TROUBLED REGION / MEDICAL STAFF SHORTAGE

Sonthi to provide evidence to Wada

WASSANA NANUAM SUPAWADEE INTHAWONG

Council for National Security chairman and army chief Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin will provide the Wada group with evidence to back his remark last week that some of its former members are involved in the southern insurgency.

In response to Wada members' angry rebuttal of his comment, Gen Sonthi said yesterday that he would meet all members of the Wada political faction to provide them with the truth. He added that Wada members were keen to see him.

"I don't know when the meeting will be but I will meet all of them, not only Wan Muhammad Nor Matha, the Wada group leader. I think when he sees the information, he will be happy. This is not to clear the air but I will tell them the truth," Gen Sonthi told reporters.

A source said Interior Minister Aree Wongarya advised Gen Sonthi to meet Wada members. Mr Aree is close to Mr Wan Nor and all three are Muslims.

Meanwhile, the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC) is receiving assistance from an advisory council which represents local people to help it restore peace in the South.

SBPAC director Pranai Suwanrath said the council was formed under a cabinet resolution. The 35 councillors are local people who have insights into southern problems, he added.

The council first met last Tuesday to elect its chairman and deputy chairmen. The chairman is Aziz Benhawan, president of the Yala provincial administration organisation, and the deputies are Kraisorn Sritrairat, rector of Yala Rajabhat University, Vichai Ruangroengkulrit, a National Legislative Assembly member, and Worawit Baru, an academic at Prince of Songkla University's Pattani campus.

The councillors, who are mandated to work for two years, include the chief monks of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces and chiefs of Islamic organisations from the three provinces, as well as the adjacent Satun and Songkhla provinces.

Mr Pranai expects the bringing together of Muslim councillors from the five southernmost provinces will encourage local people to have faith in the SBPAC, which is entrusted with restoring peace in the region.

Academics on the council include Ismaillutfi Japakiya, rector of Yala Islamic College's Pattani campus, Piya Kijthavorn, a former member of the National Reconciliation Commission from Prince of Songkla University, and Assoc Prof Rattiya Salae of Thaksin University.

Other councillors are executives of local Islamic schools, community leaders and representatives of southern industrialists, businessmen, tour and fishing operators, youth networks and the media.

"I think unrest in the southern border provinces results from the need to exist in Thai society with a unique identity. A group of people use their identity as a condition to create unrest and cause distrust. The advisory council will promote participation from all parties and allow them to join forces to solve the problem," Mr Pranai said.

Meanwhile, a retired government official was shot in the chest in his grocery shop in Tambon Taluban of Pattani's Sai Buri district around 7.30am yesterday, police said.

Suthep Phetchinda, 68, was approached by two men who arrived on a motorcycle. Both pretended to shop but one of them opened fire at him with a pistol, seriously injuring him. He was admitted to Somdejphra Yupharat Sai Buri Hospital.

In Rangae district of Narathiwat province, bomb experts defused a five kilogramme time bomb placed in a plastic ware shop in Tambon Tanyongmas municipality around 1.30pm yesterday.
The bomb was packed in a steel box inside a black plastic bag.

A teenage boy and a teenage girl had entered the shop carrying the bag. They bought something and left on a motorcycle before the bomb was spotted.

Bangkok Post
Tuesday April 03, 2007