South Alert For Separatist Anniversary March 13

South alert for separatist anniversary

NARATHIWAT: -- Police in this troubled southern province have tightened security measures following reports that militants plan violence Tuesday on the anniversary of the establishment of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (National Revolution Front), a primary Malay Muslim separatist organisation.

Pol. Maj-Gen. Yongyuth Charoenvanich, Narathiwat police commissioner, said he had called a meeting of all 13 police station superintendents in the province to plan security measures in the face of possible coordinated distrurbances March 13.

He said the police were instructed to deploy offensive tactics and to gather intelligence on insurgent movements in the area.

The BRN was founded in March 1963 by Ustaz Haji Abdul Karim Hassan and developed close ties to the now virtually defunct Communist Party of Malaya and was influenced by the ideology of pan-Arab socialism.

Touching on militant attacks during the past few days, Gen. Yongyuth said the insurgents wanted to take a revenge against state officials after five of their peers were shot dead at their mountain traning camp last week.

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said Friday that greater cooperation from neighbouring Malaysia and local residents in the southern Thai provinces had contributed to a gradual decline in violence in the region.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in the restive South by the militants following renewed, bloody violence in slightly more than three years ago.

--TNA 2007-03-11