Effort Launched To Get Local Officials Involved In Quelling Southern Violence: Thailand

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Effort launched to get local officials involved in quelling Southern violence

SOMCHAI SAMART

THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- Panu Uthairat, the Interior Ministry's deputy permanent secretary for special activities, has gone back to the deep South on a mission of restoring peace there, this time by increasing the involvement of local communities.

"The role of civilians, including local administration officials, in the peace-building effort in the deep South has not been very prominent in the past even though they number around 70,000," Panu said.

"We believe civilians from district chief, kamnans and village heads to territorial-defence volunteers and village-protection volunteers can play a more active role."

Panu, who three years ago was at the helm of the Southern Border Province Administration Centre (SBPAC), initiated the Yala-based section of the Permanent Secretary's Office, which sprang into operation on October 11.

The unrest in the southernmost provinces, including Yala, will definitely ease if kamnans and village heads are very active in their areas, he said.

The new southern section does not overlap with the SBPAC, Panu said. While the SBPAC supports the peace-building work of kamnans and village heads in the region, they are not under the agency's supervision.

"Kamnans and village heads are under the Interior Ministry's oversight. The ministry can punish them for negligence," he said.

The section will facilitate closer coordination by bringing in civilians to work alongside the military and police in suppressing the violence in the deep South.

Village-protection volunteers will be assigned to some 10 households each. Not only do they have to plan how to protect those families, they also have to monitor their movement.

"That should provide comprehensive intelligence gathering and security," he said.

The 1,900 villages in the deep South will be divided into three security groups based on the violence in their areas. Villages with more unrest will get more volunteers and security officials.

-- The Nation 2012-11-08

[jerrysteve]

GOOD LUCK!

[siampolee]

The 1,900 villages in the deep South will be divided into three security groups based on the violence in their areas. Villages with more unrest will get more volunteers and security officials.

So it seems as if the might of Chalerms mouth is a failure, as it seems are the military and the police, so a village vigilante force is to be established.

Wonderful idea a band of people with no background in anti terrorist activities who will be prime targets for the terrorists and a useful source of arms too.

The problem needs a professional approach to mend the fences not a semi conscripted force of press ganged unwilling volunteers.

Why not invite Jutuporn and his merry band of men down to keep the peace he so eagerly seeks and democracy as he sees it after all he is from the south himself, home ground should be an easy task for him.

[asiawatcher]

I would think the quickest way to distorting an already unfavourable situation would be having neighbours 'dob in' neighbours. And already there is a trail of death on informants. And as already stated, pitting villagers agains villagers, doing what 70,000 have not been able to do so far, whatever they have been doing means it has not been working. I don't have an answer but creating a self governed state, pulling Bangkok out of the situation may well assist the resolution.