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Published on January 19, 2008

Muslim insurgents in the deep South are inspired by al-Qaeda, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said yesterday.

He said the international terror network might not have supplied insurgents in the South with financial or material support but they shared its ideology. However, no intelligence has found local insurgents are working with international terror groups, he added.

Government Spokesman Chaiya Yimvilai said the foreign funding could have come from terrorist groups, but he refused to name any such groups or say where they might be based.

Analysts have long been divided over whether Thai insurgents are plugging into a broader Islamic movement or would rather be on their own in their four-year rebellion.

Many Muslims, who make up the majority in Thailand's far South, feel unfairly treated by the country's Buddhist majority. Their discontent has fuelled separatist movements since Thailand annexed the area a century ago.

In the latest violence, one soldier was killed and two injured yesterday after a bombing outside a mosque in Yarung district of Pattani province.

Chaiya's assertions are the latest indication that the separatist rebellion, which has already killed more than 2,800 people, is tapping support from abroad to support its campaign of bombings and killings.

Responding to reporters' question about a possible link to al-Qaeda, Chaiya said it was "possible that there may be some links'" with the insurgency in the South.

However, the claim was promptly shot down by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont when asked about the assertion.

"We don't have such information, but I believe they may be linked ideologically. We don't know for a fact if they are connected," Surayud said.

Over the years, the militants themselves and the government have suggested that the rebels are training in nearby Indonesia, attending religious schools in the Middle East and receiving funding from across the border in Muslim-majority Malaysia or as far away as Saudi Arabia.

"The situation has intensified because of financial support domestically and internationally," Chaiya said, adding that "drug-trafficking, smuggling and mafia interests" were the main sources of local financing.

The southern violence has continued despite promises from a military-installed government to end the conflict soon after it took power in a coup in September 2006.

The coup leaders ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose hard-line military approach against the insurgents made little headway.

On Tuesday suspected Islamic militants bombed a busy market in the south, wounding more than three dozen civilians. A day earlier insurgents ambushed and killed eight soldiers.

The attacks came as the separatist rebellion entered its fifth year.

Little progress has been made in curbing the violence despite the presence of nearly 40,000 police and soldiers in the region.

Associated Press,

The Nation

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