Pracha brands Thaksin threat clip a fake

Al-qaeda has no South rebel ties, Paradorn says

Deputy Prime Minister Pracha Promnok insists a purported ‘‘al-Qaeda’’ video posted on YouTube making death threats against former premier Thaksin Shinawatra is fake and aimed instead at toppling the government.

Pol Gen Pracha, who oversees national security, yesterday said the clip was the work of people who oppose the government.

The video was uploaded outside Thailand, so the authorities would find it difficult to catch the perpetrators, he said. He declined to name the country, saying only that it was not Malaysia.

‘‘It’s impossible that Thai politics is linked with al-Qaeda,’’ Pol Gen Pracha said.

‘‘The video makers want to discredit and bring down the government and don’t want to see peace in the country.

‘‘The people in the video are not alQaeda members. If they were, they would not show their faces, and the audio is not in sync with the video.’’

He claimed authorities had information about the men in the video and they were preparing to take action against them.

The two-minute, 45-second video is entitled ‘‘al-Qaeda video against former Thailand prime minister’’ and was uploaded on Saturday.

The English language commentary included threats to kill Thaksin ‘‘to avenge the killing of Muslims in the South in 2004’’. It referred to the killings in Tak Bai district while Thaksin was premier.

Pol Gen Pracha said the video was politically motivated and was not linked to the southern unrest.

Sunai Phasuk, senior researcher on Thailand for Human Rights Watch, said the clip was politically motivated and timed to precede the start of the parliamentary session next week.

The clip would not create any rifts between Thailand and Malaysia, he said.

Mr Sunai said he did not believe alQaeda would single out Thaksin.

He said if the group had a grievance with Thailand, it would target the government, not just Thaksin.

Sombat Yothathip, dean at Rajabhat Yala University’s faculty of humanities and social sciences, also doubted alQaeda was behind the clip.

As the Tak Bai incident had taken place nine years ago, he wondered why they waited until now to issue the threat.

There has been no comment from al-Qaeda about the clip, he said.

National Security Council secretarygeneral Paradorn Pattanatabut also agreed the clip was made by a group of government opponents.

He said the group included both Thais and foreigners, though none of them are politicians. He said the clip was released to foment mistrust between Thailand and Malaysia as the government pursued peace talks with the Barisan Revolusi Nasional separatist group.

Lt Gen Paradorn leads the government delegation.

He added that al-Qaeda had never been involved in the southern unrest.

Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha said anyone could make such a clip.

He urged the media to stop reporting news about the clip, as it cast the country in a negative light.