Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday that two core members of a separatist insurgency in southern Thailand have fled to neighboring Malaysia where he claimed the guerrillas had received training.
But four other suspected militant leaders, captured earlier this week, were brought to Bangkok yesterday from the south to face charges of treason. All denied the charges.
PHOTO: EPA
Despite the arrests, and a hunt for 80 other key guerrilla leaders, Thaksin warned that the insurgency would persist for some time since hundreds of young men had received military training both locally at Muslim schools and in Malaysia's Kelantan State.
More than 550 people have died this year in Muslim-dominated areas of the south, many of them policemen and other officials targeted almost daily by the separatists.
"The sporadic violence will continue for some time because the movement has been brain washed and its young members have been receiving military training since 1993," Thaksin told reporters.
The prime minister said the Malaysian government was not aware of the training since it was conducted in jungle-covered areas.
"Two of the key figures fled to Malaysia and we are hunting for other core members who are divided into three groups of 22, 29 and 31," Thaksin said.
The four captured suspects, all Islamic teachers, were being transferred to Bangkok pending formal court proceedings against them, he said. They face a maximum penalty of death if found guilty.
One of the four, Wae-usoh Waedueramae, masterminded a Jan. 4 raid on an army depot in which four soldiers died and hundreds of weapons were stolen, and the torching of 36 schools in 1993, according to Thai officials.
Thai Muslims in the southern Muslim-majority provinces in this mostly Buddhist nation have long complained about unfair treatment by the central government.
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
RSS