Foreign sources transferred over 100 million baht to leading separatists to fund violent acts in the deep South and the state will start cutting them off from Monday, said Defence Minister Chettha Thanajaro yesterday. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday also said most separatist leaders were in Malaysia and there was lack of concrete progress on Thailand’s request for their arrest. Gen Chettha said authorities found evidence of the transfers to the bank accounts of many key separatists who had received about 40 million baht each. ``Financial examination found the shocking fact that money was transferred from overseas locations to the accounts of many people behind the incidents,’’ he said but declined to reveal the sources. ``Some people received US$1.6 million each and others US$1 million each. So each of them got over 40 million baht. We must cut off the overseas support first,’’ he said. The minister also said several key separatists worked locally and overseas to coordinate the transfers of the foreign funds.
Soldiers will on Monday start their hunt for people involved in the Jan 4 army firearms robbery and the April 28 attacks on security units in the deep South. After the July 11 deadline for separatists to surrender, the military will start hunting suspects who failed to report, Gen Chettha said, adding that nearly 100 suspects are targeted. ``No matter whether they are in the country or have already fled, we will hunt them anyway, and chase them from towns and communities into the forests and keep pursuing them until we nail them,’’ he said. More than 120 separatist suspects aged 15-40 have surrendered and the number should almost reach 200 at the Sunday deadline. Most are teachers and students of Islamic ponoh schools in the deep South. Gen Chettha said although martial law is in effect in the deep South, separatists arrested from Monday will not be tried in military courts, since that could create a human rights issue because a military court provides no channel of appeal.
Meanwhile, Mr Thaksin said Thai authorities had forwarded arrest warrants to Malaysia requesting that key suspects be rounded up, but authorities there had not made the arrests. Reacting to Mr Thaksin’s comments, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told AFP in Kuala Lumpur: ``I don’t know what is meant by little cooperation. There’s been a lot of contact between the security people of both countries. The security of southern Thailand is equally important to us.’’ Howeve, the minister said, there was confusion over the names given for the alleged militants, and ``we don’t have the addresses. It will take time. We need to verify the information and the information is not straightforward.’’
| "Cheez, and these guys have so many passports, and we have to check each one out." |
In April, Mr Thaksin irritated his Malaysian colleagues with similar charges, leading Mr Syed Hamid to tell Bangkok to stop playing ``the blaming game’’. Mr Thaksin later visited Malaysia for talks with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who pledged full support for Thailand’s efforts to crush the southern separatist militants. Fourth Army chief Lt-Gen Pisarn Wattanawongkeeree said yesterday the state needed to convert tens of thousands of young people in the deep South back from separatism. About five to 10 people aged 15-20 in each village in the region were enticed to join the separatist cause and there were 1,576 villages there, he noted. ``We must bring them back to our side or we will be in trouble,’’ he said. The commander is also seeking the prime minister’s permission to establish two paramilitary ranger regiments to recruit southern Muslims to take responsibility for local security. |