Separatist Violence in Thailand's South Continues by Phairath Khampha 26 November 2002 Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he would act swiftly to end separatist unrest in Thailand's south, after another three policemen were shot and wounded in Pattani late on the night of November 1, 2002. His angry response came as police mounted a big manhunt for five unidentified assailants involved in the ambush of a police patrol truck in Pattani's Yarang district shortly before midnight. The violence in the south has been ongoing for a number of years, with the Thai authorities being able to do little to put a stop to it. "I now beg of you, the public, to allow me to use the most decisive and swift action because the problem has dragged on for too long," Mr Thaksin said. He did not specify what measures he wanted to take. The three policemen were wounded when five men trailing them in a pickup truck opened fire at their vehicle on the Pattani-Yala road. A fourth policeman sitting in the patrol truck was not hurt. One of the wounded officers was in a critical condition. At least 17 police officers had been killed in a spate of shootings in the South since late 2001. The government said the attacks, including bombings in Pattani and arson attacks on five schools in Songkhla in October, were not related to international terrorism, but the work of local separatists motivated by business interests. Mr Thaksin said he would work closely with his deputy Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, defence minister Thammarak Isarangkura na Ayudhaya and Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha to end the problem. The government, he said, would ask for help from the Malaysian government to solve the problem of dual citizenship held by Thai and Malaysian nationals living the along the border. Thailand would suggest to Malaysia that those people be given the nationality of the country that issued them birth certificates. The measure would stop Muslim separatists moving across the border freely after committing crimes. About 200 local police assisted by border patrol police, sniffer dogs and helicopters combed a mountainous area of Ban Khao Toom the day after the shooting looking for the assailants. The group abandoned their truck after clashing with a second police unit which came to help the first. Police said they found two grenades inside the truck. The men escaped along a jungle route. Pol Maj-Gen Thanee Tawitsri, assistant commissioner of the 9th Regional Police Bureau, said the pick-up was stolen from a teacher murdered in Yaring district in October . Mr Wan Nor on November 2 went to Yala to meet security staff as seven separatists, led by Maruding Garlong, turned themselves in to army assistant commander Gen Chaisit Shinawatra who also travelled to Songkhla's Hat Yai district. Gen Chaisit said he hoped other separatists would also surrender. Maruding said he did not think separatists were behind the school arsons, as they preferred attacking government targets. "We would not do such things since our children also study at those schools," he said. Gen Chaisit said 20 other separatists had contacted him about surrendering. Soldiers could be redeployed along the border after the recent arson and bomb attacks, he said. After the Civilian-Police-Military Command 43 was dissolved in April, soldiers were abruptly withdrawn from mountainous and forest areas. They had cultivated a network of informants, but they stopped supplying information when the soldiers left. Gen Chaisit said military and intelligence units in the South had complained about the lack of reliable information and urged that soldiers be re-deployed. He would put a proposal to the prime minister. People unhappy with police for arresting their relatives were behind the unrest. These people, who were influential and had bandits under their control, tried to turn the situation into a religious conflict between Buddhist and Muslim people. However, he added, he did not think that the Buddhists would instigate anything as never in history had there been conflicts based on Buddhism. Meanwhile, 48 per cent of people questioned in a poll by Bangkok University said they did not think the government was up to the task of stopping the violence. Of the 1,114 people questioned in the poll, 54.9 per cent dismissed Thaksin's earlier claim that the attacks were aimed at discrediting newly appointed Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Noor Matha. The ambush on the policemen was the latest in an ongoing spate of violent attacks that rocked the predominantly Muslim region of Thailand. Two bombs exploded on the previous Tuesday at a Buddhist temple and a hotel in Pattani, while five public schools were set ablaze in two different districts in Songkhla province in what appeared to be well-coordinated attacks on the same day. Teacher arrested, explosives seized An Islamic teacher was arrested on November 3 for suspected involvement in the hotel bombing and the ambush of the police patrol. About 50 police raided a house in tambon Bo Thong in Nong Chik district that morning, armed with a search warrant issued by the court. Provincial police chief Pol Maj-Gen Panya Thiensart said they searched the house of Abdul Koder Saha, 51, an Islamic teacher at Ban Mai Withaya School. They seized eight bars of "power-gel emulsion" explosives weighing about 1kg and many other articles, including letters signed by Poh Ma Su-ngaibatu of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, a separatist group. The letters, written in 2001, were to be sent to petrol stations in Yala province to demand 1.5 million baht each from them. Abdul Koder Saha was initially charged with possessing explosives without a permit. In addition to teaching Islam, Mr Abdul was named a model farmer of Thepha district of Songkhla in 2001. He admitted that the explosives were inside his house, but claimed not to know how they got there. He also denied knowledge of the hotel bomb explosion and the attack on the police patrol. Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha went to Nong Chik district police station that afternoon to talk to the suspect for about two hours. Afterwards, Mr Wan Nor would only say the man had given useful information. Mr Abdul's arrest followed the seizure of the pick-up truck used by assailants to attack the police patrol. A mobile telephone was also recovered. Numbers in the telephone's memory led to the search of Mr Abdul's house.