Who's who in Thailand's Muslim insurgency By Bertil Lintner Asia Times Online Sept 8, 2007
:: Barisan Revolusi Nasional Patani-Melayu-Koordinasi, or the Patani Malay National Revolutionary Front-Coordinate, usually referred to as BRN-Coordinate in English. The original BRN was established in 1960 as a leftist organization advocating Islamic socialism, but later split in the 1980s into three politically more moderate factions: "Congress", "Coordinate" and "Ulema" (Arabic for "clerics"). Today, "Congress" and "Ulema" are more or less defunct and "Coordinate" is the main group active on the ground in the south. BRN-Coordinate maintains a number of underground cells, known as Runda Kumpulan Kecil, or "small patrol groups". These are not a separate organization, as the mainstream Thai media have recently reported, but simply the operative arm of BRN-Coordinate. The BRN-Coordinate's village militia forces are also more commonly known as Pejuang Kemerdekaan Patani, or Patani Freedom Fighters. :: Barisan Nasional Pembebasan Patani (BNPP), National Liberation Front of Patani. This group is considered the first organized armed resistance group. It was reorganized in 1960, but traces its origin to a local revolt which took place in 1947 in Narathiwat province. It was quite active in the 1970s and early 1980s, but now is defunct. :: The Patani United Liberation Organization, or PULO. Formed in 1968 by Tengku Bira Kotantila aka Kabir Abdul Rahman, PULO was the most active group in the 1970s and 1980s. It now operates mainly from exile in Syria, where Tengku Bira lives, and Sweden, where its foreign affairs department is located. The group split for a while into "old" and "new" factions, but now appears to have been reunited. Exiles in Sweden maintain a number of websites that carry news from the region as well as political statements. PULO claims to have a working relationship with BRN-Coordinate. :: Gerakan Mujahidin Islam Patani, GMIP, or the Islamic Mujahidin Movement of Patani. Formed in 1995 by Afghanistan war veteran Nasoree Saesaeng, the group derives its name from an earlier, now inactive group, the Gerakan Mujahidin Patani, GMP. According to Thai intelligence sources, the GMIP is linked to the Malaysia-based militant organization Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia, or the Mujahidin Group of Malaysia, which, in turn, is alleged to have close ties with the mainly Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiya. It is, however, uncertain how much remains of the KMM following a massive crackdown by Malaysian authorities in 2001. :: Barisan Bersatu Merdeka Patani, or the United Front for the Independence of Patani. This group is more commonly known as "Bersatu", meaning "united" in the Malay language. It was formed in 1989 from four smaller groups: BRN-Congress, elements of PULO, the then GMP (now defunct), and Barisan Islam Pembebsan Patani, the now largely defunct Islamic Front for the Liberation of Patani. Bersatu is believed now to be defunct or to have been replaced by a less formal arrangement between currently active groups. :: Pemuda means "youth" in Malay and has been adopted as the name of a youth movement closely associated with BRN-Coordinate. However, Pemuda members rarely, if ever, have access to firearms, but rather assist the BRN-Coordinate with logistical support and intelligence gathering, while occasionally spraying separatist slogans on walls or taking part in arson attacks. :: Other, smaller groups also exist, but it is difficult to ascertain whether the abundance of insurgent organizations reflects actual factionalism and divergent agendas or just a division of labor in the struggle for a common goal. "Patani" in Malay refers to all three southern provinces: Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.
