Thailand agrees to share security information

Thailand agrees to share security information

Agencies, Vientiane/Bangkok

Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed to boost cooperation
on security amid fears that Muslim unrest in the southern Thai
provinces could explode into a regional threat, officials said on
Monday.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra met the leaders of the
two Muslim nations on late Sunday to soothe tensions after he
threatened to walk out of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) summit here if leaders raised the unrest.

The issue was however not raised in a leaders' meeting that
opened the two-day summit that started in Laos on Monday,
officials said.

Thaksin, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono agreed on late
Sunday to intensify cooperation on law enforcement and share
intelligence to curb radical groups, said Thai foreign ministry
spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow.

"The causes of the situation (are) domestic. It's not part of
any international terrorist network but of course we are
concerned about the introduction of extremist ideologies among
the youths," he told AFP.

"We are concerned about the possibility of extremist groups in
the region connecting together and this could become a serious
problem.

"We are concerned about the possibility of links among
extremist movements in the region, that's why it's important for
us to share intelligence."

The unrest in Buddhist Thailand's south has left some 550
people dead this year. International concern about the violence
peaked last month when 87 Muslim protesters died, most of them
from suffocation while packed on to army trucks.

Thaksin has said ASEAN's policy of not interfering in the
domestic affairs of its members meant the unrest should not be
raised by leaders at the annual summit.

Some ASEAN members had wanted the issue to be addressed
because of fears the unrest could spill over Thailand's borders,
particularly into its southern neighbor Malaysia.

Thaksin's spokesman Jakrapob Penkair told AFP the Malaysian
and Indonesian leaders "expressed their full understanding and
agreement to the principle of non-interference".

"In fact, the Malaysian leader at the summit this morning
mentioned the fact that the principle of not interfering in each
other's affairs remains one of the most important tenets that
holds ASEAN together," he said.

Abdullah had however stressed that Malaysia "reserves the
right to ask questions", Jakrapob said.

Thaksin was on Sunday "very clear in saying that they had no
problem sharing information but they have a problem sharing it in
the ASEAN forum because they don't wish to multilateralize the
problem", Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa
said.

Abdullah told the Malaysian media here on Monday that he
welcomed Thailand's move to set up an independent body to
investigate the October killing of nearly 90 protesters as "their
efforts would help restore confidence of residents in the south."

In a related development, suspected Islamic rebels shot dead a
soldier driving his daughter to school and wounded a police
informant on Monday in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, where
violence has left hundreds dead this year.

Police killed a suspect in another incident, officials said.

Sgt. Praphan Nothong, 43, was shot three times while driving
his motorcycle in Pattani province's Kok Pho district, said
police Sub. Lt. Monrat Silarak. The motorbike crashed, but
Praphan's daughter was unhurt.

In a separate incident, 48-year-old Narong Kaewprakasit was
shot and wounded as he drove a motorcycle to his repair shop in
Narathiwat province's Sungai Kolok district, said police Sub Lt.
Anond Praditsaeng. Narong had been wearing a bulletproof vest.

In the first attack early on Monday, police fatally shot a
suspected Islamic insurgent -- Mukata Puleng, 25 -- and seized
seven assault rifles and ammunition, three dynamite bombs and two
hand grenades from the pickup truck in which he'd been riding,
said police Maj. Col. Worawut Kittisakronnakorn.

Security officials in Pattani province's Panareh district had
received a tip about people transporting weapons, he said. They
followed the pickup after it failed to stop at a checkpoint.

Maj. Gen. Thani Thawitsri, deputy regional police commander,
said Mukata belonged to a separatist group called the Gerakan
Mujahideen Islam Pattani, or GMIP, and was wanted for the murders
of a deputy village headman and a resident in Pattani's Janae
district.

Police had offered a 500,000 baht (US$12,658) bounty for any
tip-off leading to Mukata's arrest. Police are also offering
rewards for help in arresting 45 other suspects believed to be
responsible for causing violence in the deep south.