Thailand blames separatists for Muslims' flight to M'sia
Sep 8, 05 1:05pm
Thailand has blamed the flight of 131 Thai Muslims to neighbouring Malaysia on an Islamic separatist group, saying it wanted to internationalize the conflict along the border.
The government rarely singles out any group in the 20-month conflict, usually referring only to unnamed militants in the Muslim-majority southern provinces.
But in a statement released late Wednesday, foreign ministry spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow said the Patani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo), sparked the incident and alerted the UN refugee agency in a bid to internationalize the unrest.
Sihasak accused Pulo of stirring rumours to frighten the villagers into fleeing to Malaysia.
At the same time, he said Pulo had created a new human rights section called the Patani Malay Human Rights Organisation (PMHRO) to take up the cause of the villagers and tarnish Thailand's image through its website.
"As soon as the incident occurred, this PMHRO contacted the (UN High
Commissioner for Refugees) office in Switzerland ... and said that those Thai villagers had fled for fear the Thai government would kill them after imposing the emergency decree," Sihasak.
UNHCR interview
The emergency decree came into force in the three southernmost provinces in July and allows authorities to detain suspects for up to 30 days without charge. It also gives authorities immunity from prosecution.
The villagers who fled had taken part in the Tak Bai protest last October, one of the bloodiest days in the conflict, when 87 demonstrators died as authorities broke up a demonstration, Sihasak added. Most died of suffocation when they were detained, bound and then piled onto military trucks.
The UNHCR on Tuesday started interviewing the 131 Thai Muslims sheltering in Malaysia after they fled last week, despite opposition from Bangkok.
Malaysia has given temporary shelter to the Thais pending investigation of their status and reasons for leaving, but has voiced concern over the
prospect of more Thais fleeing across the border.
Nearly 900 people have been killed in the past 20 months in Thailand's southernmost provinces, in attacks which analysts and authorities blame on Islamic separatists, organised criminals and drug dealers.
BURNING ISSUE: South in world spotlight
Published on September 08, 2005 - Now that the United Nations is involved, the issue can snowball into a bigger controversy
From what started off as an immigration technicality that could have been handled by agencies at the local level, the 131 Thai Muslims taking shelter in northern Malaysia have effectively become an international issue putting Thailand and Malaysia, once again, at loggerheads.
The United Nations refugee agency began interviewing the 131 Thai Muslims this week and yesterday former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohammed weighed in, suggesting they should be given asylum.
In spite of Thailands objection to internationalising the incident, Kuala Lumpur decided earlier this week to broaden the issue by bringing the UN High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) into the picture.
Bangkok was dumbstruck, left with nothing much to say other saying that these 131 people, who no longer trust government security forces to treat them fairly, were not refugees.
From the onset, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was quick to brand the 131 as troublemakers. He said some in the group were suspected insurgents involved in the ongoing violence in the region. Moreover, he suggested that locals were to blame for the unrest, which he said could be stopped if they would cooperate with authorities by pointing out the insurgents.
Thaksin and his crew are likely prejudging Muslims in the restive South as usually harbouring insurgents and cooperating with militants to make trouble for the government. None of the concerned agencies have ever scrutinised the incident in Narathiwats Ban Rahan to get a clear picture about what really happened those statements were made.
According to the villagers account, after the murder of an imam in the village on August 29 local residents lost faith in the states justice system and barred security officials from entering their village. They believed government officials were involved in the murder because the iman, Satohpa Yusoh, had told witnesses before he was shot dead that he was being followed by officials who thought he was one of the key insurgents in the strife-torn region.
He gave instructions not to allow any local government official to perform an autopsy on his dead body as they could distort the evidence.
As 100 villagers, including women and children, blocked the road to obstruct security officials from inspecting the murder scene, the government threatened to use the new emergency decree to punish them. Shortly thereafter, the Muslims fled across the border.
The intelligence mill fed sketchy information to upper government levels, including Narathiwat Governor Pracha Therat who later told The Nation that the refugee stunt was just propaganda by the insurgents who wanted to paint a bad impression of the government. They used women and children to invoke sympathy from the international community. As Thaksin put it, the insurgents tried to internationalise the issue.
In fact, it was Thaksin himself who internationalised the issue when he sent a blurred signal to Kuala Lumpur that the group of 131 included militants. As the issue grew heated, Malaysia stepped back and left the task to the UNHCR.
Now that the UN is involved the issue could snowball into a much bigger controversy. The worst scenario is that the group establishes a case for political asylum on the grounds that as minority Muslims they are being oppressed by a Buddhist-dominated government.
This would be the first time for Thailand to suffer the same bitter feelings as Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Burma did in the 1970s and 1980s when their populations sought safety in neighbouring countries mostly in Thailand.
Thaksin and his foreign minister, Kantathi Suphamongkhon, need to learn more about how to deal with Malaysia. A simple phone call to cannot end bilateral problems at a time when politicians in Malaysia want to raise their profiles in internationally and the Islamic world. Malaysia is now the chairman of Asean and the Organisation of Islamic Conference.
Bangkoks missteps will only turn into international credit for Kuala Lumpur.
Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation
Ex-PM: Fleeing 131 may deserve asylum
Published on September 08, 2005
Ex-PM turns up heat over Thai Muslim refugees
Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad yesterday turned up the heat on the prickly issue of 131 Thai Muslims illegally sheltering in the northern state of Kelantan, saying they could deserve protection and permission to stay in Malaysia.
Well, I think if the people are real refugees, then we need to give them some asylum, Mahathir told reporters.
The suggestion came amid reports that more Thai Muslims from the three southernmost provinces were planning to flee over the border to the Malaysian side amid growing concern about a crackdown by security agencies.
Bernama, Malaysias official news agency, earlier interviewed a group of Thai-Muslim elders and children who gathered in Yalas peaceful Betong district to prepare to cross over to Malaysia.
They told Bernama that they feared for their lives after soldiers arrived at their villages looking for Thais who were supporters of separatists.
In Bangkok, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said the move by the Thai Muslims to seek refugee status in Malaysia was a plot concocted by separatists to aggravate the situation in the deep South and smear the reputation of the Kingdom over its treatment of Muslim minorities.
Some 10 insurgents had spread rumours in Malaysias northern states of Kelantan and Teranganu five days before the 131 Thais showed up at Kelantan mosques that there would be big trouble in the deep South, Foreign Ministry spokesman Sihasak Phuangket-keow said. The separatists had urged residents in the two states to prepare to take in fellow Muslims from Thailand, he said.
A confidential intelligence report indicated that the incident was not connected to the stand-off between Ban Rahan villagers in Narathiwats Sungai Padi district and security forces and officials after the murder of a religious leader.
Of the 69 border-crossers already identified by Malaysian authorities as Thai citizens, only one came from Sungai Padi district, Sihasak said.
Based on the intelligence report, the coordinated operation prompted a human-rights group known as the Pattani Malay Human Rights Organisation, described as a front for the exiled separatist band, Pattani United Liberation Organisation, to call the incident to the attention of the UN refugee agency, he said.
Thailand would share this intelligence with Kuala Lumpur so the two governments can get a clear picture of how the situation developed and resolve the problem properly, Sihasak said.
The flight of the Thai Muslims has made headlines in the Malaysian media since last week and prompted strong comments and reactions from Kuala Lumpur over Thailands handling of the crisis in the deep South.
Armed Forces Supreme Com-mander General Chaisit Shinawatra accused the media of being tools of the insurgents and unsympathetic to the cause of security officials.
Chaisit said some of the 131 were insurgents wanted by authorities for orchestrating violent attacks.
Residents of the three Malay-speaking provinces have long complained of being unfairly targeted ever since the government dispatched thousands of troops to the region 20 months ago.
Despite opposition from Thailand, Malaysia invited the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) earlier this week to interview the 131 Thai Muslims who sneaked over the border from Narathiwat after a brief stand-off with security forces.
The 64 men, 24 women and 43 children are being sheltered at the Tanah Merah immigration transit centre in Kelantan, according to the Star daily.
UNHCR officials said the 131 appeared to be in good condition as they began interviewing them. A delegation from the UN agencys Kuala Lumpur office arrived in Kelantan on Tuesday to begin the interviews.
Thai authorities expressed concern on Tuesday that the UNHCRs involvement would be exploited by Islamic militants seeking to paint the southern crisis as one of political and religious persecution.
However, the UN said in a statement that interviewing the Thais was standard practice when a person seeks refuge in another country. It urged Malaysia not to repatriate them until the interviews were completed, to try to find out if their lives would be at risk if they were returned to Thailand.
If the UN agency believes the Muslims lives are in danger, they will be issued UNHCR protection cards until they can return safely to their home country.
The Nation, Agencies
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