ID, 6 others slipped back to Cambodia

SOUTHERN UNREST INSURGENT NETWORKS

Source: Int'l terrorists financing rebel groups

Wednesday January 30, 2008
WASSANA NANUAM MUHAMMAD AYUB PATHAN
Bangkok Post

Narathiwat - Southern insurgent networks probably receive funding from and share their ideology with international terrorist groups, a security source said yesterday.

The source said proof of the links lies in the militants' systemised management of their organisations and the pattern of violent attacks perpetrated by well-trained assailants.

The rebels also appear to be financed by international terror groups and share ideologies, the source added.

Army chief Anupong Paojinda said earlier he had new information about the southern insurgency that he planned to present to the new government.

He did not elaborate.

But the source said the new information pertained to the discovery of a link between the insurgent leaders and international terrorist groups.

It contradicts what then prime minister Surayud Chulanont said previously.

Gen Surayud on Jan 18 dismissed the idea of financial connections between local militant groups and the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

He said, however, that they shared ideologies.

Gen Anupong, who visited the provincial special task force headquarters in Narathiwat's Muang district yesterday, was told that the insurgents were losing strength as more and more of their sympathisers were cooperating with local authorities.

At a briefing by task force commander Maj-Gen Theerachai Nakwanich, he was also told that many core rebel members were being arrested.

In Yala, an 80-strong combined force of police, soldiers, and rangers raided a fruit orchard in Bannang Sata district after the authorities were told Ma-aea Apibanbae, a Runda Kumpulan Kecil core leader, and his underlings were hiding there and preparing an attack.

The force and the suspected insurgents clashed for 10 minutes, and a policeman and one suspected militant were killed.

The slain rebel was believed to be Mr Ma-aea's younger brother Sulaiman, aged 27.

Also in Yala, a rubber grower was shot dead in front of a mosque in Krong Pinang sub-district on Monday night while on his way to attend evening prayers at the mosque.

In Sa Kaeo, a Cambodian Muslim was captured yesterday for carrying a fake Thai citizenship card shortly after crossing into Thailand in Aranyaprathet district, according to rangers at the Burapha task force who intercepted the suspect, police said.

The suspect, Suem Sari, 28, is believed to have travelled with six other Cambodian nationals who slipped back into Cambodia through the checkpoint when they saw him being arrested.

The group was thought to be heading for the deep South as Suem Sari was carrying with him bus tickets from Bangkok to Narathiwat.

Suem Sari also had with him a passport, which was genuine, along with five ATM cards.

Six bombs rock southern Thailand, injuring 10

BANGKOK, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Insurgents launched six bomb attacks in Thailand's southern province of Narathiwat Wednesday morning, injuring at least 10 persons.

Police said the attacks were launched during 7:45 a.m. (0045 GMT) to 9 a.m. (0200 GMT) in four districts of Narathiwat.

In Narathiwat town, which is the capital of Narathiwat Province, three bombs were triggered. Two of the bombs were installed in dustbins and the other was attached on a motorcycle parking in front of a Kasikorn Bank.

The other three bombs exploded in Bacho, Sungai Kolok and Ra-ngae districts. Two soldiers were injured in the Bacho blast, local police reported.

While in Ra-ngae district, a bomb severely injured a local resident and seven others.

Bangkok blames Cambodia to be the source of smuggled weapons into southern Thailand

Blast hurts two soldiers guarding teachers

Two soldiers guarding school teachers were injured yesterday morning when a roadside bomb exploded. The incident occurred as the leader of one of the world's largest Muslim organisations visited on a peace mission.

Published on July 27, 2007
The Nation (Thailand)

Sgt-Major Chanat Phoo-thongtip and Private Kittikhun Chaiyaset were wounded when a bomb detonated on a back road in Khok Pho district. The soldiers were part of a security unit that included four police officers, all of whom escaped injury.

The incident came as Prof Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second-largest Muslim organisation, was making his second visit to the region to encourage more people-to-people ex-changes between Muslims and non-Muslims of both countries.

Syamsuddin met with the chief of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre, Pranai Suwannarat, the governors of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat and Islamic religious leaders from five southern border provinces.

Syamruddin encouraged local communities to work for peace.

In a related development, Army spokesman Colonel Acra Thiproch said 154 people were being held under the emergency law that permits detention without trial. Authorities believe the individuals to be insurgent sympathisers and some militants.

They were detained in an ongoing sweep through pockets known to harbour insurgents.

He dismissed suggestions they were being mistreated and added that members were permitted to visit regularly.

Meanwhile, Her Majesty the Queen ordered the Royal Household Bureau to send rice and dried food to some 350 monks who arrived in the region yesterday for this year's Buddhist Lent. General Napol Boontab, director of royally sponsored projects, said 350 monks travelled to stay at temples in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Songkhla to support Buddhists there.

The insurgency has claimed more than 2,400 lives since January 2004 and forced monks and laymen to relocate.

Meanwhile, in Nakhon Ratchasima, Ninth Region police commissioner Lt-General Chumpon Perngsiri said military weapons left over from decades of civil war in Cambodia continued to enter southern Thailand.

Prices for automatic weapons are about Bt4,000. The weapons are smuggled along the border mostly by pickup. Weapons are concealed, sometimes in coffins, he said.

Motrocycle bomb: Thai Muslims new weapon?

Wednesday, July 18, 2007
BANGKOK, Reuters

A motorcycle bomb killed a policeman and wounded 18 people in Thailand's rebellious Muslim-majority far south on Tuesday, an army spokesman said.

Most of the wounded were forensic police, soldiers and journalists drawn to the scene by an earlier bomb blast at the site, Colonel Acra Tiproch told Reuters.

"Police were actually on alert for booby traps, but they let their guards down after nothing happened in the 20 minutes after they arrived," he said.

The second bomb, triggered by a remote device, was hidden under the pillion of a motorcycle parked in front of a shop in Yala, capital of the province of the same name, Acra said.

Yala is one of three southern provinces that have borne the brunt of the latest separatist campaign by Muslim militants in the region in which more than 2,300 people have been killed since it erupted in 2004.

Government forces have detained more than 340 suspected militants in a sweep through Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces, the three where most of the violence has occurred, and neighboring Songkhla provinces this month, Acra said.

"This is their first serious retaliation since we rounded up several hundred of them, which must have left them with no place to hide," he said.

Thailand insurgency's victims: Cambodian Muslims who try to enter Thailand illegally

Thailand: Southern Militants Launch Propaganda Overseas

BANGKOK, June 16 (Bernama) -- Thailand's Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont on Saturday said that southern militants in addition to armed assaults in the predominantly Muslim south are now attempting to attack the Thai government politically both in Thailand and overseas.

Speaking during his weekly programme broadcast on state-run television, Gen. Surayud was quoted by TNA as saying that the government believed that the militants are now putting effort in drumming up their cause abroad while increasing the propaganda value and stress levels of their political offensive at home.

Touching on Cambodians holding Muslim faith who enter Thailand illegally and who might join Muslim insurgents in the deep South, Gen. Surayud said the government had coordinated with the Phnom Penh government in trying to prevent them from entering this country illegally.

However, the government tries to help workers from neighbouring countries-- including Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar -- come to Thailand legally to seek employment, especially in job categories which are shunned by Thais and not concerned with security affairs, he said.

Currently, the government has assigned the Internal Security Operations Command to be responsible in solving the violence problem in the restive South while it has asked the Fourth Army Region commander to work together with the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre in handling the operations, he said.

More than 2,300 people have been killed in the three restive southern provinces -- Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat -- since southern ethnic Malay militants renewed violence by raiding an army barracks in January 2004 and emptying its arsenal to arm insurgent fighters.

Remarks like salt in old wounds

Thu, June 14, 2007
Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation (Thailand)

Comments on 'dangerous Cambodian Muslims' upset a sensitive neighbour

It is in the nature of Thai generals, notably those that have retired, to try to make themselves useful or significant, to try to say something out of nothing. Sometimes their empty speeches create complicated problems for the nation.

Retired general Wattanachai Chaimuenwong, a security adviser to Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, is one Thai general who fits the type. He suggested that Cambodian Muslims were part of the regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which is supporting the insurgency in the deep South.

His statement prompted a strong reaction from Phnom Penh, with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen lashing out at the allegation, saying it was unacceptable. Hun Sen reminded the Thais that all people in power are the same: they love to find somebody to blame when they cannot find ways to solve a problem.

Deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled by Wattanachai's colleagues in the September coup, used to blame Malaysia for his failure to contain the violence. The general will remember when he was commander of the Third Army region, Thaksin shifted the blame to Burma for Thailand's failure to control narcotics along the border.

"Because of their own weakness, they are now finding others to blame," the Cambodian prime minister said in public on Monday. This was embarrassing for diplomat Surasak Suparat, the minister councillor at the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh, who was present when Hun Sen made the statement.

Hun Sen told Surasak to take note and convey the message to Bangkok, adding that he had reached the point when he could not tolerate such allegations anymore.

It was not the first time Gen Wattanachai has made the allegation, but this time Cambodian foreign minister Hor Namhong stressed to Surasak - who was summoned to the ministry - that the issue was serious. The Cambodian minister demanded that the Thai government provide sufficient evidence to support the allegation.

Instead of giving details to back his statement, Wattanachai - like a cheap politician - shifted the blame to the media, saying he had never made such a comment and his words might have been misinterpreted.

"No foreigners are involved in the situation in the deep South," he told reporters when asked to respond to Hun Sen's reaction.

It is not abnormal for Thai leaders to put their foot in their mouths when trying to get off the hook, but it is abnormal for a general to claim the media misquoted him on the same issue twice within a brief period of time.

In fact, Thai authorities have kept a suspicious eye on the movements of Cambodian Muslims for a long time. Thai Immigration officials were instructed to block, or at least obstruct, Cambodian Muslims at the Poi Pet checkpoint into Thailand. Belongings have been searched and items such as medicines confiscated. In one case, monosodium glutamate was seized. Thai officials believe the southern militants use MSG to heal wounds.

Cambodia is home to some 200,000 Muslims, mostly ethnic Cham in Kompong Cham province. The Cham adopted Islam when the Champa kingdom traded with seafaring Persian merchants around the ninth century. When Vietnam defeated the Champa kingdom in the 14th century, the Cham population fled to Cambodia and assimilated with ethnic Malays who had made earlier contact with the Khmer kingdom. The Cham have spoken a Malay dialect since then. Many of them study Islam in Pattani.

Cambodian Muslims are no strangers to the deep South, as thousands of them have worked in the Pattani fisheries, as well as studied Islam there. But Thai security officials have been paranoid about them since the eruption of violence in the South at the beginning of 2004.

The root of this Thai paranoia lies in a Cambodian raid on a Saudi-financed school on the outskirts of Phnom Penh in 2003. The school was deemed a security threat and Phnom Penh expelled 28 foreign religious teachers and arrested three other teachers including two Thai Muslims.

Muhammad Yalaluding and Abdul Azi Haji Chiming, both from Yala province, received life sentences in December 2004 after being found guilty of helping JI plot a terrorist attack in Cambodia. They were arrested in the raid in May 2003 along with Egyptian, Esam Mohammed Khidr Ali, who was acquitted of the same charge due to lack of evidence.

However, the Cambodian allegation was not convincing. The raid on the school was staged for the then US secretary of state, Colin Powell, who was in Phnom Penh for an Asean meeting. There was no evidence to prove that Cambodian Muslims were a threat to any country. There was no record of their involvement in any violence.

Wattanachai's allegation has already put Thailand at risk of dispute with Cambodia. Diplomatic fallout with Phnom Penh is no fun at all: a single intentional or unintentional insult could cause chaos. The 2003 anti-Thai riot in Phnom Penh was a good example of that - and the lessons from it haven't been learned.

Mounting fears of foreign influence in Thai insurgency

Masked Thai Muslims shout slogans during a protest rally

14 June 2007
AFP

BANGKOK : Attacks in Thailand's Muslim south are becoming deadlier and more sophisticated, fuelling fears that the insurgents have established links to international extremists, analysts say.

The shadowy insurgency along Thailand's southern border has escalated sharply in the eight months since the military seized power in a coup, with nine beheadings and 723 attacks just in the first three months of the year.

More than 2,200 people have been killed since the unrest erupted more than three years ago, but this year the attacks are becoming both more frequent and more brutal.

"There is concern that the increased brutality is being influenced from abroad," Zachary Abuza, associate professor for political science at Simmons College in Boston, told AFP.

Insurgent attacks this year "have been very provocative," with attacks on royal entourages, brutal machete slayings and increasingly, the mutilation of corpses, Abuza said.

A Buddhist man was abducted Tuesday and decapitated, his body dumped by a bridge and his head dropped about 300 metres (yards) away.

Two female teachers were shot dead Monday inside a primary school library in a brazen daylight attack.

Some 10 soldiers were killed in a powerful bomb attack and ambush on May 31, while five others were shot dead inside a mosque.

Although some government officials and experts still say the insurgency is entirely domestic, surging violence and new evidence have caused some to suggest possible foreign influence.

"A handful of militants could have improved their organisational abilities and sought better training either in their own territory or in the Philippines or Indonesia," said Arabinda Acharya, a researcher at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Just last month, army spokesman Colonel Akara Thiprote said that detained suspects had confessed under interrogation to receiving foreign training, particularly in beheadings.

"You really have to know particular bones in the neck to decapitate someone, and Thais don't know how to do this. You need a person who's been trained abroad or a foreign trainer to come here to teach the methods," he said.

The arrest of a former Indonesian separatist leader also rekindled fears that extremists from the nearby Muslim nation were training Thai insurgents.

General Watanachai Chaimuanwong, a senior security adviser to the Thai prime minister, has also pointed to links with extremists in Cambodia and Indonesia -- claims that Phnom Penh has flatly rejected.

The new concerns about foreign influence come as the government's peace initiatives in the region are floundering.

Since taking power, army-installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont has apologised for past excesses, offered to open talks with rebels and revived a key regional mediation body.

But the apology has produced little tangible goodwill.

Talks have failed to get off the ground because the government is still uncertain who is behind the violence.

Previous generations of separatist leaders appear to have little control over fighters on the ground, and officials have yet to identify the new leadership.

The mediation body's work has failed to get moving because the government can't recruit enough officials to staff the organization.

Despite its peace efforts, the government is still focusing too narrowly on law enforcement and not enough on addressing local political complaints, said Srisompob Jitpiromsri, a professor at Thailand's Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani.

Improving the justice system is among the top concerns among residents in the region, he added, since hardly any militants have been prosecuted over the violence while security forces have been granted immunity.

"Right now the government is only focused on going after militants, but they should focus more on local community issues like fairness and social justice to really win the hearts and minds of the people," Srisompob said.

Wattanachai changes his tune one more time: denies he linked Khmer Muslims to insurgency in the south

June 12, 2007
Gen Wattanachai denies he linked Khmer Muslims to insurgency in the south

The Nation (Thailand)

PM's security affairs advisor Gen Wattanachai Chaimuenwong denied saying that some Cambodian Muslims were involving in the insurgency in the deep south of Thailand.

He insisted that no foreign network or persons involved in the violence in the southern provinces of Thailand.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday issued an angry denial that Cambodian Muslims involved in the insurgency in the south.

"Because of their own weakness, they are now finding others to blame,'' he said at a groundbreaking ceremony for a bridge over the Tonle Sap river.

Some news reports said retired Gen Wattanachai said some Khmer Muslims were part of terror network that actively worked in the south.

Wattanachai on Tuesday said that he never said so.

"What I said is that there are a large number of Cambodian Muslims entering Thailand but they disappeared. We have to find out where they are," he said.

He said he issued a clarification on the matter and asked Thai Foreign Ministry to send it to the Cambodian side.

Shortly after Hun Sen's speech Monday, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong summoned Thai Ambassador to Cambodia Surasak Suparat, the Thai Embassy official, to formally convey the Cambodian government's reaction to the Thai government.

Cambodia summons Thai diplomats over JI links

Thai's Minister Counsellor Surasak Suparat (L) speaks to journalists after meeting Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong (not in picture) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Phnom Penh June 11, 2007. REUTERS/Stringer

11 June 2007
AFP

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia's foreign minister summoned Thai diplomats on Monday to reject claims by a Thai general that Cambodian Muslims had links to the regional extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

"This is an accusation that the Cambodian government cannot accept," Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters after the meeting.

"There is no JI group in Cambodia. Cambodian Muslims support the government," he said.

General Watanachai Chaimuanwong, a senior security adviser to the Thai prime minister, said on Saturday that a group of Cambodian Muslims with links to JI had entered the country.

He accused them of plotting to stage attacks in support of a separatist insurgency in Thailand's deep south.

Watanachai had made similar allegations last month, but later backed down after the remarks drew outrage from Cambodia.

Hor Namhong said he had asked Thailand to provide proof to back up the claims.

Thailand's charge d'affaires in Phnom Penh, Surasak Suparat, told reporters he would convey the message to his government, but added that he had no proof to support the alleged link to JI.

"Actually, we don't have evidence. We don't have any evidence that Cambodian Muslims did that," Surasak said.

The Islamic insurgency along Thailand's southern border with Malaysia has escalated sharply since the military seized power in Bangkok in September last year.

More than 2,200 people have been killed in the three southern provinces since January 2004.

The Thai government has previously denied the insurgents are receiving any assistance from overseas groups, insisting it was an internal problem.

Cambodia to call in Thai ambassador over terrorism allegations

Monday, June 11, 2007

"The Thai military and police are weak" - Hun Sen's biting remark from the safety of Phnom Penh. Thai army crosses the white border zone with impunity, and no Hun Sen army was ever able to stop them.

Phnom Penh (dpa) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday angrily dismissed reported comments by a top Thai aide that Cambodian Muslims had been involved in terrorist activities, ordering his Foreign Ministry to carpet the Thai ambassador over the claims.

In a speech broadcast on national media, Hun Sen assured Cambodia's minority ethnic Muslim population that the government would stand firmly behind it and dismissed the claims as having no basis in fact.

His retort followed a report Saturday in the Bangkok Post quoting General Wattanachai Chaimuenwong, a close aide to Thai Prime Minister Surayad Chulanont, as saying the Cambodian Muslims had infiltrated Thailand's restive south and were involved in terrorist activities there.

The report quoted the general as linking some Cambodian Muslims to the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terrorist group. The story was widely picked up by Cambodian media.

"Please do not make your [Thai] internal problems international ones by painting this colour on Cambodian Muslims," Hun Sen said at a groundbreaking ceremony just outside the capital.

He demanded that Surayad correct his aide's allegation and said he had ordered the Cambodian Foreign Ministry to summon the Thai ambassador to explain the matter.

"The Thai military and police are weak," Hun Sen charged. "I am disappointed on behalf of Cambodia when they mistakenly accuse Cambodian Muslims of this. They are good people. Cambodian Muslims are not stupid like this to work as soldiers."

During the speech, Hun Sen pondered aloud whether Thailand "did not think it had enough trouble with its own Muslims" and perhaps wanted to add to its problems by insulting more Muslims in the region.

"All Cambodian Muslims, do not worry," he said. "The government will stay with you on behalf of all your compatriots, even though you are a different religion."

He said the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok would also request the Thai government provide evidence for the allegations and pledged to cooperate with the Thai government at all levels if it could prove there was a basis for the claims.

Wattanachai has previously made the same allegations, but backed down on similar claims last month. Thai authorities were also reported as claiming that deadly New Year's bomb attacks in Bangkok had been fuelled by materials provided from Cambodia, but those claims, too, were never proven.

Cambodia, like neighbouring Thailand, is a majority Buddhist country, with far less than 5 per cent of its population identifying itself as ethnic Cambodian Cham Muslims.

Although there have been allegations of infiltration of some Cham communities by more radical Islamic elements from overseas in the past, at present the Cham live peacefully within the Cambodian community.

Share With Us Info On Southern Terrorists, Indonesia Tells Thais

"Even though I do not know where they are, I can say Cambodians with alleged JI (Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group) links are now in the southern part of Thailand" - Watanachai Chaimuanwong, advisor to Thailand's Prime Minister

BANGKOK, June 11 (Bernama) -- Indonesian Foreign Minister Dr Hassan Wirajuda said his country is looking forward to share information and intelligence with Thailand on the alleged involvement of its citizen in the Southern Thai insurgency.

He said both countries were working closely on counter-terrorism and law enforcement aspects, adding that a high level committee met in Chiang Mai recently to increase cooperation in defence and security.

"This is part of the ongoing cooperation...exchanging of information and intelligence is among the important elements. We welcome information that Thailand want to share with us," he said after the Sixth Joint Commission meeting between Thailand and Indonesia, here Monday.

Thailand was represented by its Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram.

Dr Hassan said this when asked to comment on a statement made by an advisor to the Thai Prime Minister, Watanachai Chaimuanwong that extremists from Indonesia and Cambodia were training insurgents in the Muslim-majority southern provinces where more than 2,300 people have died in the unrest since January 2004.

Citing intelligence reports, Wattanachai had also claimed that Cambodian Muslims entered the country legally enroute to finding work in Malaysia but there was no record of them leaving the Kingdom.

"Even though I do not know where they are, I can say Cambodians with alleged JI (Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group) links are now in the southern part of Thailand," Bangkok Post had quoted Watanachai as saying.

Dr Hassan said Indonesia, with the region's biggest Muslim population, would continue to work with Thai authorities in finding peaceful solution to the southern conflict.

The Thai Army had also said recently that they suspected Indonesian terrrorists of training southern militants in view of the increase in the number of beheadings of Buddhists.

On bilaterial ties between the two countries, he said trade between them had risen from US$5.6 billion in 2005 to US$6.7 billion last year, which exceeded the level of intra-Asean trade by about 14 percent.

He said both countries also agreed to carry out joint initiatives to promote cooperation in the fields of agriculture, science and technology, environment, education, transportation, energy and mining.