Thai junta again claims August blasts not insurgency

By CS Thana

BANGKOK

Thailand’s junta has sought to underline that two people arrested on suspicion of involvement in a series of bombings which killed four people are not linked to the country's southern insurgency.

The statement appears to again contradict earlier comments by police which said the suspects originated from three Muslim provinces wracked by drive by shootings and bombings, and they had been involved in the insurgency.

“Deputy-prime minister-cum-defense minister Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters at the government's annual review Thursday that two people had been arrested and warrants issued for six more in connection with the blasts.

"But we maintain that even if these people originate from the three southern provinces, they are not part of the insurgency or this is an extension of the insurgency."

On Thursday, an analyst working in the Thai south accused the military of trying to shift blame for the attacks.

"Admitting a link with the southern insurgency would not only aim at protecting tourism, but it would also undermine the claim made by the military for the last 12 years that they have been able to contain the violence to the far south," Don Pathan, an associate with Asia Conflict and Security Consulting, Ltd, told Anadolu Agency.

The explosions took place all over the south, whereas in the past they have been restricted to the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat

Pathan underlined that if the insurgents were to blame it would definitely undermine the junta's claim

"It seems that there is a link between the attacks in the seven provinces and the insurgency. The suspects caught on camera were seen getting off buses in Pattani and Narathiwat right after the attacks."

He underlined, however, that there were still some inconsistencies

"For instance, dry alcohol and not petrol was used for the arsons, which is very unusual for the BRN [the National Revolutionary Front]" -- the one group that Thai and international observers say controls the vast majority of the combatants on the ground.

Bomb attacks across Thailand Aug. 11-12 left four people dead and more than 20 wounded.

Immediately after the explosions, the military government claimed that they were not the work of terrorists or insurgents but related to local politics.

Police, however, have also linked two of the suspects to last year's bombing of a shopping mall on the tourist resort of Samui, which they have also suggested was insurgency related.

The southern insurgency is rooted in a century-old ethno-cultural conflict between Malay Muslims living in the southern region and the Thai central state, where Buddhism is considered the de-facto national religion.

Armed insurgent groups were formed in the 1960s after the then-military dictatorship tried to interfere in Islamic schools, but the insurgency faded in the 1990s.

In 2004, a rejuvenated armed movement -- composed of numerous local cells of fighters loosely grouped around the BRN -- emerged.

The confrontation is one of the deadliest low-intensity conflicts on the planet, with over 7,000 people killed and over 11,000 injured since 2004.