Democrats Discuss Strategies For Reconciliation In The South

[Jai Dee]

Democrats discuss strategies for South

Former NRC chairman Anand Panyarachun and fellow commissioners discuss ideas on reconciliation in the South with Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva and other party members at their meeting yesterday.

Democrat party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday said reconciliation was impossible in the strife-torn southern border provinces unless the government alters its policies in the region.

Abhisit led a team of senior party officials to meet with former members of the now defunct National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) yesterday to discuss the party’s policies for the troubled southern border region.

Meeting with senior NRC members, including former prime minister Anand Panyarachun, Abhisit said his party would announce its policies for returning peace to the troubled region before the end of the month.

“Both the NRC and the Democrat party feel that an adjustment of government policy is required. As long as the government continues to be stubborn, reconciliation will not be possible,” Abhisit said.

“The first priority right now is to change the government policies that have been implemented over the past two to three years. As things are, it is not helping the people in the South.”

Abhisit, former foreign minister and southern Muslim, Surin Pitsuwan, and other MPs, met with the former NRC members for more than three hours to discuss their recommendations for reconciliation.

“After reading the NRC report the party has received a clear overview of the current problems and found that the NRC’s proposals and the Democrats policies are harmonious,” Abhisit said.

“The urgent issue that the party needs to discuss is how we can put our policies and the NRC’s proposals into concrete effect.”

Abhisit also urged the government to give a clear reaction to the NRC’s proposals.

Despite assurances from caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that the government will implement most of the NRC’s proposals, observers have expressed skepticism that he will follow through with that promise.

One of the key proposals to set up a new administrative body to oversee policy in the region has already been shot down by the government, while many other recommendations including the opening up of dialogue with militants contradict current counterinsurgency policy.

The government has said it will implement all “appropriate” recommendations, but despite the report being released more than a month ago the government is yet to provide a detailed response.

Abhisit said he agreed with the proposal to establish a new administrative center for the region that would give the people a chance to participate more in local government and the parliamentary system.

“The problems in the South are also political problems which cannot be solved by the army or certain government authorities alone,” he said.

“It needs mutual cooperation from administrative branches, the police and organizations outside of the government such as the media and religious leaders.”

Abhisit will chair a meeting of MPs and local community leaders from the southernmost provinces in Narathiwat on July 20.

Source: ThaiDay - 18 July 2006

[Jai Dee]

Govt admits violence is on the rise

Deputy Prime Minister Chitchai Wannasathit yesterday accepted the violence in the Muslim-majority deep South was escalating but insisted security forces were not to blame.

Chitchai said attacks were on the rise and efforts would be made to improve the government’s intelligence infrastructure, but he stopped short of blaming police and the army for failing to curb the violence.

“The situation has not improved and bombs continue to go off. There are many factors causing the violence to escalate and we are looking into improving our intelligence,” he said”

Chitchai said security forces were working hard to make headway against the insurgents and criticism would do nothing to boost their morale.

He was speaking after a meeting of national security chiefs in Bangkok yesterday.

Chitchai said a meeting next week would focus on ways to reduce the bombings across the region, where an insurgency has claimed more than 1,300 lives in the last two-and-a-half years.

In response to a wave of bombings last month – including more than 50 in a day – methods of bomb detonation, in particular mobile phone SIM card, would be discussed at the meeting, he said.

All cellphone users in Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani were required to register their SIM cards last November so that calls triggering the bombs could be traced.

The number of bombings reduced initially, but peaked early in the year, suggesting insurgents have found ways to get around the restrictions.

Chitchai dismissed rumors that Gen Sonthi Boonyaratakalin would be replaced as army chief by Gen Pornchai Kranlert – a former classmate of Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra – if he failed to curtail the unrest in the South.

“I think the army chief has done a great job,” he told reporters. “He is doing his best. This talk of a reshuffle is just media speculation.”

Analysts and former military generals have speculated that the decision to make Gen Sonthi head of counterinsurgency strategy was intended to make him a scapegoat for the government’s failings in the South.

Chitchai also urged the interior and foreign ministries to speed up the process of identifying dual nationality citizens in the southernmost provinces so they can be given the option of choosing either Malaysian or Thai citizenship. The government believes Thai insurgents have used their dual nationality status to evade arrest and hide out in Malaysia.

The attacks continued yesterday, with five people targeted in drive-by shootings in Pattani, police said.

Two local electricity authority employees were attacked by a pair of motorcycle gunmen in Sai Buri district early yesterday, one of whom used an AK-47 assault rifle to spray bullets at the targets. Neither man was harmed.

A fisheries worker was shot and wounded yesterday afternoon in Yarang district, police said. The victim returned fire with his handgun as the attackers fled.

In Nong Chik, two Muslim men were shot and wounded by pairs of gunmen on motorcycles yesterday evening. Police blamed Islamic militants for the attacks.

Source: ThaiDay - 18 July 2006

[Jai Dee]

Thai minister blames lack of intelligence for exacerbated southern violence

Thai Caretaker Justice Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya acknowledged Monday violence in the deep south has escalated, for which lack of intelligence should be blamed.

Chidchai, also a deputy prime minister, spoke to reporters after a meeting with National Security Council officials to evaluate the situation in three southern border provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, where flared insurgent violence has caused more than 1,300 deaths since it re-erupted in early 2004.

"The security situation has not improved. Bombs continue to go off," Chidchai said.

He dismissed rumors that Army Commander-in-Chief Sonthi Boonyaratkalin would be removed if he failed to improve the security situation in the south.

"There are many factors causing the violence to escalate," he said, "and we are looking into improving our intelligence."

He said Thailand would also ask Malaysia to help identify Thai nationals who also hold Malaysian citizenship. Thailand has worried insurgents might use dual nationality to create trouble in the three predominantly-Muslim southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia. Thailand has issued smart cards for its nationals, hoping it will help authorities track down insurgent suspects more easily.

Source: Xinhua Peoples Daily - 18 July 2006