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| Southeast Asia | ||||||||
| Leader Warns of Foreign Militants Joining Thailand's Muslim Insurgency | ||||||||
| 2005-09-23 | ||||||||
| JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A veteran leader of Thailand's insurgency has issued a warning: militants from Indonesia and Arab nations might join the fight for a separate homeland if the Thai government continues a crackdown that's provoking a new generation of Muslim fighters. In his first interview with a news organization, Lukman B. Lima told The Associated Press that violence could spread from Thailand's southern provinces to the capital unless the government accepts an offer to negotiate an end to the conflict. Although he suggested peace talks, Lukman lashed out at the government of Thaksin Shinawatra, likening the prime minister to Stalin and Hitler. "If the government opts to kill and kill without reason, perhaps fighters from Indonesia and Arab countries will help us because, according to Islam, real Muslims cannot just stand by when their brother Muslims are being slain," he said. The 21-month-old insurgency - in which more than 1,000 Muslims and Buddhists have been killed - is getting moral and financial support from abroad, especially from Islamic sympathizers in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, according to Lukman.
Lukman is vice president and acting head of the Pattani United Liberation Organization, or PULO, one of several groups involved in the century-old struggle to gain independence for the predominantly Muslim far south of Thailand, a Buddhist country. The PULO works "hand-in-hand" with groups involved in the fighting, Lukman said, with his organization focused on the political arena although it also has fighters on the ground. It's unknown, however, to what extent his comments reflect the views of the shadowy insurgent groups or how much influence he and PULO exert over rebel military operations. Lukman offered negotiations with the Thai government on condition that it removes all the more than 20,000 troops from the south; revokes tough emergency measures aimed at the insurgency - thought to be about 2,000 fighters strong; stops killing innocent people; and frees the PULO's imprisoned president and military chief.
Prime Minister Thaksin recently set up a reconciliation council - comprising military officers, academics, Muslim community leaders, and other concerned parties - to explore peaceful solutions to the conflict. But he's been criticized at home and abroad for trying to resolve the problem with military force. In two separate incidents last year, nearly 200 Muslims died when security forces gunned down militants, protesters and bystanders and put some into army trucks, where they suffocated. Lukman blamed Thaksin for the surge in violence, saying previous governments were more flexible in dealing with Muslim aspirations. A one-time police officer, Thaksin recently replaced martial law in the south with an emergency act which critics describe as a "license to kill" because of the powers and immunity it affords security officials. "The wrongful policy of Prime Minister Thaksin instilled fear and forced people to fight back," Lukman said. Asked why some Muslims were also being targeted by insurgents, he called them government spies and collaborators who had to be eliminated. "I would like to send Thaksin this message: don't touch our pondok (religious schools), don't touch our religious teachers or otherwise the bloody days will continue, and I cannot stop this young generation from turning their aggression against other parts of Thailand, like Bangkok," he said.
"I've never been on the battlefield. Killing people is not my objective. I prefer to fight for my right to return back to my country, which is occupied by Thailand, through the diplomatic way and dialogue," he said, adding that he had been an activist for 34 years.
Lukman said he had approached the Foreign Ministry in Norway to act as a mediator in any peace talks. But Foreign Ministry spokesman Anne Lene Sandsten told the AP, "We are not involved in that." When pressed about whether Norway had even been approached, she refused to comment further, saying, "That is all I have."
In offering peace talks, Lukman said he was speaking on behalf of all the insurgent groups, but this was not possible to confirm. Some analysts speculate that radicals among the separatists have no interest in a dialogue with Bangkok. Thaksin, meantime, has said he would not give up one inch of Thai soil. Lukman estimated negotiations could take five years, saying the provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala and parts of Songkhla could become an independent Islamic republic by 2010 - more than a century after Thailand annexed what was once the autonomous sultanate of Pattani.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #8 I was wondering if that was you coming out of the closet, Sobiesky. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-09-23 23:05 |
| #7 John Sobieski.. ahm, you may want to change the nick, else people may confuse us. Why you and not me? I have a sort of priority here by some 9 months or so. ;-) Of course, I agree with your assessment 100%. |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-09-23 22:03 |
| #6 The PULO works "hand-in-hand" with groups involved in the fighting, Lukman said, with his organization focused on the political arena although it also has fighters on the ground. PULO or PLO? What's the difference? |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-09-23 20:29 |
| #5 start the executions with the foreign holy men and see how eager they are for Jihad |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-09-23 20:15 |
| #4 Why isn't Thailand doing a major kickass. Appeasement never, ever works with islam. That theory has been proven by 1400 years of jihad. |
| Posted by: John Sobieski 2005-09-23 19:45 |
| #3 Yep, there's nothing like a crackdown on violent jihadis to make them mad. And you don't want to make them mad, because they might get violent. No. Wait. More violent. Yeah. That's the ticket. In fact, if you utterly crush their little effort, they'll become so mad that they'll do something that will be really, really violent. Or something. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-09-23 18:05 |
| #2 Here is a good article from May 2004 on the Arab radicalization of Thai muslims: Waking Up to the Terror Threat in Southern Thailand With more than a dozen Arab teachers from across the Middle East and a seemingly endless flow of funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, the college has become the most obvious manifestation of a non-violent Arab threat to the traditionally moderate and tolerant Islamic traditions of southern Thailand (and the wider South-east Asian region). ... When you enter the college's reception, you feel like you have suddenly been transported to the Gulf. The 1,500 students there dress in Arab-style clothes and are taught a strict interpretation of syariah law in the Arabic language. The receptionist introduces himself, in perfect classical Arabic, as a graduate of Al-Azhar University in Cairo. The president, Dr Ismail Lutfi, is himself a graduate of a hardline Wahhabi institution, Riyadh's Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University. |
| Posted by: ed 2005-09-23 15:36 |
| #1 I'd check the Saudi Sex Tour operators. Bring twisted wahabis to Pattaya, get evidence of them with little girls, or even better, little boys. Tell them we either you join us in jihad as a suicide bomber, or the folks back home get this nasty evicence. Jihad absolves them of these sins. This would be an effective recruiting drive. |
| Posted by: Penguin 2005-09-23 15:04 |