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Motorcycle killer gives Thai army vital insight into terrorist methods
By Sebastien Berger in Pattani
30/08/2004
Sitting on a hospital bed and guarded by comrades of the soldier he murdered, Abdullah Akoh explained his part in southern Thailand's Islamic separatist insurgency.
Following orders from the commander of his cell, like him a teacher at an Islamic school, Akoh and a fellow militant fell in behind a pair of soldiers on a motorcycle in Yaha one morning. When their targets slowed down they overtook them and Akoh, the pillion passenger, shot one of the soldiers dead with a 9mm pistol.
Abdullah Akoh
The two turned back to kill the second serviceman, but their intended victim seized his comrade's M16 rifle and returned fire, hitting Akoh in the leg and stomach. The motorcycle crashed, the driver fled and Akoh, 31, was captured.
"I feel sorry," he said in a ward at Ingkayut army camp in Pattani. "It was wrong."
Unlike the rest of Buddhist-majority Thailand, its four southernmost provinces, on the border with Malaysia, have a Muslim majority. Formerly an independent sultanate based in Pattani, for four centuries they have been part of the kingdom but retain a distinctive character.
While in public everyone professes loyalty to Bangkok, Islamic militants trained, according to the authorities, in the Middle East, have fomented an insurrection that has claimed about 300 lives this year.
On the worst day, more than 100 people were killed, the vast majority of them militants armed only with knives, with 32 dying in the Krue Se mosque in Pattani after a siege by the military.
Akoh said his commander, Ismail Rayalong, known as Yusuf, "persuaded me to do it. He told me about the historical background."
He added: "The Thai government invaded this area so I fought back by killing government officials."
Yusuf also persuaded him that reading 70,000 words a day of religious tracts would make him invulnerable to knives or bullets. None the less Akoh, who is married with a seven-month-old son, was ready to accept martyrdom if he was killed fighting for Islam.
Unlike the al-Qa'eda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group, blamed for the Bali bombings, which wants to set up a Islamic caliphate across south-east Asia, Akoh said his group sought autonomy for Pattani under Islamic law.
Now he says he believes in peace and that Pattani should remain part of Thailand. "If somebody tries to persuade you to do something like what I did, don't believe them. Think carefully."
Akoh, recruited four years ago, described a cell structure in which no insurgent group knows any other and each carries out its own recruitment. The military are delighted with his co-operation since his capture, and it is likely he would be at risk from his former comrades if he was freed.
A senior officer who was present throughout the interview said Akoh will be put on trial but can expect a prison sentence rather execution.
But his capture, and those of about 20 other militants in separate incidents, represent relatively rare successes in Thailand's struggle against the insurgency.
Bangkok announces regularly that senior insurgents have been arrested, but the attacks continue on an almost daily basis, with fatalities every week.
The victims have not been limited to soldiers but have included civil servants, civilians, and Buddhist monks.
While no foreigner has been killed in the violence, diplomats have privately expressed fears that visitors could be the targets of a bomb attack.
The Foreign Office has issued warnings against all but essential travel to four southern provinces.
The Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, toured the three most troubled provinces last week under heavy security. He has ordered Islamic schools to be monitored more closely, and a number of teachers are being sought by the authorities on suspicion of being involved in the violence.
Throughout the south small motorcycles are a common means of transport, but after shootings like that carried out by Akoh the defence minister announced that pillion passengers were to be banned.
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As soon they become a majority in a former non-muslim country the trouble starts.... I think history has taught us that. And apparently it does not matter who are they colonising, jews, christians, buddhists or hindu's.
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Originally Posted by PeoplesPoster
