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| Southeast Asia | ||||||
| Global terrorism fears over bloody Thailand uprising | ||||||
| 2004-05-05 | ||||||
Confirmation that seven of the 108 militants killed in last week's bloody uprising in southern Thailand were foreigners has strengthened fears that the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network may have opened a new front in South-East Asia. Several captured militants are reported to have told interrogators that the attacks were planned with the involvement of JI - the group blamed for the Bali and Jakarta Marriott Hotel bombings - and a related Malaysian extremist group.
Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Razak, said on Tuesday that there was still no direct evidence of foreign support for the separatist unrest in the predominantly Muslim provinces bordering Malaysia. But Mr Najib conceded after a meeting with Thailand's Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, that al-Qaeda and regional affiliates such as JI might be inspiring the Thai militants. "There is a possibility that they are getting some sort of - not direct support - but encouragement," he said.
The military commander in southern Thailand, Lieutenant- General Pisarn Wattanawongkeeree, said seven unclaimed bodies were foreigners. DNA tests were being conducted to confirm their identities.
The seven were among 32 people killed last Wednesday when security forces stormed a mosque in the southern town of Pattani, in the culmination of a day of clashes across the region in which 108 alleged militants and five police and soldiers died. The Bangkok Post has reported that the foreign victims were believed to be Indonesians.
Quoting a military source, the paper said witness and survivor statements had identified JI and the Malaysian radical group Kampulan Mujahideen Malaysia as involved. "Up to 300 million baht [$10.3 million] was mobilised to incite unrest in the south," the source was quoted as saying.
JI's Indonesian-born operations chief, Hambali, who was captured in central Thailand last August, is known to have spent time in the southern Thai provinces. Thai authorities have detained nine other people accused of links with JI.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 Additional: A court in Thailand has issued an arrest warrant for a Muslim religious teacher suspected of masterminding last week's attacks. Reuters news agency has quoted officials as saying that two men held after the attacks had given enough evidence to justify the arrest of Yusof Rayalong, 33, also known as Ustas Ishma-ae, a teacher at a religious school. Police say during the interrogation, one of the two suspects said he attacked a Yala army base after Yusof had indoctrinated him with separatist ideas. He also told police Yusof had recruited at least 20 teenagers to launch the raids. And this: Immigration authorities said seven Indonesians had entered Thailand last month through a Thai-Malaysia border crossing in Narathiwat province and were not registered as having left the country. Three Indonesian men entered on April 18 and three more men and a woman arrived on April 19, an immigration official said on condition of anonymity. He refused to give their names or ages. Pisarn said the bodies of the suspected foreigners have not been claimed by relatives since last Wednesday's wave of assaults on police posts in three southern provinces in which 107 attackers were killed - the bloodiest day in the region's recent history. "The seven unclaimed bodies are not Thai," said Pisarn, commander of the 4th Army that controls the south. Pisarn told reporters he is "100 per cent sure" the unclaimed bodies are of foreigners because authorities have accounted for all the remaining dead. |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-05-05 2:10:49 PM |