Big jump in compensation for new and 'old' victims of southern unrest

Payments for disabilities have been increased from Bt80,000 to Bt500,000 – and the extra amount is permitted immediately. People already paid the lower amount will receive the balance no later than 2015, government spokeswoman Sansanee Nakapong said.

 

Some 2,739 families of people killed, and 303 left disabled, are eligible for payment. 

 

Bt2 billion has been made available from this year’s budget to allow immediate payment of the new rates, and nearly half – Bt867 million – has been paid to eligible recipients.

 

Bt370 million will be made available from the 2013 budget, and the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre will request additional amounts for payments in 2014 and 2015.

 

Meanwhile, insurgents killed a man and seriously hurt another in an ambush in Narathiwat late on Monday night. The victims were travelling on a motorcycle in Tak Bai district when they came under automatic weapons fire by insurgents hiding in a rubber plantation.

 

In Yala, a fake bomb was found under a bridge in Krong Pinang district. It was likely to have been planted by insurgents. 

 

Meanwhile, Deputy PM Chalerm Yoobamrung repeated claims that politicians based in the South were involved in or behind illicit trading in drugs, contraband petrol and goods, but did not name them. He said Australian authorities had apprehended a Thai national for smuggling narcotics into that country, and would work further with Thai police in tackling drug trafficking between the two countries.