Foreign terrorists participated in southern attacks

Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies) –  Among the 107 militant Muslim suspects killed in the past week by Thai police, 7 were foreign.  The fact gives proof  that Islamic fundamentalists from other nations have participated in the new wave of violence in the primarily Buddhist country. 

General Lieutenant Pisarn Wattanawongkiri refused to give further details, but other representatives of the army said that they are verifying the possibility of  Indonesian Muslims being among the youth who organized the attacks. 

 In Muslim tradition, the dead should be buried within 24 hours; since no one claimed the bodies of the 7 unknown youth, they are most likely said to be of foreigners. 

Immigration authorities stated that last month 7 Indonesians entered Thailand from the  Malaysian border, across the province of Narathiwat, but  there is no record that they had left the country.

Immediately after the attacks of  April 28th, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra – who visited the southern provinces - excluded the involvement of any foreigners.

Yesterday, the government began in independent investigation into the assault on the Krue Se mosque in the province of Pattani, where 32 fighters were killed.

Meanwhile, the police and security officials are alerted to the possibility of further attacks.

Intelligence reports, in fact, estimate that at least 30 thousand young Muslims are ready to launch other attacks against authorities in the south. 

One week after the attacks, which broke the ten year cease-fire of separatist muslim groups that want independence of the southern provinces for the Islamic majority, the question remains: For what reasons do these young adults, and even teenagers, initiate these attacks? 

Many hold that conditions of extreme poverty, sparse culture, and resentment towards the Buddhist government politics, have caused the revival of  Islamic fundamentalism since  September 11th.

In Suso, 18 young men between 18 and 30 years of age, members of a popular soccer team, attacked a police station armed with machetes, and were killed.

 "As individuals, these boys would not have done all this, but as a team, they did," affirmed Layla Kado, a shop proprietor in a neighboring village. 

According to Jehissmail Jehmong, a Muslim politician of the Pattani province, the mastermind behind the attacks recruited only those with strong religious beliefs, who were "poor and without education".

Abdul Wani, a Muslim official of the area around the village of Suso, said that only 10 of the 5000 villagers have a higher educaton.

Most of the insurgent youth attended religious schools.

 The government did not openly accuse the schools of forming Islamic extremists, but declared that it will investigate the institutions for possible suspects.  (MR)

• thailand
• poor
• islamic
• fundamentalism