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.

Eight Thai soldiers killed in rebel ambush: army

CHANAE, Thailand (AFP) — Separatist rebels killed eight Thai soldiers and tried to decapitate them after ambushing a military convoy in the restive Muslim-majority south Monday, officials said.

It was the single deadliest attack against the military in the region since June last year, when seven troops were killed in an ambush of a security team protecting teachers.

In the latest incident, a powerful bomb overturned the soldiers' humvee in Narathiwat province and tore a one-metre (three-foot) crater into the road as they returned from escorting teachers to school.

Those who survived the blast were shot when they tried to escape, according to Lieutenant Colonel Kannart Nikornyanont, one of the top provincial military commanders.

Militants attempted to behead all eight soldiers. They decapitated the top officer in the group and left the others with gaping stab wounds to the neck, he told AFP.

"They cut off the head of one of the soldiers, while the rest suffered deep wounds that left their heads partially severed," Kannart told AFP.

The officer's head was left near the wreckage of the humvee.

Four soldiers travelling by motorcycle with the humvee vehicle managed to escape injury after a 15-minute gun battle with the militants, he said.

The attack happened around 9:40 am (0240 GMT) in the Chanae district of Narathiwat, one of three provinces along the Malaysian border that has been dogged by four years of separatist violence.

The convoy was part of a security detail that had escorted teachers to their school Monday morning, Kannart said.

Armed soldiers escort teachers to and from school every day in Thailand's south. Educators are often targeted by militants, who view teachers as symbols of Buddhist Thailand's domination of this Muslim and ethnic Malay region.

Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said the latest deadly ambush was not an escalation in the conflict, saying it was instead a routine ambush with an unusually high number of victims.

"This kind of clash can happen any time. It is not a serious escalation" of the conflict, he told reporters.

"Authorities will have to investigate and not allow it to happen again."

The southern region was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until Thailand annexed it in 1902, provoking decades of animosity toward the state.

More than 2,800 people have been killed since the rebellion began in January 2004, with killings growing more frequent and brutal.

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's heavy-handed tactics were widely blamed for exacerbating the unrest in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces, but he was ousted in a military coup in 2006.

The generals and Surayud vowed to quell the insurgency with peace overtures to the rebels, an apology over past abuses, the reform of Islamic schools and tougher security.

Instead, they watched as killings grew more frequent and brutal, with both Buddhists and Muslims targeted every day.

An average of 72 people have been killed each month since the military took pwer in September 2006, sharply up from 53 deaths every month before the coup, figures from independent monitoring group Intellectual Deep South Watch show.

The attacks have grown increasingly grisly in recent months, with victims beheaded, mutilated and even crucified in what analysts say is an attempt to spark a backlash and create divisions between Buddhists and Muslims.

In other incidents, a roadside bomb hit another convoy of eight soldiers protecting teachers in neighbouring Yala province, local police said. Two of the troops were hurt in a subsequent five-minute gun battle.

Militants also set fire to three mobile phone towers and a telephone booth in a bid to disrupt communications around the region, police said.

Thai authority arrest 51 Cambodians for illegal border crossing

9 June 2007
By Mayarith
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Bangkok police arrested 51 Cambodians who are accused of illegal border crossing, among those arrested are 8 Cambodian Muslisms who plan to travel to Southern Thailand currently under turmoil.

The arrest of the Cambodians, including Cambodian Muslims, on Wednesday took place after a report was issued by Thailand’s supreme commander, General Boonsang Niempradit, stating that the Thai authority is currently investigating the suspected Cambodian Muslisms, who are crossing the border from Cambodia to Thailand, for (possible) involvement with Thai Muslim insurgents in Southern Thailand.

Among all the Cambodians arrested, the 8 Cambodian Muslims are being further questioned when they told the Thai police that they plan to go look for work in Thailand southern provinces: Pattani and Narathiwat.

Thai newspapers reported that the 8 Cambodian Muslims told the Thai police that they each paid 5,000 bath (~$145) to middlemen to take them to find work in the 3 southernmost provinces of Thailand.

In Cambodia, Sos Camrey, the director of a Muslim group in Cambodia, told RFA that ift is the Thai authority’s right to arrest anybody who are illegally crossing into Thailand, but he is calling for a detailed investigation on the suspicion surrounding the 8 Cambodian Muslims whom the Thai authority want to know more of their involvement with Thai insurgents.

Sos Camrey said: “There is no problem for me (for the arrest), I don’t say anything because it is up to the government of each country to see what is right (for its country), I agree to that. The charges depend on the evidence.”

The report indicated that among the 51 people arrested in Thailand, 48 of them were arrested at the Sakeo border gate, whereas the other 3 were arrested when they were crossing the border in Aranyaprathet.

Cham people are dubious about the terrorist plot accusations

According to Him Sman, Cham people in Cambodia feel like home here, and they do not wish to get back the former territories of Champa (Photo: Pring Samrang, Cambodge Soir)

Wednesday, May 23, 2007
By Duong Sokha
Cambodge Soir
Unofficial translation from French by Luc Sâr

The charge brought up against Cham people in Pursat for recruiting an army and the Thai government declaration over the presence of Cambodian citizens alongside Thai Muslim rebels do not seem to stir much emotion in the Muslim community in Cambodia.

Sangkat Chraing Chamres 1, Phnom Penh City – The charge brought up on 10 May against 3 Cham ethnic, and the one brought up later against a fourth Cham last Friday, by the Pursat court for illegally recruiting an army do not seem to stir much the Cham community in Chraing Chamres 1, located in Khan Russei Keo, Phnom Penh. “If they really commit a mistake, they will be punished,” Him Sman, the CPP group chief in Village No. 4, said without wanting to take side. Nevertheless, he also indicated: “I never heard of an armed movement aiming at regaining back the Champa territories! In any case, Cham people in Cambodia are not interested in this, here (in Cambodia), they feel like home.”

“Don’t be scare! Cambodian Muslims have no intention of creating armed forces,” Ismael Pen Pou Talet, a neighborhood resident, assured while working on a piece of iron on the step of his wooden house. “In any case, they don’t have the right,” Sos Cles chimed in. “And it is not easy to recruit Cham people in Cambodia, believe me, more and more people respect the law. People here are not involved with terrorism, but some use Muslims as their scapegoat,” he said with regret.

A young man, Set Muhammdsis, confided that he is praying for the release of the Cham people charged by the Pursat court, he said that the four were charged without sufficient proof. “I heard that this would be a government threat in order to set a firm example for the Cham people so that they don’t recruit an illegal armed force in the future,” he said. Sos Kamry, Cambodia’s mufti, said that he did not hear about the rumor claimed by Set Muhammdsis.

Cham families fear for reprisals in Thailand

Furthermore, the recent accusation made by an advisor of the Thai Prime Minister, according to which, Cambodian instructors would be helping Muslim insurgents in Southern Thailand – but the accusation was since tempered by the Thai government – did not upset Cambodian Muslims, the mufti said. “But before making the accusation, they should have proof,” he stressed. In Sangkat Chraing Chamres I, Sos Sleh, felt hurt by this accusation, he is also hurt by the Thai “repression” against Muslims in Southern Thailand which he saw on TV. Sof Ty, the Village No. 4 chief, said that the accusations made by Thailand instill fear among the families who sent their children for higher education in Southern Thailand. They are concerned about the possible retaliations by the Thai authorities. In the neighborhood, from one house to another, the same words are being spoken: “We live like all other Cambodians, our only difference is our religion.” For the Village No. 4 mosque chief, le Khmer Rouge era even reinforced the solidarity among Cambodians and Muslim Cambodians. “7 January [1979] represented a second birth for all of us,” he stressed. “We still suffer from the remnants of that era, we are not thinking about terrorism, we are mainly preoccupied to find means to improve our lot.”

Claims of Cambodian Muslims in South being examined, says supreme commander

BANGKOK, May 22 (TNA) – Thailand's supreme commander Gen. Boonsang Niempradit conceded on Tuesday that the Thai authorities are investigating claims that Cambodian Muslims who entered Thailand are alleged to have links with insurgent groups operating the country's far South.

The supreme commander, however, insisted that Thailand and Cambodia have no dispute over this issue.

"As for Cambodian Muslims entering Thailand, we're examining what they come here for. Sometimes, we wonder why the numbers of people entering and leaving the country is not equal. We're verifying whether they are linked to the southern insurgency or not," Gen. Boonsang said.

The supreme commander dismissed possibility that the issue might create misunderstanding and conflict between the two countries as in the past. He said the Thai and Cambodian authorities at almost every level, including in the military, have close contact, talking to each other from time to time. He said any issues concerning both countries could be settled through a joint border committee.

The issue regarding Cambodian Muslims in Thailand was renewed last week when Gen. Watanachai Chaimuanwong, a senior security adviser to Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, suggested that Muslim extremists from Cambodia and Indonesia were training militants in the Thai South.

Gen. Watanachai's suggestion was strongly denied by the Cambodian government, and he backed away from his claims late Monday saying no evidence had yet to substantiate such claims and that the issue was sensitive.

Thailand backs away from claims of foreign fighters in south

A Thai soldier guards a school in Yala province. Thailand on Monday backed away from comments that extremists from Cambodia and Indonesia were training separatist rebels in the Thai south, after the accusations provoked outrage from Cambodia (AFP/File/Muhammad Sabri)

Monday May 21, 2007

BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand on Monday backed away from comments that extremists from Cambodia and Indonesia were training separatist rebels in the Thai south, after the accusations provoked outrage from Cambodia.

General Watanachai Chaimuanwong, a senior security adviser to the Thai prime minister, said last week that foreign experts were providing weapons and bomb making training in the Muslim-majority south.

But on Monday he said the government had no evidence to back up those claims, and said it was a "sensitive issue."

"Intelligence reports pointed to specialists from Indonesia and Cambodia training rebels in southern Thailand, but the government cannot prove or confirm their nationalities because we don't have clear evidence yet," Watanachai told reporters.

Watanachai said on Thursday that Thai authorities were investigating reports that hundreds of Cambodian Muslims with links to the Jemaah Islamiyah extremist network may have slipped into Thailand.

His comments were not well received by Cambodia. Khieu Kanharith, Cambodian government spokesman, said it was a "gross accusation" and accused Thailand of trying to find a scapegoat for the southern violence.

More than 2,200 people have been killed in the three southern provinces bordering Malaysia since the latest insurgency erupted in January 2004, and rebels have recently stepped up their bloody campaign for a separate state.

The Thai government had previously denied that the insurgents were receiving any assistance from overseas groups, and insisted it was an internal problem.

Watanachai said Monday that the government, installed after a coup last September, was again trying to launch a round of negotiations with rebels, in their latest bit to end the violence.

He cautioned, however, that the unrest may not be solved within this government's term.

The ruling junta has promised elections and a democratically elected government by the end of the year.

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.