Junta chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha said
last night that concern about a possible downgrade led to the junta's ongoing
moves against illegal labour.
BANGKOK
- Thailand's military government said on
Monday peace in the Muslim-dominated south was an"urgent national
priority" for the Buddhist-majority country following a decade of unrest
blamed on separatists.
The
message comes a week after the start of the Muslim holy fasting month of
Ramadan and days after the new government, led by General Prayuth Chan-ocha,
said it would revive talks aimed at bringing peace to the provinces of Pattani,
Yala and Narathiwat.
"The
south is an urgent national priority. Prayuth wants firmer measures and more
success in the south," Udomdet Sitabutr, secretary-general of the ruling
National Council for Peace and Order, told reporters ahead of a visit to the
region.
Prayuth
said in his weekly speech to the nation on Friday the military government
wanted to use political strategies over military tactics in the south.
A
low-level insurgency has claimed more than 6,000 lives since 2004 following the
resurgence of a dormant Muslim separatist movement, according to Deep South
Watch, which monitors the violence.
Resistance
to Buddhist rule has existed for decades in the predominantly Muslim provinces
of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, which were part of a Malay Muslim sultanate
until annexed by Thailand in 1902.
The
government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinwatra, which was ousted by the
military in May, started peace talks last year with the BRN, or National
Revolutionary Front. The talks quickly collapsed and efforts to revive them
were put on hold while Yingluck focused on containing months of street
protests.
Violent
attacks spiked during Ramadan last year partly, authorities said, in
retaliation to the peace talks, which some rebel groups refused to acknowledge.
According
to Deep South Watch, violence in the south sky-rocketed when the peace talks
began in 2013 to a level not seen since 2005-2007. Critics of the talks say the
Thai state has been unable to identify those behind the attacks and no
organisation has ever claimed responsibility.
Some
had even feared the military government would revive more aggressive
counter-insurgency tactics but the junta appears to be putting the focus on
conciliation. "The approach has to be more complete and there must be more
action at a grassroots level so that the peace talks are long-lasting,"
said Udomdet.
More
than 150,000 military, police and armed civilian"volunteers" are
stationed in the three provinces and manned checkpoints dot the region's main
roads, creating a high level of mistrust among the Muslim community towards
those in uniform.
The
military has allowed 48 community radio stations in the three southernmost
provinces to go back on air for Ramadan. The junta silenced thousands of
independent radio stations that it deemed "politically questionable"
in the wake of the coup.
In the
latest violence in the south, two police officers were shot dead last week in
an attack carried out by 10 suspected militants in Narathiwat, according to
police.
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