What's in a name? Thais avoid linking Uighurs to Bangkok blast

[webfact]

What's in a name? Thais avoid linking Uighurs to Bangkok blast

BANGKOK: - The police investigation into the Bangkok shrine blast increasingly points towards a game-changing attack on Chinese tourists by Uighur militants or sympathisers, analysts say -- but Thailand and Beijing are loath to admit it.

Nearly a month after the August 17 attack, Thailand has two foreigners in custody and a dozen arrest warrants issued, and insists the network responsible for the explosion is in their cross hairs.

But investigators have yet to provide a compelling motive for the carnage in Bangkok’s commercial heart, which left 20 people dead -- the majority ethnic Chinese tourists.

The leading theory they have offered is that the bomb was an act of revenge by criminals striking back at a police crackdown on a people-smuggling network.

That take has been shredded by analysts and the Thai public, unconvinced a criminal gang holds the means or motivation to carry out such a brutal act.

In recent days links with militants from the Chinese Uighur minority -- or ethnic Turkic supporters -- seem to have firmed up with the passports, ethnicities and travel plans of key suspects all appearing to point in that direction.

If the police investigation is on track, "there is definitely a Uighur or radical Turkish national connection," Zachary Abuza, an expert on Southeast Asian militant groups, told AFP.

Yet Thai police are bending over backwards not to use the words "Uighur" or "terrorism" largely, analysts say, for fear of putting off tourists or angering China -- one of the junta’s few international friends.

That determination reached near comical proportions on Saturday, when a warrant for a key suspect named as Abudusataer Abudureheman, or "Ishan", was issued.

Police said he was a Chinese national of Uighur ethnicity who left the country before the attack, only to rescind the word "Uighur" hours later and call on the press to drop the term entirely.

- Years of repression -

Mostly Muslim Uighurs have long accused Beijing of religious and cultural repression in China’s far western Xinjiang region, with hundreds of refugees believed to have fled in recent years, often heading to Turkey via Southeast Asia.

Thailand’s deportation of 109 Uighur refugees to China in July sparked violent protests in Turkey, where nationalist hardliners see the minority as part of a global Turkic-speaking family.

Each release of information from the Thai police has only fuelled speculation of Uighur involvement.

One of the two suspects in custody, Yusufu Mieraili, was arrested with a Chinese passport that gave a Xinjiang birthplace.

Almost all the identified suspects have Turkish sounding names or links, including the second detained foreigner -- Adem Karadag -- who was discovered with dozens of fake Turkish passports.

Another suspect, Emrah Davutoglu, had $11,000 transferred into a Thai account to help fund the operation, police say.

His Thai wife, also wanted by police, says she currently lives in the central Turkish city of Kayseri, an area renowned for giving sanctuary to Uighurs fleeing China.

If the culprits are Turkish or of Turkic origin, said Anthony Davis, a security analyst with IHS Jane’s, "then it probably ties back into the eruption of anger following the Thai decision to deport the Uighurs".

Pictures showing the deportees hooded and surrounded by Chinese guards, he added, could have been the "straw that broke the camel’s back", raising the prospect of a revenge attack schemed in Turkey and carried out with affiliates in Bangkok’s underworld.

- Tight-lipped -

Analysts say Thailand is keen to avoid naming Uighurs for economic and diplomatic reasons. Chinese visitors are a lynchpin of the tourist industry, and Beijing remains one of the increasingly isolated Thai junta’s few international allies.

"In many ways Thailand has been handcuffed by its reliance on Beijing," Thai politics expert Pavin Chachavalpongpun, also a former diplomat, told AFP.

For its part, Beijing is keen to avoid any suggestion its tourists might now be considered targets by violent Islamists because of their government’s domestic policies.

Last week, China’s state-run Global Times ran a report quoting an unnamed official admitting Uighur militants could be behind the blast. But the article was swiftly deleted.

Barry Sautman from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology says China rarely identifies militants as Uighurs in order to keep a lid on ethnic tensions. Thailand’s reluctance is "an indication... that the Chinese government is already involved in this issue."

Michael Clarke, an authority on Xinjiang at the Australian National University, said it was unclear if the blast may have been carried out by a Uighur group or if other jihadists "opportunistically used the Uighur issue as an cause celebre in Thailand".

Other potential perpetrators named by police or experts during the investigation have included international jihadists, members of Thailand’s southern Malay-Muslim insurgency or militants on both sides of the country’s festering political divide.

However, the design, target and aftermath of the attack is not considered a good fit for the modus operandi for any of these groups. Uighur militant plots inside China have been rudimentary and they are not known to have ever carried out an attack outside the country.

For members of the global Uighur community, Thailand’s reluctance to officially point the finger of blame has been little comfort.

The World Uyghur Congress, a lobby group, called for more "transparent information" on the attack from the Thai police.

"I fear now that Uighurs currently in Thailand may be negatively impacted and hope the Thai government will provide (them with) humanitarian protection," said spokesman Dilxat Raxit.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Whats-in-a-name-Thais-avoid-linking-Uighurs-to-Ban-30268750.html


-- The Nation 2015-09-14

[lildragon]

20 people died and only 150 injured but oh no FACE SAVING is more important for the authorities.

I'd be absolutely livid if I was one of the relatives.

[amerasianex]

I have no idea why they would be hesitating to call the Muslim group terrorists. Nearly every Muslim group ate terrorists. And enjoy killing innocent men women and children. In almost every country.nothing to hide here. They ate the enemy

[zaphod reborn]

Ignorance is bliss, especially when you are trying to hide the truth to protect your fragile tourism economies. And no one is mentioning that ISIL financed and organized the human smuggling scheme so as to transport Uighurs through Thailand and Turkey on their way to fight for ISIL in Syria. To connect the dots would mean admitting that ISIL sent 100,000 fake Turkish passports to Thailand and Malaysia and that it is estimated over 50,000 Uighurs have been smuggled through those countries to Istanbul.

[Seastallion]

Ignorance is bliss, especially when you are trying to hide the truth to protect your fragile tourism economies. And no one is mentioning that ISIL financed and organized the human smuggling scheme so as to transport Uighurs through Thailand and Turkey on their way to fight for ISIL in Syria. To connect the dots would mean admitting that ISIL sent 100,000 fake Turkish passports to Thailand and Malaysia and that it is estimated over 50,000 Uighurs have been smuggled through those countries to Istanbul.

Where do you get that 50 000 figure? It's highly exaggerated, I'm sure.

The highest and most pessimistic estimate for the entire ISIS army, from a top Kurd, is 200 000, and the CIA put it at 31 000. If we take the worst case figure, it means one in four ISIS fighters is a Chinese national, fighting Syrians, Iraqis, and Turks.

Somewhat doubtful.

Read back to earlier reports after the bombing....SOME of the fake passports were Turkish: Of the 200 fake passports found, ELEVEN were Turkish.

Joining dots, yes.....Even before the raid on the apartment that netted the first suspect (who does not look Uighur at all), the cops were making noises about Uighurs and Turks...then they found 200 fake passports, a mere 5% of which were Turkish, and "the Turkish connection" was formed.

I posted at the time that I suspect the cops have found a crime ring, but not a bombing ring.

I maintain that suspicion...although there could be a connection between the bomber and buying fake passports.

Oh...and one more dot to join...the cops reticence, now, to point directly at Uighurs.

Edited September 14, 2015 by Seastallion

[spermwhale]

Ignorance is bliss, especially when you are trying to hide the truth to protect your fragile tourism economies. And no one is mentioning that ISIL financed and organized the human smuggling scheme so as to transport Uighurs through Thailand and Turkey on their way to fight for ISIL in Syria. To connect the dots would mean admitting that ISIL sent 100,000 fake Turkish passports to Thailand and Malaysia and that it is estimated over 50,000 Uighurs have been smuggled through those countries to Istanbul.

I have no idea why they would be hesitating to call the Muslim group terrorists. Nearly every Muslim group ate terrorists. And enjoy killing innocent men women and children. In almost every country.nothing to hide here. They ate the enemy

Did they put salt and pepper on them before eating them?

[Oziex1]

Ignorance is bliss, especially when you are trying to hide the truth to protect your fragile tourism economies. And no one is mentioning that ISIL financed and organized the human smuggling scheme so as to transport Uighurs through Thailand and Turkey on their way to fight for ISIL in Syria. To connect the dots would mean admitting that ISIL sent 100,000 fake Turkish passports to Thailand and Malaysia and that it is estimated over 50,000 Uighurs have been smuggled through those countries to Istanbul.

I have no idea why they would be hesitating to call the Muslim group terrorists. Nearly every Muslim group ate terrorists. And enjoy killing innocent men women and children. In almost every country.nothing to hide here. They ate the enemy

Did they put salt and pepper on them before eating them?

Prepared with the proper halal method.

[soalbundy]

I have no idea why they would be hesitating to call the Muslim group terrorists. Nearly every Muslim group ate terrorists. And enjoy killing innocent men women and children. In almost every country.nothing to hide here. They ate the enemy

English isn't your first language is it, oh, one moment, the t and the r are next to each other on the keyboard, perhaps you ought to read before you post

[spermwhale]

Thais shouldn't pussyfoot around. They already pissed off the Uigers and now the country is in the sites of international terrorists. It's too late for Thailand to think that it can play nice nice with everyone nobody how despicable they are.

But instead of finally showing some backbone (which they should have considering the hundreds of Army generals they have and the constant boasting about Thailand's military prowess in the country's school history books), they instead bury their heads deeper in the sand and execute using Beijing's playbook.

In so many articles since the bombing, I have read the police saying that it was "Definitely not international terrorism" in the same breath as they point to Turks and Uigers. The bombing was a terrorist deed and the connections have already shown that it was international in nature.

[klauskunkel]

The World Uyghur Congress, a lobby group, called for more "transparent information" on the attack from the Thai police.

"I fear now that Uighurs currently in Thailand may be negatively impacted and hope the Thai government will provide (them with) humanitarian protection," said spokesman Dilxat Raxit.

The Global Visa Runners Association has replied to the World Uyghur Congress: "You only fear that you maybe negatively impacted in Thailand..., well, buddy Dilxat Raxit, for us the negative impact is a reality!"

Bomber Blame Game Sees Thailand Immigration Abruptly Change Visa Rules

Foreign workers and tourists who use the country’s visa exempt entry provisions are the unwitting victims

[Nick167]

Instead....the whole world should wake up to the effects of Islam and how to curtail the spread and movemnet of this religion of hatred and terrorism and also its followers, muslims. The world is seriously under a big threat especially Europe with all these muslim refugees flowing in....the stupid EU countries should have only permited those willing to renounce ISlam to enter their borders...now its going to be a mess.

[phantomfiddler]

There is an old English saying which I heartily believe in. "You cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds". At some point one has to decide which side one is on. One cannot keep both sides happy. For the Thai government to have sided with the Uighers, this would have signified they were advocating the butchering of innocent passengers on railway platforms, and the blowing up of any innocent tourists who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I believe the Thai government made the right call, and sooner or later we are all going to have to face up to the reality that islam has already declared war on us