Door opened for talks between Thai authority and South insurgents

Thai authorities plan to hold talks with Muslim militant groups in the restive South, another step toward resolving the decades-old insurgency and violence in the border region. National Security Council (NSC) secretary general Paradorn Pattanatabutr said Wednesday that Thai government is to organize peace talk with some leading insurgent groups with the help of Malaysian authority. Speaking to reporters before leaving Bangkok for Malaysia, Paradorn said the Thai authorities have listed about five militant groups to be invited for talks after the violence has became intense in the past few months in the border provinces with Malaysia. "We have to accept their pre-conditions for talks but we will definitely not agree with a separation of Thailand's far South as an independent state," Thai News Agency quoted him as saying. Masae Useng and Sapae-ing Basor, two core leaders of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) Coordinate, are among the insurgent leaders in the list, he said, adding that Malaysia agrees to help facilitate the talks but is not a mediator since the southern insurgency is Thailand's internal problem. "We have to come up with specific names to enable the Malaysian authorities to help arrange for them to meet with Thai authorities. We do hope meetings with them will materialize soon," Thai News Agency quoted Paradorn as saying. More than 5,000 people have been killed and more than 9,000 hurt in over 11,000 incidents, about 3.5 incidents a day, in Thailand's Muslim, ethnic-Malay dominated three southern border provinces -- Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and four districts of Songkhla -- since violence erupted in January 2004, according to Deep South Watch, which monitors the regional violence. The NSC secretary general led the related Thai security official, including the Defence Ministry, Foreign Ministry, Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre and the Internal Security Operations Command to Malaysia for a preliminary discussion with his Malaysian counterpart and to prepare for Thursday's official visit by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Yingluck is to discuss cooperation with the neighboring country on the southern insurgency, security, economic and human resources development, and bilateral deportation of criminals. Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung last month also visited Malaysia to talk about cooperation on the southern insurgency among other issues.