By D. Arul Rajoo, Bernama,
Bangkok : The Thai Army has denied any knowledge of talks between representatives of the Thai Government and southern separatist groups in Jakarta, two weeks ago.
Its spokesman, Akara Thiproj said they were not informed about the talks and the army itself was not keen to hold dialogue with any group involved in violence in the three southern provinces where more than 3,000 people died since January, 2004.
“The military’s position is that we are not willing to hold talks with people who conduct violence.
“In fact, we were informed that Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo) wants to talk to us but we are not keen,” he said after a briefing on the latest situation in the southern provinces for Bangkok-based foreign correspondents here.
Deputy Commander of the Yala-based 4th Army, Maj Gen Sumrej Srirai was also present.
It is learnt the talks in Jakarta involved some key Pulo figures and BRN Coordinate, the two biggest separatist groups involved in the conflict where they are fighting to seek independence for the Muslim-majority and Malay-speaking Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces.
Similar talks were believed to have been held in Geneva and Jeddah last year but did not involve any high-ranking Thai official, but more of academicians who are trying to bring the two sides to the negotiating table.
Peace was restored there in the last decade but more than 3,000 people died since separatists launched a campaign of bombings and shootings in January, 2004.
Pulo, in its website, had said that it was fully committed to finding a peaceful resolution and willing to listen to proposals from the Royal Thai Government to build confidence, reduce violence and eventually agree on a lasting solution to the conflict.
“I also give my full support and blessing to those who represent Pulo engaged in official dialogue with the Royal Thai Government. Pulo has no wish to perpetuate violence,” Pulo president Kabir Abdul Rahman (Ku Bira Kotanila) was quoted as saying.
The website also carried another statement from the Patani Students Association which welcomed the ongoing dialogue between the Thai Government and representatives of Pulo and BRN Coordinate.
“We call on both sides to show sincerity and determination to find a settlement to this conflict that has cost so many lives. We hope that those currently engaged in the dialogue process will be fully supported and shown respect for their noble efforts,” said the association.
The Thai Government has so far, not acknowledged any talk with the separatist groups.
Akara said they would continue with the current approach of using both peaceful and military measures to deal with the violence, adding that their tactic was to suppress the one percent of the population in the south which was linked to the violence.
“We want to help the 99 percent of the people. However, we are fighting at a disadvantage as we need to conduct operations according to internationally-accepted standards while the separatists can do whatever they want,” he said.
Sumrej said investigations showed that separatist groups, especially BRN Coordinate, had created a dual or duplicate administration, with its own set up of people running secret administrations at village and district levels.
He said there were four levels — policy-makers, people planning violence, those conducting operations or Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) and symphatisers in the three provinces which have 37 districts, 1,900 villages and 1.8 million people.
Sumrej said the current approach using the cordon-and-search method was successful in breaking the separatist cells, adding that there were no more price tags for wanted persons or militants as it only gave rise to wrong information.