Thailand: Large weapons cache seized (possibly Jemaah Islamiyah connected)

The Australian ^ | July 04 2003

[knighthawk]

POLICE in central Thailand arrested four people and seized weapons that were apparently being sent to the country's troubled Muslim-majority south, officials said today.

The arrests took place in Nakhon Ratchasima town on Thursday, hours before a series of attacks by unidentified gunmen left six people dead and three injured in the southern province of Pattani.

Three of the arrested men are Thai Muslims, said police Lt. Col. Prasong Ruangdej. The fourth is a Buddhist. Thailand has a Buddhist majority, though Muslims are predominant in the far south.

Prasong said police, acting on a tip-off, intercepted a truck in which the four men were transporting 15 AK-47 assault rifles.

Interrogation of the three led the police to a house in the neighboring province of Sakeaw on the Cambodian border, where police found 10 more AK-47 rifles, 15,000 bullets, M-79 grenade launchers and grenades, Prasong said.

He said the four were expected to be charged with illegal possession of war weapons, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

"The suspects said they were paid to transport the weapons from Cambodia to Pattani and refused to say anything more," Prasong said.

Nakhon Ratchasima is 210km north-east of Bangkok. Pattani is 1100km south of the capital.

Prasong said the seized weapons might be linked to the spate of violence in the country's four Muslim-majority provinces, including Pattani, which has left more than 36 people dead since December 2001.

At least 16 people have been killed in the violence this year, including the five policemen and one civilian yesterday in attacks on three police checkpoints in Pattani.

An Islamic separatist movement thrived in the south for years, but faded away in 1984 following an amnesty for the insurgents.

Violence resurfaced in the area in 2001. The government maintained it was the work of bandits or other common criminals.

However, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government recently admitted that Islamic militants from the regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah were present in the country.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[JimSEA]

Ouch!! We will return to Thailand in two weeks and will be in Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat) shortly there after before going to our home in Chiang Mai. There is no resisting the tide of Islam without confrontation. Weapons are to be had in Burma, Cambodia and Laos. This is like a cancer in a gentle country but the Islamists have promised to take over with just 4% of the population. Even in the South there is a strong Bhuddist minority. In the North where we live, there are small enclaves of Muslims who have become increasingly militant over the last few years. They have always isolated themselves, but now there is a very angry undertone in the Muslim areas. The worst thing, there is little stomach for resistance in the general population..

[knighthawk]

Keep safe!

[backhoe]

-Jemaah Islamiah- Islamic Community, or Islamic Threat?--