Thailand Attempts to Tackle Separatist Violence in South by Phairath Khampha 29 July 2002 Thai officials started to address ways to tackle the growing tide of violence in the south of the country, near the Malaysian border. Two policemen were shot and killed as they escorted a bus full of teachers in the latest attack on July 10, 2002. Two days earlier a bomb exploded on a train injuring a policeman and a guard. Some 21 policemen had been killed by the end of July in 2002 in the region, where Muslim insurgents seeking independence were active in the 1980s. Cash rewards totalling more than one million baht were offered for information leading to the arrest of 10 suspected separatists in the South, Interior Minister Purachai Piumsombun said. Intelligence sources said members of the Muslim-separatist group Mujahideen Islam Pattani had carried out the July 10 attack. However, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra added further confusion to the situation in the south by saying the people responsible for rising violence in the region were "around here". The government should accept the fact that separatist movements still existed or it would never turn around the troubles in the south, a former senior army officer said. The military was put back in the intelligence seat with a new security unit to be formed in reversal of government policy. National police chief Sant Sarutanont was greeted with a home-made 10kg bomb when he visited Narathiwat --but it did not go off. And a Mujahideen terrorist group issued its latest threat to kill "an entire station of police." Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he feared more violence in the area, but did not link the attacks on police officers to religion even though the interior minister identified the suspects as separatists. "There could be more incidents, but we must take tougher measures to stop this," he said. "I don't think religion was the cause of the problems down there because several of the policemen killed were Muslim." Drugs link suspected Interior Minister Purachai Piemsomboon visited the scene of the latest shootings in Sungai Padi, about 800 kilometres south of Bangkok. He said drug traffickers were suspected as being responsible for the violence. "They are looking after their own interests, they are motivated only by money," he said in a television interview. "This is happening because police are making serious efforts to make arrests over drugs trafficking." Earlier, police chief General Sant Sarutanond agreed that the separatist groups that plagued the area in the 1980s were not suspected of the attacks. "It must be a bandit group but not terrorists," he said. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks in Sungai Padi, in Narathiwat - one of five Thai provinces bordering Malaysia where Muslims are in the majority. The government cannot settle on the cause of violence which also claimed the lives of two defence volunteers accompanying police on patrol in June. The attacks on police were accompanied by bomb attacks on public targets, the latest being the attack on a train in Yala province on July 8, which injured two railway staff. Four policemen were attacked in the July 10 shooting on a road running through a rubber plantation between Ban Ton Mai Sung and Ban Ta Se. The police, all from Sungai Padi station, were patrolling on two motorcycles. The attackers emerged from the roadside at three different spots and opened fire with assault rifles, killing Pol Sgt-Maj Num Julathep, 45, and Pol Cpl Chairat Chumkhong, 32, on the first motorcycle. The other police, Pol Sgt Monchai Phuakphan and Pol Sgt Bali-se Muna, returned fire and called for help. Police from nearby stations arrived with sniffer dogs. A large number of spent shells and a pocket knife were recovered. Mrs Aree, wife of Pol Sgt-Maj Num, said her husband had been involved in several clashes with bandits in Si Sakhon and Ruso districts. She had always known her husband might be killed, though she did not think it would come so soon. As far as she knew her husband was not at loggerheads with anyone. Mrs Jaree, wife of Pol Cpl Chairat, said her husband had worked in Narathiwat province for nine years. Pol Cpl Chairat had asked to be transferred to Phatthalung, their home province, without success. Opinion on the cause of the violence is divided. Some blamed Muslim separatists while others suspect common bandits or conflicts of interest. Academics and Muslim leaders doubted that separatist movements were directly involved. Conflicts of interest involving influential groups were more likely and this violence was seen as special only because it was in the separatist south; in fact such violence as a result of conflicts of interest among the country's political and economic elite is not uncommon. It is the Thai way of resoving conflicts. The government's move to send reinforcements would only worsen tensions in the region, they said. Srisomphob Jitpiromsri, a political science lecturer of Prince of Songkla University's Pattani campus, took a dim view of reports that hundreds of special forces from police and other security units had been sent as reinforcements. Border Patrol Police units and Crime Suppression Division commandos were sent to the area during the first week of July. Police were now solely responsible for keeping law and order in the South after the government's decision to dissolve the combined Civilian-Police-Military 43 force. Abdullah Abru, an economics lecturer of College of Islamic Studies of Prince of Songkla University, doubted the government knew what it wanted to achieve. "The reinforcements were sent down here without clear guidelines on what to do. They have not been told what kind of missions they will have to perform," said Abdullah Abru. He dismissed reports that the al-Qaeda terrorism network was to blame for unrest in the South. He said that was something the United States State Department had invented, as it was doing in other countries in the region, as a pretext to put American troops on Thai soil in order to strong arm the government to further American economic and corporate interests. He akinned it to a form of American economic neo-colonialism, which was seen as becoming prevalent in Southeast Asia. "I think it's nonsensical, " he said. "More attacks will happen if the government insists on using more men to tackle the problem. " Hasan Madmarn, director of the College of Islamic Studies of Prince of Songkla University, said officials treated Thai-Muslim people as second-class citizens. Better manners and more assistance to improve the local economy was the best way of helping put an end to the violence, Mr Hasan said. Purachai offers rewards for information leading to arrests - Wanted posters to go on internet, all provincial halls Cash rewards totalling more than one million baht were being offered for information leading to the arrest of 10 suspected separatists in the South, Interior Minister Purachai Piumsombun said on July 10. Key details of the 10 suspects, including their photographs and names, would also be posted at provincial halls nationwide. They were also be published on the Royal Thai Police website the following day. The 10 belonged to the same separatist group believed to be responsible for a number of violent crimes in the deep South, he said. Ten cash rewards of unequal amounts were offered for clues leading to their arrest--300,000 baht for the ringleader, 150,000 baht each for his three deputies, and 50,000 baht each for the remaining six members. Mr Purachai said that the suspects were known to hold dual nationality, Thai and Malaysian, and came together from different groups of separatists trained inside Thailand. The minister said that he was quite certain the 10 suspects had no connections with any Islamic mujahideen separatist groups. "These people have tried to mislead us by calling themselves mujahideen religious seperatists, but their crimes reveal they are not, " he said. The Interior Ministry's intelligence reports showed that most of recent violent crimes in the South did not stem from religious conflicts, but from business and personal conflicts among local business people and state officials, Mr Purachai said. "The 10 have committed a number of violent crimes including robberies, abductions and murders of government officials and policemen in the [five] southernmost provinces, " the interior minister said. Police also seeked Malaysia's cooperation in their attempts to track down the 10 suspects. Key details about the group had already been given to Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad during his visit to Thailand the previous week, Mr Purachai said. Police were given no time frame for hunting down the suspects, but they should try to find them as soon as possible. Mr Purachai was certain there would be less violence in the South once the suspects were caught. Communities living in fear Civil servants, teachers worry they would be targets and the prime minister canceled Defense Minister Chavalit's China trip. Fear gripped several Muslim communities in the country's southernmost provinces following the July 10 killing of the two police officers in Narathiwat and reports that more were to come. The attack by unidentified gunmen on that date had raised to 14 the number of police officers killed in the South in 2002. It came amid reports that a 20,000 baht (US$1 = 42.3 baht) bounty had been placed on police officers. Despite soothing words from Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and other politicians, communities in the Muslim-dominated region said they were living in fear. Some residents said they were outraged at the government's inability to get to the bottom of the killings that jolted the region. Local residents, both Buddhists and Muslims, and teachers at the public school in Narathiwat's Sungai Padi district where the latest killings took place reached out to one another for comfort. The officers killed that day had been assigned to provide security at the school. Government officials in the district feared that they were potential targets. A number of the teachers at the school are married to Border Patrol Police assigned to the area. "Most of the kids here are Muslims. They have great affection for their teachers," said Aphinan Ake-nanond, director of the school in Ban Tha Sae village. The teachers were asked not to travel and to remain in the school overnight for the time being. A number of the young students volunteered to stay overnight to provide protection for their teachers, Aphinan said. Muslim separatists in the region have targeted government employees, including teachers and police officers, since about 1990. The chairman of the Teachers Association of Yala, Prasit Makesuwan, said the killings had alarmed the entire community, especially civil servants, many of whom were assigned to the region from elsewhere. Junior police officers in Narathiwat complained about the "tense" atmosphere in the province and said they were working under extreme pressure. "There have been orders for more patrols and each shift has to have at least six officers," said one policeman. "There's no time left to do anything else." This presumably meant also extorting the general public, a common practice of Thai police officers. Checkpoints were set up at night, but officers manning them as well as those on patrol complained that they were not suitably armed to cope with ambushes. "There are not enough bullet-proof jackets and we need more assault rifles," one officer said. In a separate development, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on July 11 indefinitely grounded Defence Minister General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, preventing him from going on an official visit to China, saying the situation in the South was more urgent. Chavalit was ordered to remain in the country to ensure that security measures in the southernmost provinces are properly implemented, said the spokesman for the Ministry of Defence, Lt-General Suraphan Phumkaew. Government House sources said the premier was increasingly frustrated because authorities and security units had been unable to arrest anyone for the attacks. Intelligence sources said members of the Muslim-separatist group Mujahideen Islam Pattani had carried out the July 10 attack. Real perpetrators are 'around here', says rime minister - Losers from power transition blamed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra added further confusion to the situation in the South by saying on July 12 the people responsible for rising violence in the region were "around here". Without naming names, Mr Thaksin said the perpetrators had resorted to violence because they were unhappy with the transition of power in the South. "We already knew whose work it is and who should be the mastermind. Just take it easy. The people who did it are around here. It happened because of the transition of power, and it's natural some people would feel unhappy," he said but did not elaborate. The Thaksin government had recently disbanded the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre and the Civilian-Police-Military Combined Command 43, both of which had been traditional state mechanisms to coordinate administrative work and oversee security matters in the South. Several government officials had asserted that the dissolution of the two units had caused dissatisfaction among officials who used to work for them. The military had played an active role in the two units which were chiefly responsible for preventing unrest in the Muslim-dominated deep south through such means as forging good relations with community and religious leaders in the region. Police had taken over the task since the dissolution of the two bodies. Mr Thaksin said he had no wish to go into details about the problem that led to the ongoing trouble in the South. The government would come up with measures to deal with the situation, pending Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's return from his visit to the region, said the prime minister. After cancelling the trip to China, Gen Chavalit went to the south to seek first-hand information about the situation there. The national police chief, Gen Sant Sarutanont, has ordered the Central Investigation Bureau to track down suspected perpetrators of the ongoing violence in the south. A police source said investigation would focus on the attacks on police. A CIB team of 30 plainclothesmen would work together with Provincial Police Region 9, the source said. Police would start by going after people already wanted on arrest warrants and expand from there to single out the real perpetrators, the source said. Police on July 12 released a namelist of 20 suspected perpetrators of violence in the South, all of them Muslim, and also offered cash rewards ranging between 50,000-300,000 baht for information leading to their arrest. Gen Yuthasak Sasiprapa, deputy defence minister, said Gen Chavalit had ordered the military to assist police in quelling southern violence. During the meeting with military men based in the South, the defence minister warned them not to just sit on their hands, he said. "Don't act with indifference and think it's none of my business," Gen Chavalit was quoted as saying. Gen Yuthasak said Gen Chavalit also stressed the need for the military and police to continue close coordination in intelligence work on a daily basis, despite the dissolution of the Special Border Provinces Administrative Centre and the Civilian-Police-Military Combined Command 43. Gen Yuthasak said police also must rethink strategies to keep ahead of their enemies who appeared to be familiar with police work routines. Police should also be more on the offensive, he said. Gen Chavalit also told those without immediate responsibility to refrain from giving interviews on the southern situation to prevent creating further confusion, said Gen Yuthasak. There were already too many theories flying around on who were to blame for the southern violence, he said. Some blamed Islamic mujahideen extremists while others pointed accusing fingers at local bandits or those with conflict of interests. Separatism is real, says Kitti - Government wrong to think the terrorists have left The government should accept the fact that separatist movements still existed or it would never turn around the troubles in the south, a former senior army officer said. Kitti Rattanachaya, a former Fourth Army commander, said efforts to bring peace to the Muslim-dominated South in the previous 21 years were blighted by a false belief that terrorists had left the region. "Explosions, murders of police and ambushes of officials, this is the work of terrorists, not ordinary bandits," Gen Kitti said. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Interior Minister Purachai Piumsombun were wrong to disband the Civilian-Police-Military Command 43 and the Southern Provinces Administrative Centre when police were not yet ready to counter terrorism alone, he said. "The government misjudged the situation. The government should not rush to pull out the military and replace them with the police who know nothing about the South," Gen Kitti said. Police could "ignite a war" in the south because they were extremely corrupt and abused, harassed and extorted local people. Police were attacked because local people hated them. Soldiers, he said, were not behind the violence. "The prime minister and the interior minister used to be police officers so they believe police officers who told them the military was behind all those bad things in the South," Gen Kitti said. Soldiers in taskforce 43 lost nothing but their 100-baht daily allowance when the unit was dissolved so there was no reason for them to stir up trouble. Gen Kitti said the government should accept that terrorists were still active in the South. The government should set up a special agency to crack down on them or make suppression of terrorists a national priority. "It seems everybody is lost. Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh dares not accept that separatist bandits are still there. Will it hurt to accept that fact?" Separatist movements, including mujahideen and holy warrior groups, were growing and one day could make Thailand a regional centre for their terrorist activities, he said. Military put back in the intelligence seat - New security unit to be formed in reversal of government policy The military was now to take charge of intelligence work in the troubled South, weeks after the government had given the job to police. A centre to handle security was also needed to cope with the continued attacks against police, ministers and security heads decided yesterday, in another apparent reversal. Earlier, cabinet had disbanded the Civilian-Police-Military Combined Command 43, supervised by the Fourth Army, and the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre under the Interior Ministry. The new decision in effect revived the units, which used to handle security in the region. The decision came at a two-hour meeting of Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, National Security Council secretary-general Kachadpai Burusapatana, the three armed forces commanders and Armed Forces Security Centre chief Lt-Gen Praparn Nilwongse. Officials shortly thereafter began to map out an offensive after several attacks on police in the deep South, especially in Narathiwat, went unanswered. Police on July 15 arrested a suspect for the July 1 bombing of Narathiwat's Si Sakhon district office. Awae Sanee, alias Aduenan, 37, was arrested at his house in tambon Riang, Rueso district, where police also found a M-67 hand grenade. Police believe he tied a bomb to a motorcycle that exploded behind the district office on July 1. No one was hurt in the explosion. Mr Awae denied the bombing charge. He also denied the grenade found at his house belonged to him. Yala police, meanwhile, were keeping a close watch on four bridges, including a railway bridge across the Sai Buri river in Raman district, amid intelligence reports they might be targeted for terrorist attacks. A security source said Gen Chavalit suggested that the military play a leading role in intelligence gathering in the South since police were still new to the task. Agreement was unanimous, said the source. Gen Chavalit said he hoped restructuring intelligence moves would improve responses on the ground. "We are too slow and too sloppy in gathering intelligence. We have to centralise the process under direct military responsibility," Gen Chavalit said. NSC chief Kachadpai, who was to retire in 2002, said the Fourth Region Internal Security Operations Command would take charge. The unit would work closely with police. Mr Kachadpai said the Interior Ministry would set up another centre, the "Centre to Solve Problems in the Southern Border Provinces". Mr Kachadpai denied the decision was tantamount to reviving the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre, saying the new centre's function would be different. Local Muslim leaders had wanted to keep that old centre open. They said it was the only forum where they could directly work with the central government in tackling problems. The old centre grouped Islamic provincial leaders in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, Satun and Songkhla. Mr Kachadpai said the new centre would bring together staff from key agencies such as the National Security Council, the National Intelligence Agency and the Public Relations Department. "It would be a loss of face to the government if it had to admit they were reviving the two centres," said a local security official. Mr Kachadpai said the police would have to be careful in cracking down on bandits in the South or innocent people could also be affected. Bomb defused as Sant flies in National police chief Sant Sarutanont was greeted with a home-made 10kg bomb when he visited Narathiwat on July 16, but it did not go off. Somboon Huaycharoen, 60, owner of a restaurant on Charoenkhet road in the municipal area, found a suspicious cardboard box under the floor of his shop about 10.30am. He rushed to inform Pol Lt-Col Suthon Sukwiset, duty officer at Sungai Kolok district police station. Police descended on the restaurant, checked the box and found the bomb. It was fitted with a timer, an alarm clock and battery, and set to explode at 2pm. It was defused by bomb experts about an hour later. The scare occurred while Pol Gen Sant was in Narathiwat and at a meeting with Muslim religious leaders. Pol Gen Sant later went to the provincial police headquarters where he handed over 1,500 bullet-proof vests to local police commanders--500 each for Yala, Narathiwat and Satun provinces. Pol Gen Sant also announced, as a morale booster, that all police in the three southern border provinces would get free life insurance coverage of 200,000 baht each, although of little tangible value as the money could not be taken with them to Nirvana. He promised police would be careful in using sniffer dogs after Transport Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha, a Pattani politician, warned that local Muslims could be easily offended by them. The dogs would be used only in remote mountainous areas, he said. Pol Gen Sant had invited Luang Phor Koon Parisutho, the revered abbot of Wat Ban Rai in Nakhon Ratchasima Province's Dan Khun Thot district, to travel with him to Narathiwat. The monk met police personnel, gave them his blessing and distributed about 5,000 amulets. In Bangkok, Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh announced a new psychological approach to the southern problem under the "Blooming Flowers" strategy, which is hoped to transform bullets into flowers. Gen Pallop Pinmanee, deputy director of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) praised Gen Chavalit for putting the military back in charge of intelligence work and setting up the Centre to Solve Problems in the Southern Border Provinces. He believed Isoc's Region 4 detachment 2, formerly the Civilian-Police-Military Combined Command 43, would get the intelligence job. It would work closely with the army, the marines and the Supreme Command's armed forces security centre. He also hoped Gen Chavalit would push for relevant security laws to back up Isoc operations. "I will give him until the New Year. If nothing is done I will resign," Gen Pallop said. Threats mar Prime Minister's visit to the South Unsigned leaflets threatening to kill police appeared in all 13 districts of Narathiwat province on July 21 as Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra left the province for Bangkok after his two-day inspection trip to the trouble South. The leaflets said that some officials at Rangae police station would be killed soon. Those targeted were Thai and Thai ethnic Chinese officials. There had also been threatening phone calls to businesses and individuals in the province, with callers demanding money. Thaksin was in the South on July 20 and 21 amid ongoing violence that has resulted in the death of 21 police officers since December. The prime minister said upon his return to Bangkok on July 21 that he would set up a think-tank to report to him directly with information about the situation in the South. The team, which was to include military, police and legal experts, would combine all information to get a clear picture of the situation, he said. "I need the team to give me the whole story and recommend how to solve the problem properly, not providing the premier with only pieces of news," he said. Thaksin said the new team would not overlap nor overshadow the exiting mechanisms. since it would only help him to consider all dimensions of the situation. The think-tank would also plan a long-term strategy for the development of the southern provinces. "Some officials don't dare to tell the truth since they don't have sufficient evidence," Thaksin said. Also, some reports made to the prime minister were wrong because agencies had composed them without checking. The prime minister said that violence in the South was caused by a number of conflicts including the illegal narcotics trade, and most of the violence did not involve separatist movements. Thaksin hinted that a reshuffle of officials working in the South would be made soon because some officials may be jaded, while others may have abused their power. Mujahideen death threat puts police on red alert Authorities went on red alert after the Mujahideen terrorist group issued its latest threat to kill "an entire station of police." The threat, made in leaflets circulated throughout Ra Ngae district, galvanised provincial and Border Patrol Police and local administration officials into forming a joint task force to tighten security. The combined force were split into three units; one guarding government officials and railways at night; another policing urban communities; and the third promoting community relations for intelligence-gathering purpose. Police were also providing protection for grassroots leaders and six informants wanted by terrorists. Police on July 23 arrested one of four men on motorcycles suspected of links with the Mujahideen group. They were seen reconnoitring near government offices in the district the previous night. The three other suspects escaped on their motorcycles. Police were questioning the arrested suspect, who remained unidentified. The Mujahideen leaflets followed a similar death threat made recently by the Bersatu separatist group. A translation of the Mujahideen leaflet, bearing the group's letterhead and written in the Yawi dialect, revealed a reward offer of 100,000 baht for the death of each policeman or informant. The leaflet said it was necessary to kill police for the survival of younger generations of southern natives. The threat reportedly scared away some informants, who fled to live with their relatives and were avoiding contact with police. The Narathiwat Islamic Committee, meanwhile, condemed recent attacks in the deep South which have claimed the lives of many policemen and damaged public property. Abdul Rohman Abdul Samat, chairman of the committee, said local leaders agreed the perpetrators of such attacks had masked themselves as Muslim separatists. They did not deserve to be referred to as mujahideen, which in Islam meant a "pure and honorable warrior" who only fought for his religion, he said. He said recent acts of terrorism, police killings, or bomb attacks on government offices in the South were not carried out in the name of God. The attacks actually stemmed from disputes in the drug trade or personal conflicts, the chairman said. He said the locals were concerned about the volatile situation and fed up with bandits disguising themselves as separatists. On July 23, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra briefed his cabinet meeting on his previous weekend's visit to the South. Government spokesman Yongyut Tiyapairat said Mr Thaksin repeated his belief that the southern violence stemmed largely from conflicts between interest groups involved in illegal businesses such as gambling dens and trade in contraband goods. The premier wanted intelligence work in the South to be more pro-active and integrated, he said. Mr Thaksin found intelligence gathering in the region to be rather "shallow", the spokesman said. Separatists singled out for blame - Movement members engaged in rackets Members of separatist movements were responsible for the spate of violence in the southernmost provinces, according to Maj-Gen Songkitti Jakkabat, deputy commander of the Fourth Army. He said on July 23 that they were old terrorist groups that had turned to work as debt collectors and extortionists. He cited the new Pattani United Liberation Organisation, Bersatu and Gerakan Mujahidin Islam Patani (GMIP). ``Separatism is not their goal any longer. Some groups of people are using them,'' said Maj-Gen Songkitti who also heads the southern unit of the Internal Security Operations Command. He said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had made an unannounced visit to the South in order to find out the facts from villagers and local religious leaders. ``The premier wanted to talk with villagers, religious teachers and religious leaders in person without the presence of state officials in order to learn the facts,'' said Maj-Gen Songkitti who was Mr Thaksin's classmate at the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School. He had no knowledge of the trip until the premier's flight took off on July 20 ``Villagers felt comfortable talking to the premier. They were eager to tell him their stories. The trip was a security risk because the premier wanted firsthand information,'' Maj-Gen Songkitti said. He also noted that there were a number of leaflets in the South threatening police and villagers. He was tracing their sources. An Army source said on July 23 that Mr Thaksin planned to use only a hand-picked team to handle the southern situation in which Maj-Gen Songkitti would certainly be made to play a major role.