Thai Militants Fighting for Islam: Cleric

An Islamic cleric arrested after this week's mass killings of Militants in Thailand insisted they were fighting to create a Muslim nation independent from the mainly Buddhist kingdom.

Mama Matheeyoh denied Government allegations they were drug addicts or criminals and said, "We are fighting for a separate Muslim state."

The preacher led a Militant unit in one of more than a dozen coordinated and simultaneous attacks against Police posts and checkpoints in southern Thailand.

The fighting left 108 Militants and five security personnel dead as heavily armed Police and troops overwhelmed the assailants, many of whom carried only machetes.

"We are not drugs addicts and we did not get paid by anyone," Mama told reporters as Police escorted him to the scene of one of the attacks in Yala province.

He said the Militants - many of them barely out of their teens - had waged the violence in the name of Islamic ideology and that "everyone sacrificed their lives for Allah."

Police said Mama had confessed to leading a group of eight Militants who besieged an Army outpost in Yala province's Thasei village, where one soldier was killed.

On Thursday, Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan told reporters that lab tests conducted on suspected insurgents "both dead and alive" showed several of them took drugs before launching the attacks in Yala, Pattani and Songkhla provinces.

Most of the tests were positive for methamphetamines, while some also showed morphine and marijuana, Sudarat said.

A Government statement said "the incident and clashes are not in any way related to sectarian and religious conflicts" and was "of a domestic nature ... which have been incited by vested interest groups and illegal business activities."

Prime Minister Thaksin has said the insurgency is fueled by money from local drug traffickers and corrupt politicians who have reignited a decades-old separatist struggle.

Thailand is mostly Buddhist, but the southern provinces near Malaysia have Muslim majorities. A separatist movement flourished in the area for years, but faded after a Government amnesty in the 1980's.

The death toll from the Militant Islamic violence reached 113 after an Islamic fighter died of his wounds after the clashes, bringing to 108 the number of Militants killed. Just three Police officers and two soldiers died in the fighting.

Human rights groups and Muslim preachers condemned the slayings, and accused security personnel of responding with excessive force to attacks by poorly armed Militants, many of them armed with machetes.

The Government forces had been tipped off about the attacks in Yala, Pattani and Songkhla provinces and were lying in wait with overwhelming firepower ahead of the dawn attacks.

Family members of the victims gathered at Army camps and collected the bodies of the attackers for quick funerals in accordance with Muslim rites. They said they didn't know why their relatives launched the strikes, but some predicted more violence ahead.


See Also:
The Rising Tide of Islamic Fundamentalism (I)
The Rising Tide of Islamic Fundamentalism (II)
The True Meaning of Jihad
The Holy Qur'an Says...
The Myth That Must Die!
Why We Fight!
Calling Evil By Its Name
The 'Fifth Column' Exposed!
How to Survive a Terror Attack