The killings of more than 100 Thai Muslims alleged to be militants by Thai security forces in its southern region on April 28 has sent a shock wave to the region, especially Muslim-majority Malaysia who share a 506-km land border with the Buddhist-predominated kingdom.

In response to the unrest, Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar reportedly said that Malaysia's security interest lies in not having Thai's "domestic incident" overflowing into Malaysia's territory. There is a fear that Thai Muslims who may fled their homeland may enter Malaysia en masse, reminiscent of the influx of Vietnamese refugees in the aftermath of the fall of the US-backed South Vietnam regime in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City).

Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was also quoted as saying that the country's army and police has intensified border checks because Malaysians "are really worried about what is happening in Thailand".

Indeed, the April 28 incident was not the first or an isolated case, but only the latest of a series of what looks like more or less coordinated and organised violent campaigns launched by Muslims in southern Thailand against the central government in Bangkok. In response, Malaysian armed forces and police had stepped up security patrols and other measures on the border a few months ago.

What seems to complicate the matter is an earlier allegation made by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra earlier in the public that Malaysia "harbours" Thai Muslim "separatist terrorists". Some press reports in Thailand also allegedly suggested that Malaysia also "trained" them.

These have been rebutted by the Malaysian authorities.

However, in mid-April, five Malaysian soldiers were found and detained by Thai security forces some 300 to 500 metres inside Thai territory (photo). The soldiers reportedly clad in T-shirts and not wearing their military identification tags and Thai authorities also reportedly claimed that checks by the Thai army showed they were from a unit which was not on the list of those taking part in the routine and authorised security operations.

Although the five were later released with Abdullah expressing his gratitude to his Thai counterpart for the latter's "cooperation", the incident seems to still fuel speculations as to whether the five's unauthorised entry into Thai territory was as "accidental" or "innocent" as claimed.

M'sian support for guerillas?

From a historical perspective, security incidents between Malaysia and Thailand of such nature are not new. For example, in the 1990s, Thai Muslims alleged to be separatists also engaged in campaigns of sabotage and detonation of explosives in southern Thailand, including an assault on a corp of Thai army engineers.

A senior lecturer with the Department of Political Science of the National University of Singapore, N Ganesan recorded in his Pacific Strategic Paper No 9 that "In January 1998, after a spate of such incidents, the Thai Army threatened to deploy regular units in the South and Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai spoke of information suggesting Malaysian support for the guerillas - a charge Malaysia vehemently denied".

Ganesan also recorded that "(m)atters came to a head after Malaysian authorities apparently refused to hand over the leader of PULO (Pattani United Liberation Organization) who was arrested on charge of carrying explosive" and that "(t)he Thai Government felt that its goodwill gesture of turning over Ashari Mohamad, the leader of the banned Malaysian Islamic sect Darul Arqam in 1995 was not reciprocated".

"Eventually, however, there was an exchange initiated by the Malaysian Government which stabilised the situation," he added. (see Ganesan, N, Bilateral Tensions in post-Cold War Asean, Singapore, Institute of Southest Asian Studies, 1999; p. 25)

PULO mentioned by Ganesan is an armed Muslim underground organisation believed to be operating in southern Thailand for many years with the ultimate goal of separating the Muslim-predominated southern Thailand from the Buddhist-dominated central authority in Bangkok.

It is not clear yet when PULO was actually formed. According to Ganesan, it "sprang up in Southern Thailand" in 1934 "and sought the creation of a separate state through guerrilla warfare" but the Thai army "managed to successfully suppress" it. (ibid)

Likely work of separatists

However, according to the late Michael Leiffer, who was a Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economic and Political Science, PULO "was not established until 1968" in India by one Kabir Abdul Rahman, "who had studied at Aligarh Muslim University and who called himself Tengku Bira Kotanil when he went to Mecca to establish a base for overseas recruitment."

Also according to Leiffer, the recruitment drive of PULO was boosted in the 1970s when many Thai Muslim students and intellectuals were radicalised by the internal turmoil in Thailand, and it allegedly obtained support in military training for its young activists from Libya and Syria "in the camp of the Palestine Liberation Organisation."

Leiffer also believed that PULO also received "a measure of support" from "coreligionists in the Malaysian state of Kelantan." (Leiffer, Michael., Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Southeast Asia, London, Routledge, 1995; pp. 199-200)

However, in the current series of violent attacks, there is still no concrete and specific intelligence to suggest that it is PULO which planned, directed and conducted the acts.

As Malaysian defence analyst and lecturer of military history and strategy, Dzirhan Mahadzir, told malaysiankini: "although judging from the type of targets attacked, it is quite likely that the jobs were done by separatists, but then, there is still no intelligence or evidence that can link the incidents to PULO or any other groups yet."

"So far, there is no one claiming responsibility yet," said Mahadzir.

According to Thai media reports in the past several months, the attackers have been variously described in different times by Thai authorities as "bandits", "criminals", "separatists" and "terrorists" with possible links to Al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah (JI).

"I think even the Thai security authorities are still genuinely unclear on the exact hands behind the spade of incidents," added Mahadzir.

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM). Wong is a former DAP member of parliament for Kampar (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily (now Sin Chew Daily). He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew, he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.