The International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIU) today confirmed that it has unwittingly recruited Thai separatist leader Dr Wan Abdul Kadir Che Man as a lecturer in 2001.

"He was recruited based on his academic credentials and his record of working for other local universities in the past," IIU's public relations department director Shamsul Azahar Mohd Yusof told malaysiakini .

Wan Abdul Kadir, 62, was appointed to the university as an associate professor (political science) on a contract which is renewable every two years. His current contract will only expire at the end of this year.

Shamsul revealed that the separatist leader was recruited directly from a university in Brunei in 2001.

"To the best of our knowledge, he has been cleared by the authorities to work in Malaysia. We are unaware of his other activities, if there are any," he added.

The university was uncertain of his whereabout at present as semester break began two weeks ago and will only end in mid June.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak was quoted as saying in the press today that he would verify whether Wan Abdul Kadir is in Malaysia. The deputy premier was in Thailand yesterday for the 44 th general border committee meeting.

Najib said that Malaysia had not offered aid to the Wan Abdul Kadir-led group, Bersatu, and Malaysia's stand was that Bersatu must respect the sovereignty of Thailand.

Bersatu is an umbrella organisation incorporating several separatist movements including Pattani United Liberation Organisation, the New Pulo and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional.

Political dialogue

According to a Bangkok Post report , the separatist leader made an appearance at Universiti Malaya (UM) last week during a panel discussion on the situation in southern Thailand.

He confirmed speculations that he is leading Bersatu during the panel discussion. The report also said the separatist leader is a former academic staff with UM.

During the panel talks, Wan Abdul Kadir was said to have proposed a dialogue with the Thai authorities as he believed that the security problems in the region was the result of politics which could only be resolved through political dialogue.

Bersatu has been blamed by Thai security forces for causing trouble in the deep south for years.

However, Wan Abdul Kadir has reportedly denied that his group was behind the violence on April 28 where hundreds of people attacked government buildings in three southern Thailand provinces simultaneously.