One killed, nine wounded in Thai south blast

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One killed, nine wounded in Thai south blast

NARATHIWAT, August 13, 2013 (AFP) - A policeman was killed and nine other people wounded Tuesday in a bomb attack in Thailand's insurgency-hit deep south, officials said, as authorities vowed talks with rebels will continue.

The roadside bomb was detonated by suspected insurgents targeting police who had been called to the scene of a failed ambush on a senior local official in Sungai Padi district, Narathiwat province.

A sergeant died on the way to hospital after the bomb -- hidden in a metal box and detonated by mobile phone -- exploded, a local police official told AFP.

Three other officers were left in a critical condition, while a civilian was also wounded in the blast, the official added.

Narathiwat is one of several violence-wracked provinces in the Muslim-majority Thai south, where some 5,700 people have been killed since the insurgency flared in 2004.

Rounds of talks in Malaysia between Thai authorities and some rebel groups, including the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), had raised tentative hopes of peace.

But a ceasefire, supposed to last from July 10 to August 18 to mark the Islamic holy month, faltered after a few days, with local observers recording 29 deaths during Ramadan.

Rebels claiming to be from the BRN last week released a YouTube clip threatening to quit talks.

But Thai authorities on Tuesday said negotiations will go ahead.

"Negotiations with the BRN must continue... on August 18 we will make contact with the BRN through Malaysia to set up a new date for talks," Thailand's National Security Council chief and lead peace negotiator Paradorn Pattanatabut told AFP.

"We will raise the issue of the death toll during Ramadan to find out who was behind the killing," he said.

The number of attacks during Ramadan was similar to last year but they caused fewer fatalities, he said.

He added that, contrary to reports, the rebel group's main negotiator, Hassan Taib, had not withdrawn from talks.

Negotiations began on March 28 but have so far failed to halt near-daily violence, raising questions about the rebel group's influence over increasingly violent grassroots insurgents.


-- (c) Copyright AFP 2013-08-13

[lee b]

This really makes me sick, the people responsible for this have nothing down below.

[Halion]

The peace talks have not" faltered". They failed totally.The were pure political rhetoric and ill conceived with little or no substance apart from the hot air exuded from the mouths of the police ,Army ,politicians and the media. This situation is tantamount to a civil war and it has been going on for decades with little or no real redress from the Government. The authorities are unable or unwilling to find a balance between doing nothing and overt acts of police and military idiocy. It is evident that they are incapable of bringing this under control on their own and owing to their isolationist attitudes and arrogance they will not seek external help,nor will they acknowledge the problem openly.

Therefore, the Thai population of these southern states will continue to die on a daily basis whilst their prime minister buys airipalnes to take important people everywhere; ... except the southern region.

The only real hope is to get this mater out on to a wider platform via international media in order to exert presure on the Thai government to explain why this mater appears of little consequence to them and why the simply fiddle while Rome burns.

[12DrinkMore]

The peace talks have not" faltered". They failed totally.The were pure political rhetoric and ill conceived with little or no substance apart from the hot air exuded from the mouths of the police ,Army ,politicians and the media. This situation is tantamount to a civil war and it has been going on for decades with little or no real redress from the Government. The authorities are unable or unwilling to find a balance between doing nothing and overt acts of police and military idiocy. It is evident that they are incapable of bringing this under control on their own and owing to their isolationist attitudes and arrogance they will not seek external help,nor will they acknowledge the problem openly.

Therefore, the Thai population of these southern states will continue to die on a daily basis whilst their prime minister buys airipalnes to take important people everywhere; ... except the southern region.

The only real hope is to get this mater out on to a wider platform via international media in order to exert presure on the Thai government to explain why this mater appears of little consequence to them and why the simply fiddle while Rome burns.

This is another i-religion fuelled problem to which there is no negotiable solution.

There can and will be no discussion with people who believe they are exerting their absolute right to own the globe in their god's and prophet's names, and will be richly rewarded for dying in the process.

Calling on the international media is an utter waste of time. The west already has enough and an increasing number of problems with the same issue.