South Thailand may ‘breed terrorists’

KUALA LUMPUR:

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said yesterday that the troubled region of southern Thailand could become a breeding ground for Islamic terrorists and other extremists.Syed Hamid Albar said terrorist groups could take advantage of the unrest in Thailand’s southern provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani and build their bases.

“There is always a danger if people are not happy, some terrorist groups may take advantage of it,” Syed Hamid said ahead of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s visit to Bangkok from Sunday.The majority of people living in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces are Muslims, who claim to be discriminated against by the mainly-Buddhist government.

Syed Hamid reiterated that Malaysia, which chairs the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conferences, was prepared to assist Thailand in resolving the unrest as well as help develop the southern region.“Malaysia recognises Thailand’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. We will not support any separatist movement.

“We hope they will find a way that will not allow any terrorist group to take advantage of any instability or unhappiness,” he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama agency.A 72-year-old Buddhist rice miller was beheaded in Thailand’s rebellious Muslim south on Thursday in an apparent retaliation for a bomb attack on a village tea shop owned by Muslims, police said.

The man’s head was not found and police said they found severe cuts on his fingers, hands and shoulder at his village mill in Pattani, one of the three largely Muslim provinces where 2,000 have been killed in three years of insurgency.

It was the third decapitation this year.“This is revenge for what happened last night in Nakohn Nua,” a message left at the mill said in reference to the village where the bomb went off, injuring no one, police said.–Agencies