Everyone should help restore peace: Prayuth
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The Army chief yesterday called on all state agencies and ministries to help in the efforts to restore peace in the far South.
Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha said the 17 ministries and 66 state agencies should help encourage more local participation in the effort. He also said that agencies’ work should be frequently evaluated, perhaps every three months, to see if they really are working to tackle violence in the Muslim-majority region.
It was not enough to leave the work to the military and police. “All the military and the police can do is enforce the law, but the problem of misunderstanding does not get fully addressed,” he said.
Prayuth said the security forces would pressure the insurgents with legal means and combat strategies in order to limit their mobility and scope of operation. The Army chief said the rebels wanted to create more violence to show they still had freedom to carry out attacks.
Meanwhile, national police chief General Adul Sangsingkaew yesterday visited the southern border province of Yala to follow up on inquiries into the latest attacks in the restive region, which have claimed many lives and left many seriously injured.
Adul said he instructed local police to be on guard because insurgents were expected to resort to violence during the eighth anniversary of the Tak Bai incident on Thursday.
“I have told the police to be on guard at all times,” he said.
On October 25, 2004, some 78 protesters suffocated while being transported in military trucks after mass arrests and fatal shootings at a protest outside Tak Bai police station in Narathiwat.
POLICE CHIEF VISITS TAK BAI
The police chief and his entourage yesterday also went to Tak Bai to follow up on a car-bomb attack and assault on five locations on Saturday night. He also visited a police officer injured in an insurgent attack on a police checkpoint.
Deputy Prime Minister General Yuthasak Sasiprapha said yesterday the rising frequency of attacks might have something to do with the Tak Bai anniversary.
At a Senate meeting yesterday, Senator Prasert Chitpong suggested that the government change its tactics in dealing with the insurgency. He said negotiations should be used alongside the combat strategy, citing the Philippines’ success in achieving a ceasefire with Islamic insurgents after 40 years of armed conflict.
