THAILAND: Key Arrest Means Muslim Militants Are Not Welcome

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Aug 15 2003 (IPS) - This week’s arrest in Thailand of the man named by the U.S. government as ‘South-east Asia’s bin Laden’ brings this country clearly into the fold of those nations determined to flush out Muslim militants.

Riduan Isamuddin, more commonly known as Hambali, was arrested Monday night in Ayutthaya, a city steeped in history 80 kilometres north of Bangkok. But news of his arrest was only revealed on Friday.

Hambali has been ”held since early this week in a secret location for questioning by Thai authorities and FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) officials from the U.S.,” states the English-language daily ‘The Nation’ in its Friday lead story.

The 39-year-old Islamic scholar from Indonesia had travelled from a border district in northern Thailand to ”hide among the Muslim community in Ayutthaya,” the paper added.

However, there are mixed reports about his current whereabouts. Some informed sources here are speculating that he was flown out of Thailand on Wednesday in the custody of U.S. officials, while an Asian intelligence official told IPS that Hambali ”is being held by the Americans at a secret location in Thailand”.

The search for Hambali has been on ever since he was identified as a key figure in Jemaiah Islamiyah (JI), an Indonesian-based group that U.S. and South-east Asian intelligence officials say is planning to unleash terror across the region.

Hambali has been accused of masterminding the bomb attacks in the Indonesian resort- island of Bali last year, which killed 202 civilians.

U.S. officials have also been searching for Hambali due to his links with Osama bin Laden’s al- Qaeda network. This connection developed as a result of Hambali’s years spent training to be a Muslim militant in Afghanistan.

”Arresting Hambali is a major breakthrough on many fronts,” Panitan Wattanayagorn, a security expert at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, told IPS. ”Interrogating him can result in getting a better picture of how strong the JI terrorist network in South-east Asia is, and also the strength of al-Qaeda.”

This arrest should trigger more arrests, particularly among those who gave Hambali protection, added Kavi Chongkittavorn, columnist and editor of ‘The Nation,’ which broke the story here. ”This is only the tip of the iceberg. There will be others who will be taken in.”

It is a prospect that has already begun to sow fear among Thailand’s Muslim minority community, who make up about four million out of the country’s 62 million people, the majority of whom are Buddhists.

”There will be increased pressure on the Muslims, more scrutiny, more suspicion,” Surin Pitsuwan, Thailand’s former foreign minister and a leading member of the Muslim community, told IPS. ”I hope it will be done in a reasonable way.”

However, he added, there is every likelihood that such scrutiny can create a hostile environment for the Muslims. ”There can be an emotional spillover. This is the risk.”

Muslims have already expressed concern about the way their lives are being subject to difficulties due to state that is overly conscious about national security.

This week, for instance, they demonstrated outside the parliament against the country’s new anti-terrorism laws, which are aimed at cracking down on Muslim extremists. The laws were imposed by executive decree on Monday.

In Thailand’s five southern provinces, which have a predominantly Muslim population, the Muslim community has found themselves under pressure following the arrest in mid-June of three Thai Muslims for being involved with a plan by Jemaiaih Islamiyah to bomb embassies and tourist spots in Thailand.

On the other hand, though, Bangkok has regularly claimed that Thailand is a country free of a militant Muslim presence, unlike its neighbours in South-east Asia such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, where authorities have detected and arrested Muslims linked to either Jemaiah Islamiyah or al-Qaeda.

The Thai government maintained this position after the Sep. 11 acts of terror in the United States and the bombings in Bali last year. Bangkok has often dismissed reports in the foreign media that the country’s open and accommodating attitude towards foreigners had resulted in Muslim militants flocking into Thailand to escape the heat from other governments in the region.

Hambali, in fact, was identified as one of these militant Muslims on the run who had found security in Thailand. It was while he was in Bangkok, intelligence officials have revealed, that Hambali was supposed to have planned the Bali attack.

Yet there were signs that Hambali was a man under close scrutiny. Last month, a senior Thai national security official was quoted as having told the local media that Hambali was in the country and being protected by nine Muslim leaders.

Such an admission by Thai authorities, together with the arrest of the three Muslims with alleged links to Jemaiah Islamiyah in mid-June, provided the clearest indicators that Thailand is gradually moving to line up with its regional neighbours to combat Islamic extremism.

The events of this week – the enforcement of Thailand’s new anti-terrorism and the arrest of Hambali – have unequivocally affirmed Bangkok’s attitude toward Muslim extremists. ”In doing so, particularly the arrest of Hambali, the Thai government can take credit for giving a big boost in the counter-terrorism campaign,” said Panitan, the security expert.

”Thailand can no more be seen as a country on the periphery of the drive against terrorism,” added Kavi of the ‘The Nation’. ”The Hambali arrest means Thailand is willing to join others at the centre.”