BANGKOK, Thailand (EPN) -- Washington and Bangkok are working closely to crush international terrorism, with Thailand allowing the U.S. military to refuel at Thai ports.

A Thai member of Parliament who blasphemed Muslims by lamely joking that the U.S. should drop "pork-fat bombs" on Afghanistan was quickly ousted by an embarrassed Thai government.

But smoldering violence and a small group who boast they are "mujahideen," or holy Islamic warriors, are causing concern about Thailand's southern Muslim population.

"Our Thai allies quickly granted blanket permission to overfly their country in the pursuit of our military objectives," said newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Thailand, James A. Kelly.

"When we asked, they allowed us to land our refueling and support aircraft at air bases on Thai soil, and invited U.S. ships beginning to deploy for Operation Enduring Freedom to visit Thai ports," Mr. Kelly said.

"Thailand has faced it [terrorism] with violence in the south and bomb attacks in Bangkok," Ambassador Kelly said.

He made the remarks in a March 13 speech titled "U.S.-Thai Relations After September 11, 2001," delivered at Washington's Asia Foundation.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, said al Qaeda could be linked to Thailand.

"Our knowledge of exactly where the al Qaeda terrorists have gone -- and just what their local support is -- is developing all the time, and although there are ties in Indonesia, there are also ties into Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines...and several other countries," Admiral Dennis C. Blair, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, said on March 22.

About 95 percent of Thailand's population are Buddhist.

In the south, Muslims have a majority in five provinces and historic links with Muslim-majority Malaysia just across the border.

Tourists and foreign investors rarely venture to the region, about 500 miles south of Bangkok.

As a result, the south suffers a shabby economy.

The zone is also plagued by the occasional killing of Thai officials, policemen, teachers, criminals, Islamic guerrillas and local residents.

When police or troops are shot, or a school is burned down, officials blame "bandits" or the dreaded Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO) guerrillas.

Others insist thugs -- hired by some government and security officials -- also commit violence and make it look like PULO guerrillas did it, to distract investigators.

According to that scenario, the attacks also allow the security forces to justify their presence in the south, fueling a spiral of corruption and repression.

Understandably, many Thais are extremely fearful of the south's security situation.

When Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his cabinet toured the south during the last three days of March, each minister was reportedly protected by 10 armed bodyguards.

Yet while on his southern visit, the prime minister said terrorist groups were extinct.

"In the past, when problems occurred, it was always seen as the work of terrorists," Mr. Thaksin said.

"This did not bode well for investment and tourism."

He called for more assistance, business, employment and security in the south.

Mr. Thaksin also promised about one million U.S. dollars to finance mosques throughout Thailand to improve education for Muslim youths.

Islamic banking and other religiously correct policies would be endorsed, the prime minister added.

The south's rubber, palm oil and coffee farms would be upgraded to improve profits.

"Mr. Thaksin stubbornly insists that three months of continuing murders, extortion, intimidation and bombing do not constitute terrorism," the Bangkok Post said in editorial on April 2.

"Leaders of the Islamic committees in five provinces said terrorism was the single biggest problem in the region.

"Whatever word the prime minister favors -- apparently he thinks 'terrorist' may frighten sensitive tourists -- there is murderous violence in the south," the Bangkok Post said.

PULO and their seemingly impossible demand for an independent "Greater Pattani" nation peaked at the end of the 1970s when they boasted up to 1,000 armed men.

Greater Pattani would include southern Thailand's provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani, Satun and part of Songkhla -- a region Thailand annexed in 1902.

Over the past two decades, however, PULO guerrillas grew weak thanks to Thai military crackdowns, amnesties and some improved economic opportunities.

Today, they number in the low hundreds. Many former cadres have gone mainstream to peacefully change the system from within.

But PULO never stopped accusing Thai security forces of alleged extrajudicial killings in the south.

U.S. and Thai security forces, meanwhile, are trying to judge the amount of dissatisfaction among Thailand's Muslims and whether international terrorists would be welcome.

Thus far, there is no confirmed, public evidence of al Qaeda infiltration into Thailand.

A low point came just after September 11.

A Thai member of Parliament in the prime minister's party wanted to e-mail President George W. Bush to

suggest cruise missiles containing "pork-fat bombs" would be "the most effective response that can be brought to bear on the persons in the Islamic countries who are guilty of harboring these criminals."

The politician, Tinawat Marukpitak, was condemned for blaspheming Islam -- which abhors pigs and pork products as satanic.

Mr. Tinawat was forced to resign from Mr. Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai ("Thais Love Thais") party amid profuse apologies.

The guerrillas say more than 15 military coups and attempted coups in Bangkok during the past 65 years is reason not to integrate.

"PULO chooses to follow...a political forum and armed struggle as an appropriate way to bring wisdom for the discriminated people of Greater Pattani," PULO said in a statement.

PULO denounced Thailand's "racist policies" of pushing Thailand's 3.3 million Muslims to live under "Buddhist influence."

In the past, Bangkok banished corrupt or incompetent police and military officials, teachers and civil servants to the south where they then made life miserable for local people, according to published reports.

Unscrupulous locals "became either their agents, bandits or village gangsters," PULO said.

"Some Thai police and army officers themselves are drug traffickers" fueling widespread addiction among Muslim youths, it said.

Thai officials, however, now express confidence PULO has miniscule support because more and more Muslims were advancing up Thailand's economic ladder.

"The atmosphere in the south is no longer one of fear, so do not try to create conflict," warned Interior Minister Purachai Piumsombun.

"Influential people like to create false rumors about terrorism to protect their own interests. I will get rid of these people, especially the drug traffickers and those who trade in weapons," Mr. Purachai said.

The interior minister said police and government officials were also to blame.

"It is a matter of bandits and many groups of people behind them -- not only police but also some government officials who lost benefits and were disappointed with reshuffles. Or those whose businesses have been affected," Mr. Purachai said.

PULO, however, denounced Thailand's support of the U.S.-led fight against international terrorism.

"The Thai authorities have fully taken advantage of joining the global alliances against terrorism to seek practical assistance and cooperation to quell the Pattani freedom fighters who have been considered as bandits or terrorists by the Thais for resistance against their colonization," PULO said.

PULO hailed Islam as a strict law and order religion.

"The Greater Pattani area is relatively low in crimes due to the people sticking to the Islamic laws, but with the rise of drugs and prostitution brought by the Thais themselves to the area, the area has been looking worse," PULO said.

The guerrillas' grievances date back long before Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda created their network.

"The Pattani case, in fact -- caused by a Thai invasion -- happened long before Afghanistan," PULO said.

And unlike Mr. bin Laden, PULO's manifestos do not stress solidarity with Palestinians or other Muslim campaigns.

Instead, PULO points at domestic political, social and economic issues and names local officials.

PULO does, however, paint its struggle in fundamentalist Islamic terms, promising a "jihad," or holy war, "against Thai infidels."