Issues in the news

HAPPY NEW YEAR

(Regular and Chinese)

Updated for:

Thursday 8 January

Newsean presents news and analysis you need to know - highlights, summaries and no-nonsense commentaries from and about East and South Asia, and the world from Thailand, free-press capital of the area.
Click to subscribe

Also on Newsean

Thailand suffers another
Night of the Southern Fires 

Denial of the threat

won't make it go away

Terrorists try to exploit

old anti-Bangkok feelings 

Thailand suffered another night of fires and violence in the far south of the country, just as the New Year began. Recriminations and the familiar Bangkok panic are dominating the news. When those die down, as they have after similar nights every so often over the past 40 years, the great wall of misunderstanding will resume between the central government and resentful southerners.

_{At least 18 schools burned again in another night of fires in southern Thailand early on Jan 5, 2004.}

But the problem is worse than it ever has been. Despite a culture of denial in Bangkok and in the South, international terrorists have been exploiting the region for some time. Thailand is already a terrorist target, as the Jemaah Islamiyah leader Nurjaman Riduan Isamuddin, alias Hambali, told interrogators after he was arrested in the old capital of Ayutthaya in August, 2003. The really bad news is that al-Qaeda and its local cells are infiltrating schools and Muslim organisations with an eye to hardening and dominating the extremely moderate majority of Muslims in the South, in Bangkok and in Chiang Mai.

Here is some background.

The term “southern Thailand” covers five provinces where ethnic Malay Muslims are the majority population. Yala and Narathiwat provinces border directly on Malaysia. Pattani is where sultans lived and administered the region for the Malay nation prior to the 20th century, and is the spiritual home of rebellion. Satun and Songkhla province are where the border majority begins to blend with the ethnic Thai and Buddhist population of most of Thailand. Songkhla is a thriving business and nightlife province and also is the centre of education for the southerners, with numerous madrassa and universities aimed directly at Muslim young people.

In 1971, a small number of Muslims — most of whom ironically lived in Malaysia — formed Pulo, the Pattani United Liberation Organisation. It claimed to be fighting for the liberation of the five southern provinces. At times Pulo claimed the region should be an independent country, and designed a flag still seen occasionally today. At other times, Pulo claimed to want to join the five southern provinces to Malaysia.

Either way, Pulo was a terrorist organisation fighting by burning schools (even then), blowing up rail lines and on one infamous occasion threatening the hugely revered Thai king with an explosion during a royal-sponsored gathering.

Many southerners resented the sometimes ham-fisted and jackboot counter-terrorism tactics of the Thai army and, especially, paramilitary rangers. But Pulo never made serious headway in the Thai South, either in real terms of territory, building forces or advancing their aims, or in winning many hearts and minds of the southern Muslims they claimed as their constituency.

_{The Pattani United Liberation Organisation was officially formed in 1971, but plays on a century of bad feeling by southern Thai Muslims towards Bangkok.}

By the mid-1980s the Pulo rebellion was squashed. Tiny bands of self-proclaimed separatists managed to launch occasional nights of terrorism, or bomb threats. The core leader of Pulo, Lukman bin Lima, fled to Sweden where he still lives and infrequently rants against the Thai government.

He gets almost no publicity, at home or abroad. The only recent media outlet willing to carry his screeds is the al-Jazeera TV network. The Arab station spread a statement last July, just weeks before the capture of the terrorist leader Hambali. Lukman talks in jargon, as he demonstrates in this al-Jazeera clip:

Lukman bin Lima, deputy president of the Pattani United Liberation Organisation, accused Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of oppressing the Muslim community...

“Today, in these strange times we (Pulo) ask our brothers and sisters in Pattani to defend the sanctities of Islam and our homeland,” the Sweden-based Lukman said in a statement. Lukman accused Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha, himself a Muslim, for “killing freedom fighters and Tok Kuru (Islamic scholars) to please Thaksin,” the report said without elaborating.

(Continued at top, column 2)

Which brings us nearly to today. During the night of 4-5 July, southern Thailand was rocked by a series of coordinated terrorist attacks. Most of them torched schools, empty at the time of course. The arsons destroyed 18 schools by the count of the time. In some cases, the raiders blocked roads with nail boards or fires to prevent firemen from trying to save the schools.

At the same time, a group of between 30 and 150 armed men, depending on the witnesses involved, attacked a Thai military camp. The attackers killed four Thai soldiers, quite brutally including cutting their throats. They stole — again depending on who is reporting — between 120 and 350 small arms and machineguns, and the ammunition to go with them.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who holds enough political power to be described as a strongman by many people, does not allow the word “terrorists” to be used about Thailand, in his hearing. To him the southern raiders were “southern bandits” as they have been ever since he became prime minister.

_{The Pattani United Liberation Organisation has designed this flag and proposed it as the official standard of a separate Muslim nation in southern Thailand.}

Probably by coincidence, the ... violent people in the South have killed 23 policemen, mostly execution style, burnt more than 30 schools and set at least 14 quite powerful little bombs, usually on motorcycles, in southern cities. Some have exploded. The day after the Night of the Fires, a bomb on a motorcycle killed two ordnance officers as they worked feverishly to defuse it — live on local TV news.

Mr Thaksin's theory is that the Night of the Fires was all a diversion. The only real aim of the attackers was the arms depot at the military base. The attackers are arms runners, who see profits in stealing, smuggling and selling the military weapons in Aceh. That is the Indonesian province where hardline Muslims are fighting to separate from the central government, a rough parallel to the southern separatists.

The violence in the South of Thailand is serious, combustible and possibly will escalate. It is extremely dangerous for two reasons:

• Bangkok does not have a clue exactly who is behind the southern violence, and,
• International terrorists have been quietly active in the area for several years and are increasing their activities.

The terrorists have been “talent scouting” vulnerable, young Thai Muslim males and taking them abroad for training. The usual manner is to include the targeted youth in a group of students headed overseas to further their education at Muslim universities or advanced madrassas in Pakistan.

At least 700 Thai youths were taken from Pakistan schools to Afghanistan for military type training during the time of the Taliban government and their sponsor, Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda headquarters. More young men have been taken, even more secretively, for recruitment in Malaysia and advanced training in the Philippines, Yemen, Pakistan and other places where bin Laden and supporters have camps.

Up to now, there appear to be no active terrorist cells working in Thailand on behalf of international terrorism. Hambali was arrested, for example, while hiding in a central Thailand apartment house, apparently unable to find refuge even with the handful of Muslim extremists in the South or in Chiang Mai, the northern city.

That is in the process of changing, by all signs. Thailand is a target for local terrorists already, whatever the government calls them. (Certainly tens of thousands of southern people are terrorised by the attackers.) Soon, unless steps are taken to infiltrate and terrorist rings and develop good intelligence sources in the South, Thailand will be subject to even fiercer attacks from within, and highly vulnerable to al-Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiyah and other terrorists from abroad.

Don't forget the daily news on the Newsean Updates page. You can bookmark and return to this page often. It is updated regularly, often daily, with news of Thailand and, especially, its decisions on the war on terrorism. Now available: an RSS feed.

Click to Subscribe: http://www.newsean.in.th/blog/rss.xml

Check out our recent scoops and commentaries before you go.  We have exclusive coverage of Iraq and information never before printed on the Al Anser Islam (Iraq), Jemaah Islamiyah (Southeast Asia)  and al-Qaeda terrorist groups, plus the anti-drug wars of Thailand and Southeast Asia. Click here to load.

Closing borders
to the traffickers 

Secrecy, unilateral action

only helps the criminals

Only cooperation can halt terrorists and traffickers 

The slogan for a crucial meeting on fighting crime in Southeast Asia is promising. The conference must come up with solid blueprints on how the region can stop gangs who exploit porous borders in criminal enterprises.

_{No fruitful results: Last year's meeting was in Burma, colourful but only a talkfest.}

Ministers and aides from the 10 Asean governments are to meet in Bangkok for the rest of this week to discuss one of the region's growth industries. Transnational crime covers many activities from terrorism to white slavery, and it poses an increasing threat to the security of all countries. China, South Korea and Japan will participate in the four-day meeting that starts tomorrow. Organisers have picked an effective theme, but the question remains whether participants will accept “Shared Responsibility towards Common Security.”.

The lack of unity in fighting this problem is troubling. Some of the participants in the conference still are unable to accept how serious the problem has become. Others are controlled or heavily influenced by backward-looking and even paranoid security forces. They are unwilling to provide or properly share intelligence on the activities and movements of gangs of drug traffickers, money launderers, prostitution slavers, refugee exploiters and both the enablers and leaders of terrorist gangs.

Thai organisers are attempting to move the problem along by setting certain standards for this week's meeting. Ministers will be greeted tomorrow by proposals to cooperate in law enforcement and step up bilateral and multilateral exchanges of intelligence. The proposals call for common immigration standards throughout the region, and better teamwork on finding and busting drug smuggling gangs.

The hope is to avoid time-consuming and picayune discussions and arguments. Past meetings have stumbled over how to define certain crimes. They have wasted time for lengthy defences and finger-pointings over which country is more at fault on the origins or destination of international criminals. This has left Asean groping for solutions while the transnational gangs have profited and other regions of the world have criticised lack of help from Southeast Asia.

It will be discouraging if ministers from the Asean-plus-3 conference fail again to write strong and enforcable regulations to fight terrorism and the trafficking of drugs and people. The 13 countries have few problems taking great strides in international trade. In only a few years, ministers have written down tariffs, launched free-trade treaties and generally shown extreme cross-border cooperation. Yet they have dragged their feet, continually faltered and often stated petty arguments against similar agreements to fight big crime rings and protect their citizens against exploitation.

(Continued at top, column 2)

Each country has its pet issues, to be certain, but the same can be said about any concern in Asean. If Burma — for example — is reluctant to help to stop money laundering, the other 12 countries can agree to help to fight launderers, while noting the Burmese reluctance. If Brunei — for example — does not feel involved in the trafficking of women and children for forced prostitution, other nations can establish border checks to shut down such gangs, without Brunei for now, if necessary.

_{Caught in the act: The vessel BBC China, seen here in a May 2003 file photo at Cagliari. The ship was caught with a supply of centrifuges for Libya in September 2003 in an operation involving the UAE, Germany, the United States, Britain and Italy.
In fact, Southeast and East Asian nations are just as determined to catch such flagrant proliferation cases but they have no information exchange mechanism to encourage it.}

Unlike with trade, bilateral agreements on fighting crime have their place but are not as useful as regional tenacity against mafia-type gangs and terrorists. Some transnational crime is mostly local, such as smuggling Thai babies to Malaysia. Bilateral agreements and special border watches have their place. But the conference that starts tomorrow in Bangkok must concentrate on crimes and security threats common to much of the world.

In short, ministers must fix their eyes firmly on the big picture, and seriously address how to fight transnational crime. Sharing of information and intelligence is no longer an option, and no longer can be blocked by security forces still fighting the cold war. Drug traffickers who make heroin in Burma, smuggle it to China and ship it to Australia via Cambodia will only be caught by fast, efficient and shared intelligence.

The people traffickers, terrorists, money launderers and similar criminals believe they are smarter than the border protection in East Asia. Better cooperation will prove they are wrong.

Don't forget the daily news on the Newsean Updates page. You can bookmark and return to this page often. It is updated regularly, often daily, with news of Thailand and, especially, its decisions on the war on terrorism. Now available: an RSS feed.

Click to Subscribe: http://www.newsean.in.th/blog/rss.xml

Check out our recent scoops and commentaries before you go.  We have exclusive coverage of Iraq and information never before printed on the Al Anser Islam (Iraq), Jemaah Islamiyah (Southeast Asia)  and al-Qaeda terrorist groups, plus the anti-drug wars of Thailand and Southeast Asia. Click here to load.

Pyongyang again

picks on Thailand

Dear Leader trying to

smuggle nuclear equipment

North Korea seems unable to give up its criminal ways.

North Korea has become isolated in its campaign to develop nuclear weapons and keep Northeast Asia in a constant state of tension. Pyongyang must stop involving Thailand and other countries in its violent projects.

_{State of denial: A North Korean ship runs from the Japanese coast guard. Pyongyang tries to hide all its doings, legal or otherwise.}

A fascinated world watched the dramatic and inglorious end of the end of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq. Many wondered what Asia's most dangerous dictator thought of it. Kim Jong-Il, the “dear leader” of North Korea, seems determined to survive. That means, now more than ever, he must to change his ways. Unfortunately, he seems in no hurry to put North Korea on a more civilised and transparent track in the world, and has pulled Thailand into the complicated equation.

US President George W. Bush said last week he intends to engage Pyongyang on a road to negotiations. That road appears to be paved with good intentions. China has become a major partner of Washington in the race to dissuade North Korea from becoming a nuclear power. There's a lot of work ahead, but the hope is that if Washington, Beijing and Moscow can offer security guarantees and aid to Mr Kim, the North Korean leader will abandon his nuclear programme. Japan and South Korea support this project.

Unfortunately, the necessary signs for such a deal remain questionable. Pyongyang gives no more confidence now that it will make and keep a peace agreement than it ever has in the past. The past week has seen an ominous development. Authorities have revealed a second, previously unreported attempt to use Thailand as a conduit to smuggle nuclear weapons technology to North Korea.

Last April, a company called Meishin, based in Tokyo but controlled by Pyongyang, tried to smuggle three direct current control devices from Japan to North Korea in equipment shipments by a Thai communications firm. The electrical devices are used on centrifuges for uranium enrichment during the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Hong Kong authorities intercepted that effort. Last week, Taiwan revealed customs agents intercepted a shipment of chemicals used to make terrible weapons. The deadly barrels were en route from Thailand to North Korea aboard a cargo ship when it attracted Taiwanese attention.

(Continued at top, column 2)

The first case was a smuggling offence, the second a case of misstating contents and destination of questionable material. It should go without saying that the use of Thai facilities and a Thai company for such actions is unacceptable. What is more troubling, overall, is the continued flaunting of international norms by North Korea. Pyongyang seems unwilling to obey laws and standards.

Even when the country is acting legally, North Korea often acts secretly. Nearly a year ago, the Spanish navy boarded a North Korean ship and discovered a hidden cargo of missiles, with no papers. It turned out the missiles had been legally bought by Yemen. By hiding, smuggling and exploiting innocent countries and companies, North Korea leaves the unhealthy impression it cannot be trusted in the important international agreements it is negotiating.

North Korea's official news agency took several days to react to the dragging of Saddam Hussein from his hiding hole. It is all part, said the bombastic agency, of the American “ambition for world domination.” That might take in a few dupes, but if it is true, it means that everyone is out of step except Pyongyang. This time, North Korea faces the world, and the three biggest powers are determined to keep nuclear arms out of the Korean peninsula.

Mr Kim should be working on a verifiable, workable agreement with his old American enemies and his old Chinese and Russian friends. Those three countries — plus Thailand and all others in East Asia — are willing to welcome North Korea into the community of civilised world nations trying to build peace. All are equally unwilling to see recidivism, where North Korea continues to take steps against peaceful co-existence, at the expense of its own, oppressed people and its neighbours. Mr Bush says he is reluctant to use force, and has demonstrated that. It is time for Mr Kim to show similar restraint.

Don't forget the daily news on the Newsean Updates page. You can bookmark and return to this page often. It is updated regularly, often daily, with news of Thailand and, especially, its decisions on the war on terrorism.

Check out our recent scoops and commentaries before you go.  We have exclusive coverage of Iraq and information never before printed on the Al Anser Islam (Iraq), Jemaah Islamiyah (Southeast Asia)  and al-Qaeda terrorist groups, plus the anti-drug wars of Thailand and Southeast Asia. Click here to load.

Newsean Exclusive: The world is looking for a workable plan to take nuclear weapons away from North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il (left). One plan is to force Pyongyang to at least be a law-abiding international citizen.

With the world spotlight on Iraq, the anti-terrorism focus has hit a vicious terrorist gang based in northeast Iraq. The terrorist leader Mullah Krekar denies links to Baghdad. There is strong suspicion he is lying about that, as well as many other things. The first of a series on Iraq stories is here. But first....

More Newsean articles

Who needs enemies with Burma around?

Good riddance to a bad regime in Afghanistan

IN RECENT ISSUES

The Thailand Meteorological Department

Quotable

We will not let our soldiers live in danger, but at the same time they are not cowards to run away from the problem.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on the Iraq reconstruction

Quotable

Now that they have signaled even Muslim lives can be taken, I think the Muslim community has to be more vigilant than before.

Yaacob Ibrahim, Muslim Affairs Minister of Singapore, after the Turkey car bombings

Quotable

The terrorist threat to Americans in the Philippines remains high.

US State Department security advisory 

Older items below

Quotable

I want to beg all the angels in the sky not to give us as much rain as yesterday.

Bangkok city clerk Nathanon Thavisin, a day after a downpour flooded the city