Militant Groups of Southern Thailand

Militant Groups of Southern Thailand:

Patani United Liberation Organisation (PULO)[1][2][3]

- The Patani United Liberation Organisation (PULO) was founded on 22 January 1968 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The group was established by Tengku Bira Kotanila, alias Kabir Abdul Rahman, a member of a former princely family from Yingor district in the southern Thai province of Narathiwat

-The choice of the name PULO was made in deference to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) of Yasser Arafat, with which the group developed a close relationship in the 1970s

-The grouporiginallyaimed to establish an independent Muslim state in southern Thailand, but differing ideologies and counterterrorist operations resulted in a weakened and divided PULO. By the late 1990s, the group was largely ineffectual. At the height of the Thai insurgency in the 1970s, PULO (along with other groups) had perhaps some 1,000 guerrillas. By the 1980s,this number had fallen to 500;by 2000, theseseparatist groups could count on perhaps 100 fighters

-Tengku Bira led PULO until his death in Damascus on 28 June 2008. However, during his final years, real power within the group lay with Vice President Nur Abdur Rahman. Following Tengku Bira's death, Abdur Rahman's position as leader was formalised in a party congress held in various locations in southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe between June and July 2009. In addition, PULO's foreign affairs spokesman Kasturi Mahkota was elected first vice-president; Imam 'Abu Jihad' was appointed to the post of secretary-general; and Ruslan Yamuraenae, a veteran commander trained in Syria and Libya in the 1980s, was appointed head of PULO's military committee.

- advocate independence for the three predominantly Muslim and ethnic Malay provinces—Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat—located in the extreme south of Thailand along the Thailand-Malaysia border. Although this objective represents the group's maximum position, some PULO leaders have conceded that in the event of serious negotiations between the government and the separatist movement, the possibility of a settlement based on regional autonomy rather than secession could not be ruled out

- Operations normally involve low-level guerrilla raids and bomb attacks against army outposts and public facilities, including government-run schools.

-PULO's most common tactics are drive-by shootings and small bombings. Their attacks focus on public buildings, such as schools and police stations, and also public officials

-Although PULO activity has resurfaced, the organization has changed significantly. Many of its original leaders are in exile, while several hundred former insurgents have accepted an amnesty and are now taking part in peaceful efforts to rebuild the provinces of southern Thailand.

-They have a website:

National Revolutionary Front-Coordinate (Barisan Revolusi Nasional-Coordinate, BRN-C).[4][5][6]

-The BRN was founded by Ustadz Haji Abdul Karim Hassan (also known as Abdul Karim Hassan or Ustadz Karim) on March 13, 1963, as a splinter group of Barisan Nasional Pembe-Basan Pattani (BNPP). The BRN adopted a more socialist ideology than its Islamic progenitor, the BNPP. The group's ideology espoused Islamic-socialism and it encouraged cooperation with communist parties and groups. The difficulty of incorporating Islam, nationalism and socialism into a coherent ideology resulted in considerable splintering among BRN factions.

-The founding of the party appears to have been prompted by anger over the decision by the Thai government to integrate traditional Koranic schools or ponoh into the mainstream Thai educational system, a move viewed by local conservatives as a direct attack on Malay-Muslim culture and identity in the region.

-BRN-C is one of three factions of the original BRN. In the1980s, it split into three: BRN-Ulama, BRN-Congress and BRN-Coordinate.

-The BRN-C is believed to be the largest and most active today. It uses elementary Islamic schools (tadika), ponoh(Inn) and private Islamic schools to recruit the foot soldiers that sustain the insurgency, although it has never openly articulated its political objectives.[7]

- advocate independence for the three predominantly Muslim and ethnic Malay provinces -- Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat -- located in the extreme south of Thailand along the Thailand-Malaysia border

- Operations normally involve low-level guerrilla raids and bomb attacks against army outposts and public facilities, including government-run schools.

-Current Coordinate leaders are drawn from secular teachers and ustadz (religious teachers) in about 18 different schools: ThamawittiyaFoundationSchool in Yala, SamphanWittayaSchool, JihadWittayaSchool and Pattana Islam. Teachers at these schools have been arrested with weapons, bomb-making materials and instructional videos. Known BRN-C leaders include: Afghan-trained Masae Useng, Sapaeng Basoe, Abdullah Munir, Dulloh Waeman (Ustadz Loh), Abroseh Parehruepoh, Abdulkanin Kalupang, Isma-ae Toyalong, Arduenan Mama, Bororting Binbuerheng and Yusuf Rayalong (Ustadz Ismae-ae).

-With its appeal to Patani-Malay nationalism and Islam, the BRN-Co-ordinate-led separatist movement represents the most serious threat to the integrity of the Thai state since the communist insurgency of the 1970s

-It is now apparent that aided by an extensive and long-standing network in Islamic schools, BRN-Co-ordinate has succeeded in building up a sophisticated political and military organisation across the border provinces

-The group's strategy has focused on a gradual process of political and religious indoctrination at a grass-roots level leading to mobilisation for a "people's war" against the Thai state and Buddhist settlers in the region

-The number of members in the BRN-C is not known, but Thai officials estimate that there are approximately 1,000 members. Its current leaders are, for the most part, schoolteachers and ustadz from roughly 18 schools, including the ThamawittiyaFoundationSchool in Yala, the SamphanWittayaSchool, JihadWittayaSchool and Pattana Islam

-The BRN-C is structured along strict cellular lines. It is estimated that 70 percent of the villages have a cell of between five and ten people. Many villages have two or more cells.

Patani Islamic Mujahidin Group (Gerakan Mujahidin Islam Patani, GMIP)[8]

-The GMIP operates in the southern Muslim-dominated provinces of Thailand,usually inrural areas. The GMIP also organizes andseeksrefuge in northern Malaysia.

-GMIP's goal,similar to severalother Thai insurgency groups, is to create an independent Muslim state in southern Thailand.

-GMIP is estimated to have about 40 cell leaders in the south, thoughthe size of the cellsis unknown.

-The GMIP derives some of its strength (or at least notoriety) from the leadership of veterans from the Afghan war.It has close ties to the Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia (Malaysian Mujahideen Group, KMM), founded by another Afghan veteran, Zainon Ismail,whoalso supported the GMIP. Nik Adli Nik Aziz, a former leader of the KMM, trained with Nasori Saeseng (GMIP's founder) in Afghanistan.

-The GMIP was founded in 1986 by Wae-Hama Wae-Yuso. However, internal fighting led to the breakup of the group by 1993. In 1995, Nasori Saesaeng (Awae Kaelae), Jehku Mae Kuteh (aka Doromae Kuteh or Kumae Kuteh), Nasae Saning and some other veterans from Afghanistan reorganized the group. Sincethen, two of the founders have been apprehended by security forces:Nasae Saning was shot in 2003 and Kuteh was captured by Malaysian securityforcesin 2005.

-There is more evidence ofGMIPconnectionsto international jihadism thanis the case withother Thai insurgency groups. From 1999-2000, Jemaah Islamiya attempted to develop ties with GMIP. After the Sep. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, GMIP spread leaflets in Yala calling for a jihad in support of Osama bin Laden. In January 2004, Gen. Kitti Rattanachaya, a former Thai army commander in the south, said that GMIP had links to both Al-Qaida and Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiya.

-The GMIP is a rural-based organization and its operations reflect this. Thai officials have linked the GMIP to attacks on military convoys using roadside IEDs and on rural police and military outposts. Thai intelligence documents estimate that the GMIP has 40 well-trained cell leaders in the south.

United Front for the Independence of Pattani is also known as Bersatu ("unity" in Malay)[9][10]

-Bersatu was founded onAug. 31, 1989, though it did not adopt its current designation until 1991. Bersatu gets most of its support from the Muslim Malay population in southern Thailand -- specifically the provinces of Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and southern Songkhla. The organization is run by Lukman B. Lima, Bersatu's deputy president, who lives in exile in Sweden.

- The terrorist/separatist group is located in the southern Muslim-dominated (ethnically Malay) provinces of Thailand, including Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, as well as southern parts of the Songkhla province.

-Bersatu's alleged goal is to improve Thai governmental policies toward Muslims in Thailand's south. More significantly, Bersatu would like to bring about the secession of Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Songkhla provinces from Thailand, recreating the Pattani sultanate that was invaded by Siam in 1786 and later annexed

-Bersatu is an umbrella organization of various terrorist groups operating in southern Thailand, including the Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO), New PULO, Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu Pattani (BRN), Barisan National Pember-Basan (BNPP) and the Gerakan Mujahadeen Islam Pattani (GMIP). Bersatu may only have about 80 active fighters. However, the overall strength of the Bersatu-related insurgency is much greater. Estimates vary from several hundred to thousands of fighters, though the real number probably lies nearer the lower end

-Experts believe that Bersatu has no more than 60 trained terrorists. The group retains no permanent bases but attacks government forces and soft targets in guerilla faction, avoiding large armed clashes

Runda Kumpalan Kecil (RKK)[11]

-An active terrorist group in southern Thailand, the Runda Kumpalan Kecil (RKK) is a product of the larger Malay nationalist-separatist movement, which has turned particularly violent in the last several years

-The RKK is a splinter group of the Coordinate branch of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu Pattani (BRN-C), itself a splinter of the Barisan National Pembebasan Pattani (BNPP), the original party of Pattani nationalism

-Ambitious BRN-C members that wished to participate directly in the armed struggle against the Thai government formed the RKK after receiving operational training in Indonesia, allegedly with the help of regional Islamic militant groups.

-Currently made up of around 500 members, the RKK is able to take advantage of the infrastructure established by the BRN-C as well as the local legitimacy of the BRN within the greater Pattani-Malay separatist movement. It is a cell-based organization largely dependent on a network of religious leaders and teachers for recruitment and indoctrination.
-The RKK was largely unheard of until the Thai government acknowledged its existence in late 2005. In June 2006, more than 12 bombs exploded simultaneously near police and government targets in southern Thailand, killing two and injuring dozens. Thai authorities attributed this attack to the RKK and other local Malay Islamist separatists, indicating a level of tactical proficiency previously thought not to exist.

-Little is known about the group's leader Rorhing Ahsong, aka Ustaz Rorhing. "Ustaz" means "Master" or "Teacher", emphasizing the importance of religious schooling to the RKK's overall mission to harass the Thai government and near-term objective to survive as a group.

Thai Security Forces[12]

-Various security forces under government control are active in the south: the local police; the military, including the army and marine corps; the army’s paramilitary unit, known as the Rangers (Thaharn Pran); the Ministry of Interior’s paramilitary force, the Volunteer Defense Corps (Or Sor); the civilian militia force, the Village Defense Volunteers (Chor Ror Bor); and the ethnic Thai Buddhist civilian militia of the Village Protection Force (Or Ror Bor).[13]

- Army divisions responsible for Southern Thailand[14]: 5th infantry division, 15th infantry division, and the 4th development division

-By mid-2010, around 30,000 Army troops were deployed in the southern provinces, about 10,000 of which are paramilitary Rangers. (Jane’s World Armies)

Village Protection Volunteers (Or Ror Bor)[15]

-A self-defense civilian force comprised almost exclusively of Buddhists. The volunteers guard their own communities and are armed with government-issued shotguns

-Or Ror Bor units are often based in temple compounds or explicitly mandated to protect Buddhist minorities

- 24,000 members

-The command structure of Or Ror Bor resembles that of the military. A “battalion” was set up in Narathiwat’s Ra-ngae district, comprising three companies.

- The funding for Or Ror Bor projects mainly comes from the government’s job creation scheme. As a means to enhance economic opportunities, government agencies hire local people at a salary of 4,500 baht ($133) a month

- Its volunteers receive ten- to fifteen-days military training

- This group is directed by the Royal Aide-de-Camp department under Queen Sirikit’s patronage and has a military-style command structure

Paramilitary Rangers (Thaharn Pran)[16]

-As of 2009 9,000 Rangers were deployed in the Southern Provinces

- The Rangers are auxiliaries to regular soldiers and amount to one third of the troops operating in the South

-The military favors rangers as a quick and cheap way of increasing troops on the ground: it is easier to create and dissolve ranger regiments, their salaries are significantly lower than regulars and as local recruits, and they are supposed to be familiar with the language, terrain and culture

- In practice, however, only a small proportion of the newly recruited rangers are actually local Malay Muslims. Estimates from military sources ranged from 15 to 30 per cent

-Each company of between 80 and 100 is fairly autonomous. The company commander, a captain seconded from the regular army, can make operational decisions

-Each ranger company deployed in the field has 74 troopers, one lieutenant (the commanding officer), one captain, and fourteen non-commissioned officers (five sergeant majors 1st class and nine sergeants) from the regular army

-At each regimental headquarters there are 48 officers (the commanding officer is a colonel), 36 women rangers and three women sergeants

Volunteers Defense Corps (Or Sor)[17]

- As of 2009 3,300 members existed

- Or Sor carry out many of the same functions as rangers but are not expected to perform a combat role

- The Or Sor is recruited by the interior ministry and primarily provides security for high-ranking civilian officials

- Receive 45 days of training

-Known to be fiercely loyal to its ministry bosses, though less problematic than the rangers, it is widely viewed as the armed enforcer of the ministry’s district officers

Village Defense Volunteers (Chor Ror Bor)

- 47,000 members

-Members are given three days (and five bullets) for military training in gun handling, patrolling and defensive tactics, by either the army, the rangers or the Or Sor. They are armed with five-round, pump-action shotguns but are not properly trained in maintaining them

- Chor Ror Bor are employed by the ministry’s Department of Provincial Administration but the army’s Internal Security Operations Command is nominally responsible for operational control

-Each 30-member village unit has fifteen guns and a monthly budget of 20,000 Baht ($640) from the interior ministry. In theory, each member works approximately ten twelve-hour shifts per month, so there are always five men on guard, often at a checkpoint or outside the local school or village head’s house but sometimes just hanging around the village teashop

Timeline of Attacks within the Last Year

April 21, 2010 - One policeman was killed and 33 were injured when suspected Muslim rebels hurled a grenade at a police stationin Pattani, 670 kilometers south of capital Bangkok, took place around 8 a.m. local time when officers had lined up for the daily flag-hoisting ceremony and playing of the national anthem. Two motorcycle-borne men lobbing a M67 grenade at the police station while passing in front of the building. Barely two hours later, a bomb placed in a car parked meters away from the police station exploded, injuring 10 others.

April 21, 2010 - A grenade was fired at the jet fuel tank owned by Thai Petroleum Pipeline Co (Thappline) in Pathum Thani's Lam Luk Ka district at 1.15am, causing a fire on the side of the tank. The grenade caused a 4cm hole in the tank, but the fuel failed to ignite because of protective double layering. There were 9 million litres in the tank at the time of the attack. The tank has a capacity of 22 million litres.

April 27, 2010 - An unknown number of gunmen sprayed bullets at a Pattani municipal garbage truck, killing one. Meanwhile, 14 soldiers were injured in a motorcycle bombing in the same province. Security officials inspected the crime scene on Route 418 in Pattani's Mae Lan district after assailants triggered a bomb hidden inside a motorcycle, injuring 14 soldiers.