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Malaysia, Thailand Lock Horns Over Muslim Separatists
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Police
searched an Islamic boarding school belonging to Maminchi last
Friday
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Additional
Reporting By Kazi Mahmood, IOL correspondent
KUALA
LUMPUR, February 11 (IslamOnline.net) – Malaysia Wednesday,
February 11, said it had no information about the presence in the
country of a suspected Thai separatist leader, as relations between
the two neighboring countries soared over Bangkok's calls for
extradition of other separatists.
"We
have no information about the said personality. We had in the past
received names of other fugitives from our Thai counterparts. We have
no knowledge about Masea Useng," a senior Malaysian intelligence
officer told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
This
came a few hours after Thai Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit
Yongchaiyudh urged Kuala Lumpur to step up its hunt for Useng --
wanted on alleged charges of treason, murder, arson and robbery and
believed to be hiding in Malaysia.
But
the Malaysian official said this country had not received any official
request about Useng from Thailand.
"If
there is a request, we will investigate. And if he is in Malaysia and
he is detained, Thai authorities will revoke his passport and he will
be deported," he added.
Thailand
believes several people have escaped into Malaysia after launching a
campaign of violence in the predominantly-Muslim south on January 4
with a raid on a military depot that
killed four Thai soldiers.
Thai
officials told the Nation newspaper in Bangkok on
Monday, February 9, that Malaysia did not do anything to arrest the
suspects despite being provided with information on their whereabouts.
In
Kuala Lumpur, the official stance is that the recent spate of violence
in Thailand was an internal matter and that the authorities could not
arrest people who have not been to Thailand for years.
Shift
Bangkok
is fearing a shift in Malaysia’s policies regarding Muslim
separatists in the southern region of the largely Buddhist nation, an
officer at the Putra World Trade Center told IslamOnline.net on
condition of anonymity.
During
the days of former Premier Mohamad Mahathir, the Malaysian government
and police cooperated without hiccups in the arrest of several Thai
separatists in Malaysia.
The
situation may be different with incumbent Premier Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi.
The
actions of the Malaysian police so far show a change in cooperation
between the two neighbors on the issue of separatism in Thailand.
Over
the past decades Malaysia had handed over a number of suspected
separatists, including Ismail Thanam who was later convicted of
treason.
Kuala
Lumpur was also instrumental in the dismantling of the Pattani United
Liberation Organization (PULO), arresting several of its high ranking
members living in Malaysia and handing them over to the Thai police.
Halted
Cooperation
In
the meantime, the gap between Thai Premier Thaksin Shinawatra and
Muslim leaders in the south is currently widening due to the army's
growing repressions in the predominantly Muslim area.
The
Islamic Central Committee (ICC) of Thailand and three of its
provincial affiliates have halted cooperation with the government.
The
Nation had reported earlier that the ICC and the Thailand
premier were edging on a frontal collision.
The
ICC on Monday criticized the "brutal"
crackdown on the troubled south by the government, dismissing as
"disgraceful" soldiers’ raids on schools, houses and
mosques looking for suspects.
"They
have violated the sanctity of mosques and have searched schools as if
the students were real criminals," Ismail Abdureman, a member of
a group of Thai businessmen living in Malaysia, told IOL.
Thai
government has declared martial law in the mostly Muslim provinces of
Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.
Earlier,
Rusdi Bakoh, a representative from the ICC told the Nation that
Thai officials ignored what the Muslims and the government had agreed
to at more than 100 meetings since the January 4 attack.
The
decision by Muslim leaders to stop cooperating with the government was
made after police searched an Islamic boarding school belonging to
Pattani Islamic Committee chairman Waeduramae Maminchi last Friday.
Dissatisfaction
has been also growing in the region since authorities started taking
religious leaders and local residents into custody without clear
charges or solid evidence to link them with the spate of violence.
In
the south, there is a long history of resentment toward the central
government, dating from 1902, when Siam, as Thailand was then known,
annexed the Islamic Kingdom of Pattani, reported International
Herald Tribune Tuesday.
Thai
Muslims have suffered from decades of government mismanagement,
despite government efforts in the 1980s and 1990s.
Thailand's
5 million Muslims resent the state's refusal to recognize their
language, culture and Malay ethnicity, and the region is poorer than
much of the rest of the country.
Despite
the violence that has plagued the region, most Thai Muslims lead
peaceful and pious lives, fishing, farming and trading, said the Tribune.
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