Thai separatists watching al-Qaeda discs: Thaksin

Muslim militants in Thailand's southern provinces are using al-Qaeda military training discs, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday.

"On May 19 authorities searched Jihad Witaya or Ponoh Jihad [Islamic school] and found ammunition, evidence of military training, secret documents concerning an independent Pattani state, and al-Qaeda training CDs which they have adopted for their struggle," Thaksin said during his weekly radio address, without elaborating about the discs' origin.

Education have been ordered to shut down the school, whose owner remains on the run, and to find new schools for its former students, Thaksin said.

A combined police and military force raided the school in Yaring district of Pattani province on Thursday, seizing evidence including the training CDs.

Thaksin the separatists' struggle was the main source of violence in the south, which has claimed more than 670 lives since January last year.

He said he expected the struggle to continue but without success.

The Brussels-based think-tank, the International Crisis Group (ICG), on Wednesday said the violence is driven by local grievances and there is no evidence of external involvement.

"But if this situation is left to fester, it could attract jihadists from outside Thailand," crisis group Southeast Asia project director Sidney Jones said.

ICG the unrest an "insurgency, not jihad" but said Thaksin's policies risked pushing more Muslims towards those behind the unrest.

In his address yesterday Thaksin said he had used a recent trip to Jordan to study and understand Islamic teaching, and "correct" Muslim behavior.

"All Thai Muslim fellow countrymen do not have to worry that I will not understand you," he said.

"I totally understand, but for people who cite religion for their own gain and hurt others, I will not give up," he said.

Thaksin hinted he would reshuffle interior ministry, military and police officials in the south to bring in fresh ideas and cut red tape.

Queen Sirikit, who recently denounced militants' attacks against civilians, was to visit Songkhla province later yesterday to boost the community's morale.

She also planned to grant a royal audience to a four-year-old boy who was wounded and lost his father in a bomb blast at Hat Yai International airport on April 3, Songkhla Governor Somporn Chaibangyang, told reporters.

Defense Minister Thammarak Issarangkura Na Ayutthaya on Tuesday called the unrest the work of a mix of separatist insurgents, "influential people and contraband smugglers."

"Influential people" is a a vague reference to organized crime including smugglers and drug traffickers.

Thaksin Tuesday said new emergency legislation will replace martial law in the south from June.

Martial has been enforced in most southern districts since Jan. 5, last year, one day after a raid on an army depot sparked the insurgency.