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| Southeast Asia |
| Indonesian jihadis heading into South Thailand |
| 2005-09-30 |
| A security adviser to the prime minister said Thursday that Indonesian fighters are involved in Thailand's Muslim insurgency, contradicting government insistence the bloody separatist movement is a homegrown affair unconnected to Southeast Asia's al-Qaida-linked terror network. "I have warned the authorities concerned several times about Indonesian fighters sneaking into the region but they have ignored it," Gen. Kitti Rattanachaya told The Associated Press, saying the militants infiltrated from the Indonesian province of Aceh. His assertion comes amid rumors of Indonesian Muslims joining the fight in Thailand's southernmost provinces. No substantial evidence has emerged to back the claim, and Rattanachaya gave few details of the infiltration. Most analysts regard the insurgency as domestic but with a strong potential to attract foreign Muslim militants - including members of the Jemaah Islamiyah network, blamed for deadly attacks including the 2002 Bali bombings and a 2003 blast at Jakarta's J.W. Marriott hotel. In a recent AP interview, a veteran Thai rebel leader warned that militants from Indonesia and Arab nations might join the Thai fight for a separate Muslim homeland if the government continued a crackdown that is provoking a new generation of fighters. Lukman B. Lima said the 21-month-old insurgency is getting moral and financial support from abroad, especially from Islamic sympathizers in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. But he said weapons are being obtained locally and wielded by Thai Muslims. "I assure you that many among the young generation are being trained to use the weapons to defend themselves. We train them in the mountains, jungles and sometimes in villages but only inside Thailand," Lukman said in a Sept. 23 interview. The government repeatedly has denied there are rebel training camps in Thailand. Kitti, a security adviser to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and former army commander in the restive region, said officials "don't accept the truth that we are facing the problem of separatist insurgents supported by fellow Muslims in the region." Also Thursday, Thaksin dismissed local media reports that Washington was concerned about international militants joining with Thai Muslims. The Thai-language daily Matichon said U.S. Ambassador Ralph Boyce met with the interior minister recently to ask about possible foreign involvement. "Not true. I don't believe the report (of foreign militants) is true because even when I met with President Bush he did not bring this up," Thaksin told reporters when asked about the meeting. Thaksin met Bush in Washington earlier this month. Boyce told AP: "We still view the situation as homegrown." In another interview earlier this week, a Thai Muslim who fought with the mujahedeen in Afghanistan and who has close contacts with the Thai insurgents said he believed fighters from Aceh with superior training have been operating in southern Thailand for some time. Thai insurgents, mostly recruited from religious school and given just rudimentary training, were not good enough to carry out some of the attacks witnessed in the south, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity out of concerns for his safety. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 JI sucks ! Indonesian government sucks ! The Indonesian judicial system sucks ! Aussies rule ! JI stinks !! ner ner ner ner :P |
| Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World 2005-09-30 03:33 |