Minister vows tougher line in Thai south

The Straits Times, March 5, 2007


BANGKOK - DEFENCE Minister Boonrawd Somtas has said counter-insurgency efforts in southern Thailand were failing as security forces were too defensive, and vowed to switch to more hardline tactics to keep militants at bay.

'The reconciliation signals we have been sending out were ill-received. We have made little progress because we stuck with defensive tactics,' he said on Saturday.

'We need to play it the hard way. From now on, we will seek access to the grassroots and strengthen local communities,' the Bangkok Post quoted General Boonrawd as saying.

His comments came after a visit to Pattani last Friday to offer moral support to security forces and discuss ongoing operation with the Internal Security Operations Command and the civilian-military-police task force.

He said his first priority was to crack down on drugs.

'The alarming spread of narcotics in the deep south contributes greatly to the violence. The separatists trick the youths into using drugs and the addicts are then sent out to cause trouble,' Gen Boonrawd said.

About 2,000 people have been killed in the southern provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani since a separatist insurgency erupted in January 2004.

In the latest spate of violence yesterday, suspected separatist militants shot dead a government official in Narathiwat province.

The 43-year-old Buddhist man, who worked at a government fisheries office, was shot and killed on his way home by two men on a motorcycle.

Government officials in the south, both Muslim and Buddhist, are seen as representing the Thai state and are frequently targeted by the militants.

Violence has recently escalated in the provinces bordering Malaysia, which were once an independent sultanate, despite a raft of peace-building measures proposed by the new government.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE