Thailand: Joint agreement on South peace under way

• Published: 31/01/2016 at 01:53 PM
• Writer: Wassana Nanuam

A technical team was sent to Malaysia last week to meet with the country's peace talks facilitator and an umbrella group, Mara Patani, representing southern militants, to draft a general framework for further dialogue.

Gen Aksara Kerdpol, chief of the Thai peace negotiating team, said the joint agreement would be used as the general rules and guidlines for talks with insurgent groups operating in the deep South.

The agreement would mainly include terms to be used to approach the various parties to define areas of dispute in the southern border provinces of Thailand, plus measures to facilitate judicial and administrative matters.

The Thai peace nogotiation team will submit a report on the meeting to the Steering Committee for Peace Dialogue for consideration, he said.

Gen Aksara said it had generally been agreed that in further peace talks all sides must be sincere and overlook things that happened in the past and attempt to show good faith by some groups of militants while the talks are in progress.

He said the negotiating team had so far received good cooperation from the Malaysian facilitator and the insurgent groups which "hold different views from the state".  

The talks were currently in the stage of building mutual trust, which is most important, he added.

Gen Aksara thanked the Region 4 Internal Security Command, Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre, religious and community leaders and the people in general for their cooperation, leading to several improvements of the overall situation.

He said religious leaders, academics and the mass media had shown their awareness of the people's need to restore peace in the southern border provinces amid a society of cultural pluralism.

Concerning a rocket-shape improvised explosive found in Nong Chik district of Pattani province on Jan 28, Gen Aksara said he would rather wait for the result of an examination by local experts before making a comment, saying the matter was sensitive.

Sources said the explosive was made in the shape of a rocket with an intention of creating psychological impact and causing panic.

Source http://m.bangkokpost.com/most-recent/846004