Army chief visits southern border provinces

[rooster59]

Army chief visits southern border provinces

By The Nation

 

Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Apirat Kongsompong is visiting southern border provinces from Saturday to Monday to deliver his policies, an Army spokeswoman said.

 

Col Sirichan Ngathong, Army deputy spokeswoman, said Apirat was visiting security agencies in the deep South to hand down his policies for security and other developments.

 

Sirichan said the new Army chief wants to isolate normal violent incidents from insurgency attacks so that society will be informed of the real situation in the deep South.

 

She said the Army chief also wants security in the Deep South to foster close ties with their counterparts in Malaysia to cooperate on security and other developments in the region.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30356834

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-10-21

[bluesofa]

3 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Sirichan said the new Army chief wants to isolate normal violent incidents from insurgency attacks so that society will be informed of the real situation in the deep South.

Firstly, to describe "violent incidents" as "normal" shows to me how detached the army are from real life. The language used shows no compassion at all.

 

Secondly, being cynical, with the army wanting to separate two types of incident, what's the political agenda? Is it to massage the figures and somehow make them look better than they really are?

[Srikcir]

8 hours ago, rooster59 said:

society will be informed of the real situation in the deep South (my bold emphasis)

To which ISOC commander Gen Apirta either denies through his request for distinguishing normal violent incidents from insurgency attacks or disassociates the military from any responsibility for the thousands of deaths that occurred in connection with the insurgency.

Neither approach contributes to any peaceful near-term resolution with the insurgency and more llikely to further inflame the insurgency.

8 hours ago, rooster59 said:

foster close ties with their counterparts in Malaysia to cooperate on security and other developments in the region

With the NCPO in direct charge of the southern Muslim majority provinces for the last four years, obviously, "close ties" with Malaysia hasn't been productive. That shouldn't come as a surprise given the Thai government and military efforts since 2004 for bilateral security cooperation with Malaysia.

https://jamestown.org/program/malaysias-role-in-thailands-southern-insurgency/

It has been instead failed internal Thailand military/political strategies and policies that have essentially neutralized any Malaysian impact within Thailand.

What Gen Apirat proposes is recycled rhetoric:

Looking good - doing nothing.

[chama]

A visit to prepare for an upcoming junta to replace the old junta in preparation for the junta after that junta?