Shazryl defends ties with Thai Malay militants

(The Star) - Datuk Shazryl Eskay Abdullah has defended his “connection” with Thai Malay militants as exposed by Wikileaks, adding that this was to facilitate peace in the southern part of the country.

Shazryl said that along with Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, he had initiated the Langkawi Peace Talk with the consent of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 2006.

“The peace talk culminated in a peace road map. We have handed over the findings to the Thai and Malaysian governments. The Thai government had implemented most of the action plan proposed in the peace road map,” he said.

Shazryl, who was part of the Datuk T trio that exposed a sex video implicating Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, was responding to details of his meeting with United States Embassy political counsellor Mark D. Clark on Feb 5, 2006.

Wikileaks had exposed the meeting from a leaked US Embassy cable, which was then uploaded onto an online portal.

In the report, Clark revealed that Shazryl, who was former Thai consul in Langkawi, had in-depth knowledge of the separatist movement, including the role played by the older generation insurgency leaders in providing support to the younger leaders.

Clark also noted that Shazryl had informed the US officials that he saw no evidence linking the Thai Malay separatist to external terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah.

Clark said Shazryl believed that the Thai Malay separatists accounted for only 30% of attacks in south Thailand while the rest were linked to criminal gangs and factions within the army, intelligence and police.

It was also revealed that the insurgents received financial assistance via Singapore from unknown sources.

Clark had noted that Shazryl's information on the insurgents were the most detailed the US team had received.

However, Shazryl denied Clark's claim that veteran insurgent Abdullah Idris, the vice-president of National Revolutionary Front, was responsible for ordering some of the ongoing attacks in southern Thailand.

Shazryl also denied sharing with the US officials a 12-page “confidential” paper on the insurgency and views of the Thai Malays.