Yuthasak heads to Pattani to boost morale
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Deputy Prime Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapa and Army Chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha on Friday flew to the deep south province of Pattani to inspect security measures and offer moral support to agencies following the surge in violence and insurgent attacks.
Gen Yuthasak was also accompanied by Defence Minister Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol Suwanatat and Deputy National Police chief Pol Gen Adul Saengsingkaew.
Gen Yuthasak was scheduled to visit Sirindhorn Camp in Pattani's Yarang district to review the latest developments in the southern border provinces and follow up the measures implemented to address the problems.
He was expected to visit religious leaders and meet residents before returning to Bangkok at 4pm.
Gen Yuthasak's one-day trip follows his assignment as head of the new operations centre, which will work on new strategies to restore peace in the restive south.
The new centre has however drawn criticism particularly from the opposition Democrat party, which said that the centre is just one more of a large number of agencies whose functions overlap, complicate and confuse the government response.
But Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra defended the government’s action, saying the new body would not overlap with existing agencies but would instead bring them together to follow the same strategy and work more effectively in dealing with the southern problems.
