The Jakarta Post, 9/29/2005 5:06:06 PM
RI fighters involved in Thailand's Muslim insurgency: Security
advisor
BANGKOK (AP): A security adviser to the prime minister said Thursday that
Indonesian fighters were involved in Thailand's Muslim insurgency, contradicting the
official view that the bloody separatist movement was strictly a homegrown affair.
"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.
Although there have been rumors of Indonesian Muslims joining their Thai
co-religionists in the country's southernmost provinces, no substantial evidence has
yet emerged to back the claim. Most analysts still regard the insurgency as
domestic, butwith a strong potential of attracting foreign Muslim militants including
adherents to the al-Qaeda linked regional terrorist network, Jamaah Islamiyah.
In Indonesia, Maj. Gen. Police Ansyaad Mbai, who heads the terrorism desk at the
Ministry for Political and Security Affairs, said that "it's not clear whether this is
happening."
He said it "was possible" that one or two Indonesian militants were in southern
Thailand, but he had seen no formal reports on the matter.
More than 1,000 people, including moderate Muslims, Buddhist villagers, police and
government officials, have been killed since early 2004 when a century-long struggle
for an independent state in three Muslim-dominated provinces was reignited.
A security adviser to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and former army commander
in the restive region, Kitti said officials "don't accept the truth that we are facing the
problem of separatist insurgents supported by fellow Muslims in the region."(**)
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