The Thai government said yesterday that Islamic militants trained raiders who brazenly attacked an army camp recently and admitted incompetence in its intelligence and security operations in the Muslim-dominated provinces of southern Thailand.
"We knew that things were going to happen. We knew that they [militant groups] were recruiting and training people," Defense Minister Thammarak Issarangkura na Ayudhaya told a Cabinet meeting.
The minister said the recruits were young people studying at Muslim religious schools but did not specify where or by whom they were trained. Thai intelligence sources say the training takes place in southern Thailand although officials fear local militants are being aided by outside terror groups linked to al-Qaeda.
Meanwhile, Thai and Malaysian military forces began joint land and air patrols along their jungle border for the first time since the 1970s and the Thais announced they had stepped up security at airports across the country.
The patrols were to have begun in March, but Thailand requested they be hastened after the recent attacks, fearing the raiders could flee to mostly Islamic Malaysia.
The attack on the army camp on Jan. 4 left four soldiers dead in southern Narathiwat province. The attackers raided the camp's armory and stole more than 100 assault rifles. Simultaneously, 21 government-run schools were set on fire. A string of bombings and attempted bombings followed, killing two police officers.
The last coordinated border patrols along the Southeast Asian neighbors' shared border were during Malaysia's decades-long communist insurgency, when rebels launched attacks in Malaysia from jungle hide-outs in Thailand. The insurgency petered out by the 1980s.
The two countries agreed to resume joint patrols as part of security pacts signed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US, to combat smuggling, illegal migration and other transnational crimes along the remote, porous barrier.
Anan Kongyeun, deputy chief of Bangkok International Airport's security division, said precautionary measures and the number of security personnel had been expanded at airports following the most recent violence, "because what happened there could happen elsewhere."
The measures would be in place until the situation calmed, he said.
He said security was especially tight at Hat Yai airport, the aerial gateway to southern Thailand, located 930km south of the capital Bangkok.
Thammarak told the Cabinet session that it was even known that students ask permission from their parents to attend military training. His comments were carried in an unprecedented live radio and television broadcast of the weekly meeting.
The minister was interrupted by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who lashed out at the lack of cooperation among security, intelligence and military units.
"We knew that they train in the jungles from 1am, so may I ask `Can we chase and stop them from training? Yes, we can if we take the offensive but instead we work out of our bases, our offices,"' Thaksin said.
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