| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Thailand denies it is base for Muslim militants |
| 2002-12-13 |
| Thailand denied on Friday speculation that militant Muslim groups were using it as a base to plot bomb attacks in Southeast Asia despite admissions at least one militant had passed through the country. "I can say confidently that there has been no organised terrorist movement in our country. They might have come as tourists, but not to hold meetings here," Defence Minister Thamarak Isaragura told reporters. "Even if they say that they did, they didn't." A foreign ministry official told reporters late on Thursday that a leader of the Jemaah Islamiah militant Muslim network, linked with October's Bali bomb blasts, had visited Thailand. But the official denied the man had set up terrorist cells in Thailand. Krit Garnchanakoonchorn, deputy permanent secretary at the Thai foreign ministry, said Riduan Isamuddin, a 36-year-old Islamic preacher commonly known as Hambali, had passed through southern Thailand "sometime back". "To the extent of the information that can be substantiated, he transitted and exited through Thailand sometime back," said Krit. "He entered from the south by train and exited soon after." Krit told reporters Hambali narrowly eluded arrest by Thai authorities while he was in the country, but also said officials did not know exactly when Hambali was in the country. "We don't know the exact time of his passage and we have no information that can be divulged as to his destination," he said. "The only thing that we can say is that he's not here, he's not operating from Thailand. He has no local cells here." De Nile is not only a river in Egypt. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 "Tourists"? Yep, just looking around.... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2002-12-13 16:17:12 |
| #1 Sure - no muslim terrorists, and by the way, my mothr is a virgin! |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2002-12-13 11:02:34 |