SOUTHERN UNREST / NEW DEVICE, REBEL ATTACK, GOVT POLICY CLARIFIED

PM rules out forging peace with militants

Govt to win over the trust of 'good people'

POST REPORTERS

The government will never make peace with the insurgents although it remains committed to a reconciliatory approach in rebuilding trust among the ''good people,'' Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said during his tour of the South yesterday. Gen Surayud was adamant the solution to the southern insurgency was an emphasis on non-violent methods, which he said the government was adopting to regain the trust of the majority of law-abiding people in the region.

''But for the villains, the peaceful approach is out of the question,'' he said.

He stressed however, that the government will not resort to unlawful methods to suppress the insurgents.

''This is the stand that I've repeated and taken all along,'' he said.

Gen Surayud was speaking during a one-day trip to the restive provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani. He also visited Noppadol Pueksomon, the Narathiwat deputy police chief who was critically injured by a booby trap this week and is being treated in Songkhla. The prime minister returned to Bangkok yesterday evening.

He also welcomed the suggestion of an amnesty for sympathisers of the insurgent groups put forth by Fourth Army commander Viroj Buacharoon.

Lt-Gen Viroj earlier proposed the introduction of a law similar to the now-abolished Anti-Communist Act to grant amnesty to insurgent supporters.

But the commander said the amnesty would be passed only if the supporters showed sincerity in re-integrating themselves into society and gave full cooperation to the government.

Gen Surayud cautioned that any such law required careful consideration. If local authorities felt the urgent need for it, they could recommend legislation, he said.

He also promised money to procure more security equipment such as surveillance cameras to be supplied to the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre and the Internal Security Operations Command.

He also pledged to visit the deep South more often to lift the spirits of local authorities and people.

Wiwat Harirakpaiboon, spokesperson of Yala's newly-established anti-terrorism network, called on the prime minister to provide residents in insurgent-prone areas with weapons so they could arm themselves in self-defence.

It was one of many proposals the network, founded by local administrators and made up of mostly Buddhist members in Yala, submitted to Gen Surayud.

Other proposals called for more serious law enforcement against separatist groups, more financial support for community security volunteers and fair legal protection of people of all faiths.

In other incidents yesterday, police retrieved rucksacks, radio transceivers, medicine and maps in a pre-dawn raid on a village in Yala's Kabang district.

Elsewhere, a second-hand clothes stall was set alight in Muang district on Thursday night. On the same night, three rangers were injured, one seriously, by a roadside bomb in the same district.

In Pattani, three military officers were critically injured in a roadside bomb attack in Mayo district yesterday.

Bangkok Post

Last Updated : Saturday April 21, 2007