Army has no clue of militants’ leadership
Rebels adopt strategy from Aceh fighters
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/22Oct2005_news05.php
WASSANA NANUAM MUHAMAD AYUB PATHAN
The separatist movement currently operating in the deep South is a reorganisation of old groups but its leader is still unknown, army chief Gen Sonthi Boonyaratglin said. The army chief made his comment in a conference with a group of nearly 100 local and foreign reporters at the army auditorium on Thursday night.
“It [the separatist movement] is a reorganisation of old separatist groups, including the Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo) and Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN). The movement has adopted new strategies. Insurgency groups under it are conducting violent attacks but do not reveal the movement’s identity or its leader. There is still much for us to find out,'’ he said.
Gen Sonthi said it would take a long time before the movement declared itself or revealed its leader _ in a similar fashion to the way the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Indonesia had operated.
“I want them to reveal their identities and tell us if they want to talk,'’ he said.
The army chief recalled the incident at Tanyong Limo in Narathiwat’s Rangae district where two marines were taken hostage and later killed last month. Villagers had requested negotiations with the authorities, but they did not reveal who their leader was.
Earlier, security sources said the separatist movement was made up of a group of religious teachers or ustazes, ponoh students and Muslim graduates aged 30-50 from overseas universities. It had former core members of old separatist groups acting as advisers.
“I want everyone to understand that the ongoing violent incidents in the South of Thailand are aimed at separation of the land similar to what happened in Indonesia’s Aceh.
“But the strength of the separatist movement is less than 1% of the 1.3 million Muslim people in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat provinces where the majority do not support it. So, the insurgents have tried to create conditions to draw the people to support the movement,'’ Gen Sonthi said.
To Gen Sonthi, the violence in the South is linked to the battle for resources and control over the Strait of Malacca involving many countries in the region, but he declined to name them.
The new army chief told reporters they should be aware that the insurgents wanted their activities and attacks published and broadcast in the media worldwide to internationalise the issue.
“I know you have to report facts, but reports can be made in a way not to be a tool for the insurgents,'’ Gen Sonthi said.
In Yala, two people were shot and seriously wounded in a gun attack in Raman district yesterday.
Police said Yako Mama, 37, a beef trader, and Maroyuning Udae, 39, an assistant village chief of tambon Kero, were shot by two men on a motorcycle.
On Thursday night, a village security volunteer was gunned down in Raman district. Police said assailants driving in a pick-up truck opened fire at Madaning Samae, 46, who was travelling on his motorcycle to Ban Kameng School.
Also in Yala, a police officer and his wife were wounded when a bomb planted under their pick-up truck exploded at their house in Muang district.
The bomb, which was triggered by mobile phone, went off while Pol Snr Sgt-Maj Samarn Pukpopsuk and his wife Rattana were leaving their house at around 5pm to go shopping.