'Pattani City State' may be answer to Thailand’s southern unrest

By Digital Media

BANGKOK, March 12 – The establishment of a “Pattani City State” in Thailand’s deep South will be inevitable in resolving the chronic violence on the Thai-Malaysian border provinces, a high-ranking official said today.

National Security Council (NSC) secretary general Paradorn Pattanatabut said a Pattani City State will possibly return peace and safety to Thailand's ethnic Malay Muslim majority provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.

Southern separatists have been demanding for years to elevate the southern border provinces as the State of Pattani or Pattani State, a term which gives the jitters to most Thai people who equate it to separatism, or an implied free state.

Lt Gen Paradorn represented the NSC in signing an agreement for peace talks with a militant group under the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) movement in Kuala Lumpur last month.

He said the first round of talks will be held on March 28 while the NSC has coordinated dialogues with other militant groups since early this month.

Hassan Taib of the BRN, one of the militant groups, invited other factions to join the talks and said other militants should be keen on future dialogues if they fail to show up on March 28, Gen Paradorn said, adding that the government will not sign any agreement with other groups.

The NSC chief said he has proposed to the prime minister extending enforcement of the Emergency Decree in the deep South with an exception of five districts in three provinces which may be replaced by imposing the Internal Security Act (ISA).

If the Internal Security Operations Command indicates that situation in the five districts has improved, the more lenient ISA can be announced, he said.

Tomorrow marks the 53th anniversary of the BRN movement and southern authorities have been instructed to be on special alert for untoward incidents, he said. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2013-03-12

Perhaps the general could read up on the Great Wall of China.

And then .........Yala;...... Narathiwat, .......Satun

And then .........Yala;...... Narathiwat, .......Satun

Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani have always been the provinces which the separatists demand. It´s the three which once was a muslim sultanate and still is predominantly muslim by population.

And then .........Yala;...... Narathiwat, .......Satun

Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani have always been the provinces which the separatists demand. It´s the three which once was a muslim sultanate and still is predominantly muslim by population.

Not just muslim, but Malay by ethnicity. This plan has some merit I think.