Thailand's Crown Prince Makes Plea For Peace

[george]

Thailand's crown prince makes plea for peace in restive south

BANGKOK: Thailand's crown prince has continued his visit to the Muslim-majority south, where he reportedly made an impassioned plea for religious harmony and conveyed royal concern over unrest there.

"The prince is still in the south and will remain in the south until late Thursday," an official at the royal household bureau told AFP.

Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn had traveled to the restive region, where up to 50 Thais have been killed since violence erupted in January, to "visit with the people and inspect royal projects," the official said.

On Wednesday he met Muslim dignitaries at the central mosque in the provincial capital Pattani and urged Thais to put aside their differences and bring peace back to the troubled region, Thai newspapers reported.

"Their majesties the king and the queen are so worried about the situation which is affecting everyone," the prince was quoted by the Nation newspaper as saying.

"When I knew you were having trouble, I became worried and that's why I am making this visit," he said in the English-language daily.

The Bangkok Post reported that the prince met with the religious leaders to give what the prince described as "moral support".

The prince's visit comes two weeks after his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, expressed his concern over the violence to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and urged all parties to work together to solve the problem.

The king's views are taken extremely seriously in Thailand and his intervention in the issue of a spate of killings and arson attacks in the south highlights needs for the government to bring the unrest under control.

Earlier in February the monarch's highly respected daughter Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn paid a private visit to the region and inspected one of the schools torched by militants on January 4.

The prince's statements were carried widely in Thai papers but royal household officials could not release his speech as it was apparently delivered impromptu at the mosque.

"We have been living peacefully together for a long time," the prince was quoted as saying.

"When misunderstandings occur, every party should turn to each other and find a peaceful solution so that our land -- our motherland -- will remain a place where people of all ethnic groups and religions live in peaceful co-existence."

The majority of Thais are Buddhist, but five percent of the population is Muslim and most of them live in the five southern provinces bordering Malaysia which are home to a long-running separatist movement.

- AFP 2004-03-11