Published on October 05, 2005 - Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday lashed out at Malaysian activists calling on Muslims to boycott Thai goods, saying they were collaborating with insurgents seeking to carve out a separate homeland for ethnic Malays in the deep South.

More than 150 Malaysians representing civil society and consumer groups on Monday demonstrated outside the Thai Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, urging Muslims to boycott Thai-made products to protest against Bangkok’s alleged inhumane suppression of the insurgency in the South.

Leaflets handed out by the demonstrators to passing cars sent a clear message to those who “disrespect the religion of Islam.”

Speaking to reporters yesterday during his mobile cabinet meeting in Kalasin province, Thaksin said the Kuala Lumpur protest was staged by insurgents and their network of supporters.

The Malaysian activists, who belong to several non-government organisations that have more than 20,000 members, also submitted a protest note to Thai Embassy officials.

“Our Muslim brethren in southern Thailand are being hunted, persecuted and killed,” the leaflet said. “As a reaction to the inhumane actions by the Thai government, we are immediately launching a selective boycott of Thai products.”

The demonstration on Monday, followed by Thaksin’s outburst yesterday, comes amid a diplomatic row between Thailand and Malaysia over the fate of 131 Thai-Muslim villagers who fled into northern Malaysia to avoid the bloodshed in the deep South.

On Monday, the Malaysian government moved the 131 asylum seekers to an immigration depot in Aijil, Terengganu state, about 150 kilometres away from the Thai-Malaysian border, citing the need to make the refugees’ living quarters more comfortable.

Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya said Thailand was not informed about the move, while the Foreign Ministry was said to be quite disturbed with the decision.

Thai-Malaysian relations took a downturn last month when Kuala Lumpur allowed the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to become involved with the 131 displaced Thai Muslims.

Kuala Lumpur has said it would return the Thais if the government promises to guarantee that their rights will be protected.

Thaksin remained tight-lipped yesterday about why the villagers’ return had taken so long, saying the issue was being handled at the local level.

He said that if any of the 131 are holding both Thai and Malaysian nationalities, they are welcome to choose which country they want to live in.

“If they are Thai nationals who misunderstood the events we will take them back and look after them,” Thaksin said.

“But if any one of them is an insurgent, it is unacceptable. An arrest warrant has already been issued for one of the 131,” Thaksin said.

The flight of the 131 has proved to be an embarrassment for Thaksin, who last month lashed out at the UN for permitting itself to be “a tool of trouble makers”.

“I think the UNHCR understands us very well. I have already warned them not to become a tool of the insurgents. Because if they do become a tool, we will consider the UNHCR to be useless in the global community,” Thaksin said when asked what he deemed a proper role for the UN refugee agency.

During his visit to the UN headquarters in New York last month, Thaksin lashed out at the refugee agency, accusing it of permitting itself to be exploited by the insurgents.

The UNHCR, meanwhile, has yet to make public whether it deemed the 131 asylum seekers whom they interviewd last month, as “refugees”, but the move farther inside Malaysian territory suggests they will not be returning to Thailand soon.

The majority of the two million people in the three southernmost provinces – Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala – are ethnic Malay Muslims, with deep cultural, historic and family ties to neighbouring Kelatan state across the border.