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Thai PM's Muslim insurgency blame game 'a blunder'
The Thai premier's attempt to shift blame onto Malaysia and Indonesia for his failure to quell an Islamic insurgency in southern Thailand was a blunder that threatened regional ties, analysts warned. Thaksin Shinawatra's administration had often stressed that mounting separatist violence in the south that has left more than 560 people dead this year was fuelled in part by Muslims returning radicalised from study overseas. But when he stated in a weekly radio address December 18 that Thai militants were training across the border in the jungles of Malaysia, and had received inspiration from extremists in Indonesia, he stirred up a hornets' nest. "It was a huge breach of diplomatic etiquette for the prime minister, who should not make such comments in public," said Phuwadol Songprasert, a lecturer in regional relations at Bangkok's Kasetsart University. "Such comments have made both the Malaysian and Indonesian governments unhappy" and could damage their ties with the majority Buddhist kingdom, he told AFP. Posted by: Fred 2004-12-28 |
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