BANGKOK, Thailand — About 30 "trained terrorists" infiltrated from Malaysia into Thailand's Muslim-majority south, killed Thai troops, stole weapons and escaped because of lax security, according to the prime minister.

"I was informed that about 30 trained terrorists had crossed the border" from Malaysia into southern Thailand, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said.

"The [Thai] military units, they did not seem to take proper precautions. They had a large number of firearms to take care of, yet assigned only one guard to the job," the prime minister said.

"I give them one month. If within this period they can not get the culprits dead or alive, someone will have to be punished," Mr. Thaksin warned.

"They [Thai forces] knew that Malaysia pushed some separatists back into Thailand, but they did not use that information to make preparations for any possible violence," Defense Minister General Thammarak Isarangkura said.

For more than 500 years, Islamic ethnic Malays have battled Thai security forces in occasional hit-and-run skirmishes to end what they perceive as Thailand's 1902 "annexation" of the southern zone and "racist" Buddhist domination.

Thai Buddhists crushed southern Muslim uprisings in 1564 and 1776, but the area remains relatively poor, alienated and misunderstood by government and military officials in Bangkok.

Thai officials stress they have developed the south and tried to bring harmony to the region, yet are distressed to find that their programs and policies repeatedly fail.

"We thought the violence would soon be gone, but it turns out that it is increasing," said former prime minister Chuan Leekpai.

Some Thai officials blamed die-hard Muslim guerrillas for the most recent attacks, while others pointed to criminal gangs among greedy Thai civilians and officials who compete for power under the guise of a religious conflict.

In the first of two pre-dawn assaults on April 28, raiders killed four Thai navy marines, injured two soldiers and seized 15 U.S.-made M-16 assault rifles before melting into the jungle surrounding the town of Ban Barukayaing, south of Narathiwat city.

Soon after, attackers hit a nearby government center, injuring a soldier and stealing more assault rifles at Ban Lae, west of Narathiwat in Yala district.

"It appeared to be a well coordinated operation," said Marine Lieutenant Ploy Thanthong, who survived one of the attacks.

"They shut down the electricity and immediately afterwards sprayed bullets from automatic rifles at the installations where the marines were sleeping," he told a reporter in Narathiwat.

To hamper pursing forces, the attackers tied a grenade to a fallen tree which they used to block their escape route.

Further down the same road, they repeated the grenade-and-tree roadblock booby trap.

Border Policemen Lynched

Residents in the region were already terrified and angered by a series of unexplained crimes which resulted in a outpouring of hatred against police.

On April 26, a mob beat, stabbed and then lynched two plain clothed Thai border policemen in Narathiwat while up to 1,000 outraged residents gathered and gawked in support, officials said.

Some people claimed the cops were involved in rapes, extortion and other robberies against civilians.

Some Thais described the dead police as members of a dreaded gang of "ninjas" — referring to the speed at which they performed crimes.

The term ninja dates back to feudal Japan when stealthy mercenaries were trained as assassins, secret agents and saboteurs.

"This [ninja gang] is pure rumor," the defense minister said.

To prove the ninja gangs did not exist, the government posted a 50,000 baht (1,160 U.S. dollar) reward, which it did not expect to pay because no one would be able to capture any of the non-existent phantoms, said Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Matha.

Other officials defended the dead policemen as specially trained officers from northeast Thailand who were unlikely to be criminals.

During the first week of May, meanwhile, officials arrested several southerners who "confessed" that the culprits involved in the assaults on April 28 belonged to "mujahideen" said to be fighting for independence or autonomy in the south.

Officials pointed to the Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO), which has allegedly tormented Thailand with stray bombings and shootings for more than three decades.

The Barison Revolusi Nasional (BRN), another small separatist group, has also been blamed for attacks in the south.

Southern student and civic groups who met the prime minister after the attacks insisted corrupt Thai officials were stirring up trouble by committing crimes and blaming Muslim separatists or bandits, and then arresting or killing innocent civilians.

"We believe that checks on assets and bank statements of those officials will help the prime minister understand our plight," the group said in a published statement.

They claimed sleazy officials have spent years dealing in drugs and contraband in the south — and occasionally shooting or bombing rivals.

Blaming "bandits" or "separatists" has also been used as a ruse by Bangkok officials, according to other analysts.

"Let's not forget that more than 20 police officers were shot by snipers last year alone, and that not one person has been arrested in spite of the fact that the government dismissed them as 'ordinary bandits'," said the Nation newspaper editorial.

"For years, there has been this tendency to point fingers at some unnamed Middle East countries where these armed men had supposedly trained, or that they had crossed over from Malaysia where the group supposedly had trained and established themselves," added the Nation, which consistently criticizes Mr. Thaksin's government.

About 90 percent of Thailand's 63 million citizens are Buddhists. Most of Thailand's four percent Muslim population live in the south, and about 80 percent of them are of ethnic Malay descent.

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Richard S. Ehrlich has a Master's Degree in Journalism from Columbia University, and is the co-author of the classic book of epistolary history, "HELLO MY BIG BIG HONEY!" -- Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews.

His web page is located at http://www.oocities.org/asia_correspondent