UNEASY TIES: Muslim teens at an Islamic school in Yala being guarded by troops yesterday. An explosion on Tuesday at a market there killed 37 people. -- PHOTO: AFP

Government spokesman Chaiya Yimvilai told reporters that the deadly insurgency in the south had intensified recently as a result of funding from the international terrorist network.

'The situation has intensified recently because they received money from overseas, from the international terror organisation Al-Qaeda,' Mr Chaiya said.

But an hour later, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont used his daily press briefing to reassert the government's long-held position that any links to Al-Qaeda are purely ideological.

'This organisation (Al-Qaeda) has no capacity to provide financial support. Its only exchanges are ideological ones with the various groups operating in the south,' said Mr Surayud.

The contradicting assessments highlight the government's failure to come to grips with the nature of the insurgency that has claimed more than 2,800 lives since fighting broke out four years ago. No group has claimed responsibility for the violence, and the government has yet to publicly identify any of the militancy's leadership.

AL-QAEDA FUNDED INSURGENCY 'The situation has intensified recently because they received money from overseas, from the international terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda.' ... more

Mr Chaiya told reporters that in addition to funding from Al-Qaeda, corrupt Thai soldiers and politicians as well as drug traffickers had a hand in the unrest.

The latest remarks about a possible Al-Qaeda role came at the end of a week of grisly attacks in the provinces. Separatist rebels killed eight Thai soldiers in Narathiwat last Monday and tried to decapitate them, while at least 37 people were injured last Tuesday when a bomb exploded at a morning market in Yala.

Mr Surayud was appointed premier following a bloodless coup in September 2006, when the country's first Muslim army chief, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, toppled the Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thaksin's heavy-handed tactics had been blamed for worsening the conflict, and Mr Surayud quickly offered a series of olive branches to the militants in hopes of curbing the unrest.

But despite the 'hearts and minds' campaign, last year was the bloodiest in the far south since the insurgency began in 2004.

An average of 72 people were killed each month since the military took power, up sharply from 53 deaths every month before the coup, figures from independent monitoring group Intellectual Deep South Watch showed.

Mr Chaiya admitted that the government had failed in winning over the ethnic Malays in the predominantly Muslim region. 'We made great progress on military operations last year, but our efforts with the people remained static,' he said.

Army spokesman Thanathip Sawangsaeng told the same news conference that the army, which had 30,000 troops in the area, was focusing on 72 villages - a sixth of the number in the region - where militants held sway.

'We will be sending troops into those villages to create better understanding and communications between the state and the villagers,' he said.

But he added there were no signs militant attacks on civilians and security forces would diminish in what was an independent sultanate until annexed by predominantly Buddhist Thailand a century ago.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS

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