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Southeast Asia
Thai krazed killers are separatists with ties to JI, not bandits
2004-01-07
A well-trained separatist group linked to extremists fighting for a regional Pan Islamic state was behind the attack on an army barracks and widespread arson last Sunday, the government’s new security adviser said yesterday. ``This kind of well-organised attack on the Fourth Army’s barracks was unprecedented,’’ Gen Kitti Rattanachaya said. ``This is the worst attack they have ever made on our security forces. One should not underestimate their strength by playing down the incident. The situation will become much worse if we do not correctly deal with the problem.’’ Gen Kitti, former commander of the southern-based Fourth Army, maintained the perpetrators were not normal ``gun-trafficking bandits’’ as believed by some senior government officials. They were members of a ``well-established organisation’’ fighting to establish an Islamic state in the southernmost area.
Comes as a surprise, huh? I know. Floored me, too...
An estimated 100-150 separatists made a surprise attack on an army camp whose soldiers work on local development projects in Narathiwat, killing four sentries and making off with about 100 M-16 rifles from the armoury. Gen Kitti did not think that the stolen rifles were for sale to raise money. He was convinced the weapons would be used to arm combatant forces opposed to the government with the ideology of forming an Islamic state in Pattani. ``Does it sound like a good idea to raise money by stealing military rifles and selling them?’’ said the general, who played a key role in ending the decades-long struggle of the now defunct Communist Party of Malaya in the late 1980s. Gen Kitti said he was fully aware, through his Muslim sources in the southernmost area, of the connection between local separatists and regional Islamic extremists. Local separatists could get support from the Kampulan Mujahideen Malaysia (KMM), an Islamic militant group from Malaysia known to have ties with the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).
Looks like I called that one right, it was the Malaysia connection that determined that much. The KMM is the military wing of PAS, the main Malaysian Islamist opposition party.
``How could a rag-tag bunch of armed men without special training make a daring attack on an army camp and simultaneously set our schools ablaze,’’ said Gen Kitti. ``It was well planned and organised,’’ he said but added he was expressing his own opinion. ``I have just made my views known, the other side of a coin,’’ said the general.
Posted by:Dan Darling

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