By Prensa Latina,
Bangkok : The new Thai Government led by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is outlining a new policy aimed at tackling Muslim insurgency in the three troubled southernmost provinces near Malaysia.
At a press conference in Bangkok, Vejjajiva announced his first measure will be the creation of an agency to oversee the region.
The new agency will have considerable freedom of action under a special minister to be appointed soon.
Thailand annexed the old Pattani Sultanate in 1902, dividing the Pattani Yala and Narathiwat provinces later on.
A long-simmering guerrilla campaign by local Malay Muslims seeking to separate from Thailand erupted almost five years ago, costing at least 3,500 lives since then.
After a cabinet’s session, the New Head of Government told journalists that in order to tackle violence in Thailand a new policy that take cultural and religious differences of his population into account would be necessary.