Thailand to block cell phones to curb southern bombs

Agence France-Presse

BANGKOK -- Thailand prepared on Tuesday to cut off unregistered prepaid mobile phones in the restive Muslim south in an attempt to curb attacks by Islamic militants believed to use handsets to trigger bombs.

"After midnight tonight, all unregistered prepaid mobile phones will be blocked. All prepaid mobile phones must be registered with the user... or face a blocked signal," Interior Minister Kongsak Wantana told reporters.

Police believe mobile phones are used to detonate many of the frequent bombs set off in the Muslim-majority southern provinces along the Malaysian border.

Under the new system, users with contracts do not have to register because authorities already have access to their personal information.

Users of prepaid phones must register in the three southern provinces, and visitors from the rest of Thailand must register for roaming when they visit the region, as if they are travelling in a foreign country, Kongsak said.

"Although this will not totally wipe out bomb attacks, it will reduce them because from now we will be able to know who has used the cell phone and we can check their identities," he said.

Thailand's communication authority will also cut unregistered mobile phones with numbers from across the border in Malaysia, Kongsak said. Thai authorities and private mobile phone companies have already informed their Malaysian counterparts of the new system, he added.

"All Malaysian SIM cards which were not registered will have their signals blocked too," he said.

Despite the new measures, Kongsak said security forces realized that the militants could change tactics and use timers to detonate bombs instead of mobile phones.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in violence in the three provinces since January 2004.

Authorities variously blame the daily attacks in Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala provinces on Islamic separatist militants, organised criminals or local corruption.