About 3,000 people from the deep South who make up the latest generation of Islamic insurgents in the strife-torn region have received combat training in the north African country of Libya in the past two decades, a top security officer said yesterday.

General Pallop Pinmanee, deputy director of the Internal Security Operation Command, told a seminar of 100 security officials that the 3,000 southerners were “core militants” with the same skills as Thailand’s special forces.

He said the militants were spread out in the three southernmost provinces and were joined by 30,000 local residents who either sympathise with their cause or actively support it.

Pallop, who is an adviser to Defence Minister Thamarak Isarangura, did not explain how he obtained the information.

But a senior security official from another agency suggested the tally of 3,000 was exaggerated, adding that a total had never been established on how many Thais had travelled to Libya, or other Muslim states for military training.

Exiled separatist leaders said Libya’s support for Thai Muslim separatists ended more than 10 years ago and that the number of Muslims from Thailand who spent time in north Africa was “in the hundreds”.

“They are no longer active and are from the previous generation,” one said late yesterday. Libya was also a key backer of separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which recently signed a peace agreement with the Indonesian government.

Pallop said the country’s security agencies have so far proved powerless to stop the insurgency.

He criticised the work of the security agencies and questioned why they were unable to take a more active approach against the insurgents or contain the violence that has so far claimed more than 1,000 lives since January last year.

The general suggested that the army set up rapid-response units of about 12 men to be positioned in each of the 38 areas that have come under repeated insurgent attacks.

Moreover, there has to be more coordination and communication between these units, especially in cases that require rapid response, he said.

He pointed to the recent stand-off at the village of Tanyonglimo where two marines were brutally murdered, saying he would have handled the incident differently.

“I would have barricaded the entire village and starved them for half a day. When they got hungry they’d talk,” Pallop said.

The outspoken general became the centre of media attention last year when he ordered Thai troops and police to storm the historic Krue Se mosque, where about 32 armed men had positioned themselves.

“The situation has worsened. Before the Krue Se incident, there were 187 so-called red-zone villages, overrun with militants. But since that incident, there are 247 red-zone villages, and 2,000 people have died or been wounded,” he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya outlined the government’s plan to release a “white paper” to explain the major incidents in the restive region. The idea is to educate the public and improve ties between the local community and the authorities, he said.

The brother-in-law of former foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan survived an attempt on his life yesterday when two gunmen shot at him with a military assault rifle, police said yesterday.

Isamail Benjasamit, 56, was attacked late on Tuesday evening as he was about to enter his house after coming back from leading the prayers at a funeral.

Two suspected militants, who were waiting in front of his house in Pattani’s Muang district, opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles.

One round of bullets grazed his body and another grazed his left eye, but hospital officials said the injuries were not serious.

An investigating officer said Isamail had run to become a local MP several times but had never been elected. He subsequently studied the history of Malayu Pattani and is now lecturing at several academic institutions.

At around the same time, another shooting occurred at Yala’s Yarang district, where village defence volunteer Sama-ae Samae, 55, was severely wounded by two gunmen.

Sama-ae was on his way back home from a teashop in the village when two gunmen riding a motorbike fired three rounds at him with a shotgun before speeding away. Sama-ae sustained injuries to his stomach, arm and leg and was rushed to Yarang Hospital.

The ongoing violence has prompted the government to push various initiatives, one of which requires men in the region to undergo a week-long “re-education” camp aimed at strengthening their patriotism.

The problem with the programme, local leaders say, is that local government officials - hard-pressed to show that they are making progress - have been telling people that they are on a “black list” and the only way to clear their name is to register for the week-long camp.

Maruding Sa-ae, a leading advocate of community networking in the Malay-speaking region, said many officials had intimidated young men into “renouncing separatism” by putting their names on a list of suspected insurgents. But this action had the effect of pushing men towards militant groups to take up arms against the state, he said.

Meanwhile, the Public Relations Department yesterday stepped up its campaign to get local residents to register prepaid mobile-phone SIM cards before the November 15 deadline, when unregistered SIM cards may be cancelled.

Pao-si Che-ta, a resident of Pattani’s Khok Pho district, who was waiting in line at a local phone dealership to register his SIM, said he didn’t believe that registration would solve the problem of bombs set off by mobile phones.

The Nation
Pattani