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Southeast Asia
Blast wounds seven as terrorists condemn Thai 'cease-fire'
2008-07-21
The leader of a Muslim terrorist insurgent group in southern Thailand denounced the recent announcement of a cease-fire in the region as a hoax, while terrorists suspected rebels set off a bomb Monday that wounded seven people. Six policemen and a civilian were wounded when the homemade bomb triggered by a cell phone exploded along a road in Yala province, police Lt. Chaiya Phoorahong said. He said Muslim jihadis rebels were suspected in the attack.

Shortly before Monday's violence, the deputy president of the Pattani United Liberation Organization, or PULO, denounced an alleged cease-fire agreement between the Thai government and a group called the United Southern Underground, and said the "struggle for independence" would continue. The previously unknown group, claiming to represent others involved in the insurgency, announced last Thursday that it had ended all violence in the region. The announcement was greeted with widespread doubt.

"It is an opportunist group which was created and orchestrated by an individual to confuse and divide the liberation movement," the PULO's Lukman B. Lima said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. He said the announcement was a political gimmick by a former military commander.

Former army commander and Defense Minister Chetta Thanajaro, who now heads a small political party, has said the agreement was the result of informal talks he held with leaders of the insurgency. He said the organization that made the announcement represented 11 different underground groups operating in southern Thailand, but did not identify them or their leaders. Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej earlier said his government was not holding talks with any separatists, but that at least two insurgent groups were in discussions with mediators in Geneva.
Posted by:ryuge

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