[Kabar-indonesia] Thai Muslim group welcomes army talks offer [+Australian Muslims]

[Joyo at aol.com]

4 articles:

- Thai Muslim group welcomes army talks offer

- Australian Muslims under pressure as terror fears grow

- Philippines peace talks to resume in "next few days": rebels

- Malaysia intent on sending troops to Lebanon: PM

Reuters
Sunday, September 3, 2006

Thai Muslim group welcomes army talks offer

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A low profile Muslim separatist group welcomed a Thai 
military gesture for exploratory talks aimed at ending over two years of bloody 
violence in southern Thailand, the Nation newspaper said on Sunday.

The paper quoted a leader of the outlawed Pattani United Liberation 
Organization (PULO), previously thought to have disbanded, as saying that almost daily 
killings in southern Thailand could be stopped through negotiations.

"PULO stands firmly by its principle that the Pattani issue can be solved 
through negotiations provided there is sincere commitment from the government in 
handling the problem-solving process," said PULO foreign affairs chief Kasturi 
Mahkota in a statement that the paper believed was sent from Sweden.

Thai army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin said on Friday, after over 20 explosive 
devices went off almost simultaneously in banks in southern Yala province, 
that an army dialogue with leaders of separatist groups might help end bloodshed 
in three Muslim- dominated provinces near Malaysia.

"Some government units have tried to establish contact with their leaders. 
Only talks at this level can we restore peace and reconciliation," Sonthi told 
reporters.

The Thai army chief's initiative has not been supported by the government of 
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who earlier described Muslim militants in 
the area as "bandits."

More than 1,100 people have been killed in secessionist violence in southern 
provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat since January 2004.

PULO was known as one of several small and low-key separatist groups 
campaigning for autonomy for the region, a sultanate until annexed by overwhelmingly 
Buddhist Thailand a century ago.

The group, active in the 1970s and 1980s, was believed to have disbanded in 
the 1990s.

Though not claiming direct responsibility for violence in the south, the 
group re-emerged in 2004 and 2005 through web site postings warning foreigners to 
stay away from key public places in Bangkok and southern Thailand.

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Agence France-Presse
September 3, 2006

Australian Muslims under pressure as terror fears grow

The Australian government pressured local Muslims at the weekend to denounce 
terrorism, learn English and accept women as equals, as fears grew of a first 
attack on home soil.

Prime Minister John Howard led with calls for the country's 300,000 Muslims 
to integrate fully into Australian society and adopt its values, sparking 
warnings that he was inciting racial violence.

Howard's remarks came at the end of a week which saw 11 local Muslim men 
committed for trial on terrorism charges and a Muslim convert subjected to the 
first control order issued under controversial new anti-terror laws.

They also coincided with the arrest of 14 terror suspects in Britain, where 
the July 7, 2005 suicide attacks by young British Muslims that killed 56 people 
prompted Howard to express the fear that the same thing could happen in 
Australia.

"Fully integrating means accepting Australian values, it means learning as 
rapidly as you can the English language if you don't already speak it," Howard 
said in a radio interview.

"People who come from societies where women are treated in an inferior 
fashion have got to learn very quickly that that is not the case in Australia."

The head of the government's own moderate Muslim advisory committee, Ameer 
Ali, said Howard risked inflaming tensions seen in rioting between white youths 
and Arab-Australians in Sydney last December.

But the prime minister refused to apologise and repeated his comments in an 
article written for Sydney's Daily Telegraph tabloid on Saturday.

On Sunday, his heir-apparent, Treasurer Peter Costello joined the attack, 
saying Islamic leaders needed "to make it clear that terrorism is never justified 
under the cover of religion".

A minority in the Islamic community had been radicalised and was preying upon 
young people with dangerous ideologies, he said.

"It is very, very important that the leadership of Australia are very clear 
and very precise that this is not real Islam, that terrorism is always wrong."

The leader of the Islamic Friendship Association, Keysar Trad, told AFP the 
government was engaging in "gratuitous Islam bashing".

"On the radicalism issue, they have acknowledged that it is a small fraction 
of less than one percent," he told AFP.

But Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said Sunday the government believes 
Australia is vulnerable to terrorist attacks similar to those in Britain.

"What we're seeing in the United Kingdom is that there are numbers of groups, 
who it is believed, are intent on carrying out terrorist attacks in the 
United Kingdom," Ruddock said.

"This is of course the situation that we face. I think we became very 
complacent about these matters because we've not had on our own soil terrorist 
attacks."

Like Britain, Australia contributed troops to the US-led invasions of both 
Afghanistan and Iraq, but Ruddock denied that was a reason the country was a 
target.

On Friday, a Melbourne court ruled there was sufficient evidence to put on 
trial 11 Australian Muslim men arrested last November in Australia's 
biggest-ever counterterrorism operation.

The court heard they were inspired by Osama Bin Laden, had formed a terror 
cell and had been preparing a terrorist attack.

Earlier in the week the government used controversial new anti-terror laws 
for the first time to place a "control order" on a Muslim convert freed after 
his conviction on terrorism charges was quashed.

The order restricts the movements of Joseph "Jihad Jack" Thomas, 33, who had 
been convicted and sentenced to five years in jail for receiving money and an 
air ticket from Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda.

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Agence France-Presse
September 3, 2006

Philippines peace talks to resume in "next few days": rebels

Peace talks between the Philippine government and Muslim sepatists are to 
resume in the "next few days" in Malaysia, the rebel's chief negotiator said.

But Mohager Igbal said the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) did not 
believe a final peace accord could be signed within the year as the government had 
predicted.

Both sides will attempt to break an impasse on the issue of "ancestral 
domain" or areas in the southern island of Mindanao that the MILF considers are 
traditional Muslim territory, Iqbal said.

"We will meet in Kuala Lumpur in the next few days and we will discuss some 
important matters, but we don't believe that a peace deal is likely, but we may 
extend the peace talks beyond September," Iqbal said without giving specific 
dates.

"There are still some contentious issues and these are the scope of Muslim 
territories under the ancestral domain and how the government and the MILF would 
share the resources in these areas," he said.

"We cannot see any peace deal by September, not even this year unless the 
government and MILF agreed on the proposals," Iqbal said.

The MILF has been waging a rebellion for a separate Muslim state in Mindanao 
since 1978. It signed a truce with Manila in 2001, and agreed to a joint 
ceasefire committee with foreign observers.

Government officials were not immediately available to comment Sunday, 
although they have said in the past that the "ancestral domain issue" remains the 
only stumbling block to signing a deal with the MILF.

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Agence France-Presse
September 3, 2006

Malaysia intent on sending troops to Lebanon: PM

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has said his country is intent 
on sending peacekeeping troops to Lebanon, but is still awaiting the green 
light from the United Nations.

Malaysia has offered to send 1,000 soldiers to Lebanon to boost an expanded 
UN force, although Israel has objected because the two countries do not have 
diplomatic ties.

"(The UN) have not made a decision. The UN is now only asking European 
nations to send the peacekeepers," Abdullah was quoted as saying late Saturday by 
the state Bernama news agency.

"But Malaysia is firm on its stand to send our peacekeepers once we get the 
call from the UN," he said.

Malaysia has urged the United Nations to allow its soldiers to join the UN 
Interim Force in Lebanon despite Israel's objections to countries taking part 
which do not recognise the Jewish state.

Malaysia strongly criticised Israel during its military offensive in Lebanon, 
but says its troops, which have peacekeeping experience in other countries, 
would be impartial.

Malaysia is the current chair of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic 
Conference, and Abdullah said his preference was to have peackeepers from OIC 
countries in addition to European troops, Bernama reported.

Indonesia, which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, said Friday 
that Tel Aviv had dropped objections to its participation, and that Jakarta 
would send send up to 1,000 troops.

European nations have pledged 7,000 troops, including 2,000 from France, 
which will lead the UN force until February when Italy will take over.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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