SUNGAI KOLOK, Thailand — It costs just 25 cents [10 baht] for an illegal boat ride across the meandering little river here that divides Thailand and Malaysia — a busy daylong traffic of traders, smugglers, workers and schoolchildren.

Not many people bother with the nearby bridge, which is staffed by police officers and customs agents.  

Few seem to treat this as a border at all; both Thai and Malaysian flags fly at little jetties on the Thai shore. Most people on both sides speak the Malay language and most answer the Muslim call to prayer from tiny mosques among the palm trees.

It is here, or through the forested mountains beyond, that foreign intelligence agencies say Islamic militants have slipped into Thailand for refuge or transit.

Both Singapore and Malaysia have warned the government that terrorists were headed this way. Among them, according to intelligence reports, was Riudan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, who is believed to be the chief planner for Al Qaeda in the region.

It is a claim the Thai authorities strenuously deny — the barking of "tailless dogs," according to one official. The government's position is categorical: there are no terrorists on Thai soil.

Indeed there is little sign of militancy here in the Muslim south of this overwhelmingly Buddhist nation. But the region does seem a tempting target for outside agitators, with a restive population of unemployed young men.

These worries have been sharpened by series of violent attacks this year in Thailand's five southernmost provinces, where 85 percent of the residents are Muslims. Nationwide, fewer than 10 percent of the population of 67 million are Muslim.

Since last December, more than 20 police officers have been assassinated and many others wounded. The violence intensified two weeks ago when five rural schools were set on fire, bombs exploded at a Buddhist temple and a hotel and another was defused at a prominent Chinese shrine.

A Muslim cleric was arrested and bomb-making material was said to have been found at his home. Local Muslim leaders say they are concerned that religious conflict may have been introduced into the region's volatile mix.

No one has claimed responsibility for the year's violence. But few academics, Muslim clerics or experts here or in Bangkok say they have found evidence of any connection with outside terrorist groups.

"The people responsible for the attacks are not terrorists," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has insisted again and again.

There are plenty of other people to blame — local warlords, feuding politicians, crime syndicates, smugglers, drug runners and the rag-tag remnants of a faded separatist insurgency. Among the leading theories is a vendetta between units of the police and the military. Many of these conflicts could well overlap, as they have in the past, experts said.

For one thing, the violence follows a familiar pattern here. The killings of police officers and the burning of schools have flared sporadically since the separatist movement flourished in the 1960's and 1970's.

"There are problems like this every year," said Ishmael Ali, director of Islamic studies at Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani, the symbolic capital of the Muslim south. None of that has been motivated by religion, he said, and there is little sign today of Islamic radicalism or militancy.

Yusouf Longpi, 54, a founder of the main separatist movement of the past, the Pattani United Liberation organization, is a retired revolutionary now, but he retains his connections to the remnants of his movement.

"The Thais are hush-hush about it, but their big concern is that these local incidents might be linked to international terrorism," he said. "Certainly there is some influence here of the ideology of Al Qaeda. It is dangerous for me to say more."

Nevertheless, he said he ruled out any connection between Al Qaeda and the current violence.

"Yes, it is very possible that someone could transit through here," he said. "But there are no radical mosques or radical clerics in southern Thailand. If there are some sympathizers, they have no ties with any overseas movement."

Historically, Thailand's southern provinces have closer ties with northern Malaysia, just across the river, than with Thailand's distant capital. Thailand, then called Siam, annexed Pattani and six other sultanates in 1902, and resistance has ebbed and flowed since then.

A separatist movement accepted an amnesty and mostly disbanded a decade ago.

The central government has backed away from attempts to force the Thai language and culture on the south and efforts have been made to bring Muslims into mainstream politics. Among other things, this has given rise to new manifestations of long-running local power struggles.

The appointment last month of a Muslim, Wan Muhammad Noor Matha, as interior minister has given the southern provinces a direct link to central power.

But some people here believe that his appointment is actually the cause of last month's surge of violence, as factions of his party struggle to discredit one another in the hope of gaining influence.

Another theory suggests that an opposition politician who was disenfranchized in national elections two years ago is responsible.

Local people say that most — if not all — of these politicians also run criminal syndicates that deal in smuggling, drug trafficking and extortion, adding another layer to their feuds.

Whoever is behind the violence, local residents agree, the gunmen and arsonists almost certainly come from the same group of thugs for hire who were once used by the military to fight the separatists.

They call themselves Islamic fighters, but nobody takes that very seriously. They, too, are believed to slip away across the little Kolok River when they need to.

Source: New York Times

Not much has changed since this first post. An interesting look back in this short history of Thaivisa.

Among them, according to intelligence reports, was Riudan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, who is believed to be the chief planner for Al Qaeda in the region.

It is a claim the Thai authorities strenuously deny — the barking of "tailless dogs," according to one official. The government's position is categorical: there are no terrorists on Thai soil.

those tailless dogs certainly came back and bit the thai government on the arse.

sometimes i miss the thai government.

A friend went up to the Malaysia/ Thai border, where there is a market in No Mans Land on a Sunday.

He reports that the Immigration officials on both sides were not taking notice of who walked in and out.

Experienced the same on the Thai-Lao border in Isaan. I had my passport, extra photo, and 1,500 baht visa fee ready to submit. I couldn't find anyone interested to even look at them. So, I just walked across the border, and walked back 3-4 hours later with the same non-response from border agents.

The Thai borders have more security holes than Swiss cheese.

Sungai Kolok, I passed through in March, it took 10 minutes whilst at the counter, for all, not just us....!

Wish it was still like it used to be, before 02 too,.......

redrus

These were the good ole days

I don't believe we have the ability to recognize whom the real terrorists are.

Experienced the same on the Thai-Lao border in Isaan. I had my passport, extra photo, and 1,500 baht visa fee ready to submit. I couldn't find anyone interested to even look at them. So, I just walked across the border, and walked back 3-4 hours later with the same non-response from border agents.

The Thai borders have more security holes than Swiss cheese.

Insecure borders. So what is the threat? And where's it originating? Make-believe boggieman....??

As this is an old thread, and nothing new is being offered it is now closed.