NO INSURGENT SUSPECTS WITH DUAL CITIZENSHIPS

By D. Arul Rajoo

BANGKOK, Oct 30 (Bernama) -- Despite repeated allegations that insurgents in
Southern Thai are holding dual citizenship, the 6,230 security-related cases
investigated in the past five years showed no such evidence to back the claim,
a Thai researcher said.

Jiraporn Ngamlertsuporn said the average age of the suspects, picked up by
the authorities between January, 2004 and early this year, was between 19 and
35.

She said, while there could be older people holding both Thai and Malaysian
citizenships, cases investigated by the authorities had not shown any proof
that the new generation of southern people had dual nationalities.

"Both the police and military said there are no cases of suspects with dual
citizenship. I think, maybe in the past, many people had that and they could be
in their 70s now," said the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) staff who
carried out a research on dual citizenship for the Thailand Research Fund.

She told a seminar held by the Fund here Thursday, that investigations by
the authorities showed that people arrested in the Waeng, Sungai Golok and
Takbai districts of the southernmost Narathiwat province were Thai citizens and
without dual citizenships.

According to Jiraporn, the number of people with dual citizen had decreased,
while some were hiding due to fear over security problems in the restive region.
It was also more difficult to gain Malaysian identification document cards due
to tighter regulations.

Furthermore, she said, there was no available information to prove someone
was holding dual citizenship, adding that some government agencies also felt it
was not a problem as it brought more economic benefits to people in the region.

"Our research found that people with dual citizenship are not involved in
security issues, so I want to ask the government to not focus on it but focus
on other issues to resolve the south conflict," she added.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told the Nation daily in an interview
last week, that there could be between 20,000 to 25,000 people with dual
citizenships and these people would be asked to make a choice.

"We have this problem of people who cross over because they are dual
citizens.

"And, we would like to solve this problem. Maybe about 20 (000) to 25,000
are dual citizens, but I think we should ask them to make a choice. They have to
decide whether (they want) to be Malaysian citizens or Thai citizens," he had
said.

More than 3,600 people died since separatist groups resumed their armed
campaign in January, 2004 to seek independence for the Muslim-majority
provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat bordering Malaysia.

Jiraporn noted, there were allegations in the past that several competing
political parties in Malaysia used to hand out identity cards to garner more
votes.

However, she said, such things were difficult now due to the issuance of
smart identification documents (ID) there.

She said their research showed that in the past two years, there were about
190,000 smart ID cards issued in Malaysia, which were collected by the
applicants, and that some of them could be holding dual citizenship.

NIA deputy director Nantiwat Samart said most of the suspected insurgents
were living within the provinces, and not along the border.

"Therefore, there is no need for them get dual citizenship," he said.
-- BERNAMA