Violence Reduction Pledge Can Enable Peace Talks: Thai Talk

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HAI TALK
Violence reduction pledge can enable peace talks
Suthichai Yoon
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- National Security Council (NSC) chief Paradorn Pattanatabutr says last Friday's killings of the deputy governor and assistant governor of Yala province in a bomb attack by southern insurgents would not affect the ongoing "peace dialogue" between the government and the separatist Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) delegation.

He is wrong. The escalating level of violence only days after the second round of talks at an undisclosed venue in Kuala Lumpur certainly bodes ill for any hope of a positive conclusion to the "peace process".

Paradorn said: "We are in a transition period. The attack is not an indication that the process is a failure."

That certainly isn't the case. The attack is clearly an indication that the dialogue has failed to convince most Thais that a transition is really taking place. The latest acts of terror against high-level officials in the deep South have inevitably deepened the suspicion of whether the BRN delegation represents the real broad-based separatist movement in the region.

During the second and latest meeting, the BRN's chief representative was quoted as admitting that a few extremist groups were still bent on carrying out violent subversive activities. He was said to have confessed that the message of reconciliation had either not been communicated to those in the field or was perhaps deliberately ignored.

Paradorn speculated that last week's attack was likely carried out by insurgents who disagreed with the "peace process" and who were trying to undermine public confidence in the initiative.

The talks are supposed to be a "confidence-building" process. The exchange is designed to build trust and to put an end to the ongoing violence. But the series of attacks that have gone on despite the "peace process" certainly have subverted whatever guarded optimism came with the launch of the dialogue.

The NSC chief said the period between March 28 until the next discussion scheduled for April 29 would be a test to determine if the BRN and the Pattani United Liberation Organisation (PULO) could really control their insurgent operatives in the three southernmost provinces.

Military authorities report that 57 insurgent attacks took place in March, the highest number this year. During the March 28 meeting, Thai authorities sought the BRN's agreement to ask the insurgents to scale down attacks against innocent civilians as a goodwill gesture, to raise the dialogue to a new level. The request has obviously fallen on deaf ears.

During the latest round of talks, according to the Thai delegation chief, the BRN asked the government to release suspects held on charges of violence. The NSC chief responded that there was a judicial process to be considered, since court verdicts had already been handed down in some of the cases.

"The discourse lasted about 12 hours and we mostly listened to complaints from the BRN side," Paradorn told Radio Chula. He indicated that there were some "tense moments" during the talks, which prompted both sides to ask for breaks to prevent the atmosphere from deteriorating. The government delegation remained publicly optimistic - but that was before last week's major attack against senior Yala officials.

If the "peace process" is to continue and the "confidence-building" objective is to be achieved, such attacks must not recur. In other words, the government and BRN delegations must show that they mean business by first reducing the level of violence in the region.

If some form of "ceasefire" cannot be implemented, it is doubtful that the next meeting will produce any meaningful progress to end the longstanding conflict. Paradorn says the BRN's representatives he has been dealing with are "real" and that they should be engaged to accomplish concrete results. He also says that these are early days, and that hoping for quick solutions would be unrealistic.

Be that as it may, the two sides must be able to produce a roadmap that must now necessarily start with a pledge to influence operatives on both sides to halt the violence, so that the dialogue can make substantive headway.

This isn't even a "talk-talk-fight-fight" strategy, because those who do the talking are saying that they can't even talk to those who continue to fight. This incongruity must be reversed if real negotiations can really begin.

Otherwise the surge in violence, especially assaults on civilians, will severely undermine the credibility and commitment to peace by the BRN leaders engaged in talks with the Thai authorities.

Peace can only happen when trust is established, and violence has no place in creating an atmosphere of trust.


-- The Nation 2013-04-11