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A Muslim separatist group operating in Thailand’s south has vowed to pursue its independence struggle despite the sentencing to life imprisonment of three of its leaders, a report said Thursday.
The Pattani United Liberation Organisation (PULO) has been largely inactive since the arrests of three of its top leaders in 1998.
But the group said in a statement to the Nation newspaper that it would “continue to struggle to expel the Thai forces who occupied our sacred land and with the memory of those respected leaders... and those martyrs who fought and died with dedication for the liberation of Islam and the Pattani homeland”.
The group also reportedly said it “considers the Thai Constitution illegitimate in the area and its members are not under Thai jurisdiction” and that it “deserves the right to react accordingly”.
On Wednesday, PULO cell leader Daoh Thanam, chairman Bueto Betong and operative Samaae Thannam were sentenced to life imprisonment for treason following a three-decade terror campaign in the south.
The three reportedly admitted burning down public schools and killing policemen and soldiers in a series of ambushes carried out since 1968.
PULO is one of several groups fighting for independence for Thailand’s five Muslim majority provinces, but their influence has waned considerably in recent years and they are no longer seen as capable of carrying out major attacks. Thai Defence Minister Thammarak Issarangkun Na Ayutthaya cast doubt on the validity of the statement.
“They are not PULO. They are just somebody who says they are,” he told reporters.
But the minister said there was no guarantee that PULO would not turn violent again, and that “our duty is to do our best to prevent it”.
Thammarak also dismissed speculation in the Thai-language Press that terrorist activity could flare up in the southern provinces following the weekend bombings in the Indonesian resort of Bali.
“They (terrorist groups) are not involved with Thailand. These movements are happening in other countries, but not in Thailand,” he said.
Since December a separate spate of violence has broken out in the region, with 17 policemen murdered, trains bombed, government offices attacked and weapons depots raided.
Provincial leaders and Islamic authorities
have said those responsible are not separatists but gangsters fighting
over the profits from illegal businesses including smuggling and prostitution.
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