Surrender of insurgents 'genuine'
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Deputy Prime Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha and Defence Minister Sukampol Suwannathat yesterday lashed out at suggestions that the surrender of 93 insurgents was staged, saying such criticism discouraged military operations and insisting that all the surren
Yuthasak flew to the deep South yesterday to work with Fourth Army Region commander Udomchai Thammasarorat to speed up the mass-surrender process.
“This issue has psychological implications. If the process is too slow, other extremists might change their minds and the number of surrenders will decrease,” he said.
The deputy prime minister said a group of Thai citizens had set up the website www.ambranews.com outside the country to discredit the military by saying that the surrender of insurgents led by Wae-aricopter Waji was staged. The insurgents are not the real orchestrators of the violence in the deep South since 2004, the site claims.
“The Foreign Ministry should talk with Malaysia and ask Kuala Lumpur to take care of this matter,” Yuthasak said, pointing out that the website was registered in Malaysia and is in the Malay language.
Sukampol said all insurgents who surrendered were genuine, and authorities had records of them.
They turned themselves in because they saw no way to win the armed struggle, and the government is dealing with the situation in the right manner, he said.
There will be more insurgents surrendering to authorities, he said. “If we obtain good cooperation like this, I think the violence in the deep South will be over soon.”
Violence erupted in the predominantly Muslim region at the beginning of 2004. It has claimed more than 5,000 lives since then.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the violence, and there has been no manifesto to explain the purpose of the insurgency, most of the victims of which have been fellow Muslims.
Authorities believe a number of separatist organisations are behind the violence, including the Barisan Revolusi Nasional and Runda Kumpalan Kecil.
The military is engaging with spiritual leader Sapae-in Basoh and militant leader Masae Useng to have militants surrender, a source said.
With a bounty of Bt10 million on his head, Sapae-in, a former head of Thammawittaya School in Yala, is accused of masterminding violence in the deep South since 2004.
Masae, who has a Bt3-million bounty on his head and is the subject of a number of arrest warrants, is the suspected operative commander.
Both are believed to live in exile in Malaysia. Masae reportedly goes back and forth between his home town in Narathiwat and Malaysia, but authorities have been unable to take him down.
The Fourth Army Region has sent military officers and religious leaders to negotiate secretly with the pair to stop the violence, the source said, adding that if both of them returned to the legal fold, more than 20 key persons in the separatist movement would likely follow them.
