Asia Times: Rebels in the Land of Smiles


	April 22, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Rebels in the Land of Smiles
By Satya Sivaraman

BANGKOK - A full-blown controversy over the alleged presence of Sri Lankan Tamil militants has once again focused attention on Thailand's growing reputation as a safe haven for extremist activities from around the globe.

While the Thai foreign ministry denies any activities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the country, contradicting it is none other than the Thai army chief General Surayudh Chulanont, who insists that the rebels have a local base.

According to General Surayudh, the LTTE is running front companies in Thailand as a smoke screen for arms purchases from various sources for shipment to Sri Lanka.

The LTTE have been fighting a civil war in Sri Lanka for nearly two decades, demanding a separate Tamil homeland, and have been outlawed by several governments around the world for their violent methods.

The controversy was kicked off by an article in the London based Lloyd' s List, an international shipping and insurance magazine, which detailed moves by the LTTE to shift operations from Burma to Thailand in recent months. The report said the LTTE had at one time set up a base on Twante Island in Burma in league with some generals in Rangoon but, following diplomatic pressure from the Sri Lankan government, the rebels had to resettle on the southern Thai resort island of Phuket.

The shipping publication also claimed that the rebels were involved in smuggling of heroin to developed countries from Burma, one of the world' s largest producers of the narcotic. Proceeds from such smuggling were being used for purchasing armaments.

A report last year by the Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers said the Tigers had a fleet of ocean-going vessels used mostly for genuine commercial activities, such as fishing, but also to transport explosives, armaments, ammunition and other war-related materials.

''There is no information to back it up, but since there are overseas news reports alleging these activities, the foreign ministry will coordinate with relevant agencies to look into the matter,'' Surin Pitsuwan, the Thai foreign minister told Thai media in the wake of the controversy.

The Thai army chief Surayudh, on the other hand, maintained that other government agencies might not be aware of the Tamil rebels' movements because of poor exchange of information.

In Colombo, a Sri Lankan Army spokesman claimed that since 1996 the LTTE had used the long coastline in the Indian Ocean for their activities. He said that arms were being procured in Cambodia and shipped to a point along the northern Sri Lankan coast controlled by the Tamil militants.

Though there is nothing very new about the reports regarding the presence of Tamil rebels in Thailand, this is the first time they have been confirmed by somebody as senior in the Thai establishment as the army chief. The Sri Lankan government has previously said that the LTTE had a network of supporters and operations in Thailand, a charge always denied by successive Thai governments.

These reports about the LTTE come in the wake of several other incidents in recent months which have exposed the inability of the Thai authorities to control or even properly monitor the activities of foreign extremist groups on its territory.

The most highly publicized event was the hostage crisis at the Burmese embassy in Bangkok last October when a group of student rebels held several dozens of tourists and embassy staff at gunpoint demanding the return of democracy in Burma. Though the incident passed off peacefully, with the release of all the hostages, it raised serious questions regarding the ease with which the gunmen could take over a supposedly high-security building in the heart of the Thai capital.

In January this year a similar incident involving Burmese rebels taking over a hospital in Ratchaburi town, 100 kilometers from Bangkok, ended in tragedy with all the rebels shot by Thai commandos. Human rights activists alleged at that time that the rebels had been shot in cold blood after they had surrendered which, if true, put the professionalism of Thai security forces in poor light.

Again, prior to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development summit last February, Thai immigration police apprehended a well-known ethnic Naga militant leader from India at Bangkok airport while trying to enter the country on a false passport. Mysteriously, the rebel leader managed to get bail and attempt to leave the country again from an airport in southern Thailand before being detained again.

''Thailand has long been known as an easy transit point as well as a hideout for rebels from all over the world because of lack of coordination among various Thai agencies as well as corruption,'' says an Asian diplomat in Bangkok.

One example of the various Thai government agencies working at cross-purposes is the failed attempt by Thai police authorities to enforce stricter checks on tourists coming from Hong Kong following a recent spate of gangland style shootings in Bangkok blamed on Hong Kong triad members.

While the Thai police sought to do away with visa-free entries to visitors from Hong Kong, the proposal was strongly resisted by the Thai tourism authority. Over 7 million foreigners visit Thailand every year, bringing in revenues of over $5 billion annually.

The history of Thailand's reputation as a haven for wanted criminals and rebels also goes back to the days of the Cold War when the country served as a base for armed groups ranging from the Kuomintang fighting the Chinese Communist Party in the 1950s to the Khmer Rouge battling the Vietnamese-backed Hun Sen government in the 1980s.

The notorious Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot was reported to have lived at a safe haven in the Thai resort town of Pattaya for many years.

The current row over the presence of the LTTE, as well as other incidents, may lead to a temporary tightening of security and watch over activities of foreign rebels. In the long run, however, the Thai government may have to review its entire attitude of allowing foreign groups to do anything they want from Thai soil - as long as ''they pay the right amount to the right people''.

(Inter Press Service)

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�1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.

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