Despite Government Insistence, Thailand's Muslim Insurgency is Part of Global Jihad

Gen. Kitti Rattanachaya, a security adviser to Thailand's prime minister, said Thursday that Indonesian fighters are involved in Thailand's Muslim insurgency, contradicting government insistence the bloody separatist movement is a homegrown affair unconnected to Southeast Asia's al-Qaeda-linked terror network.

In a recent AP interview, a veteran Thai rebel leader warned that militants from Indonesia and Arab nations might join the Thai fight for a separate Muslim homeland.

Lukman B. Lima said the 21-month-old insurgency is getting moral and financial support from abroad, especially from Islamic sympathizers in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

In another interview earlier this week, a Thai Muslim who fought with the mujahedeen in Afghanistan and who has close contacts with the Thai insurgents said he believed fighters from the Indonesian province of Aceh with superior training have been operating in southern Thailand for some time.