Peace in deep South will take time, analysts say

This belief was expressed at a seminar organised by the Thai Journalists Association yesterday. Panellists were Gen Samret Srirai, a special adviser to the Defence Ministry; Srisompop Jitpiromsri, director of Deep South Watch at Prince of Songkla University; Col Thiranan Nanthakwang, an academic on security; Hamad Somboonbualuang, an independent researcher on peace processes; and Sunai Phasuk, from Human Rights Watch.
Sunai told the seminar holding talks with BRN-Coordinate would not result in peace because Hassan Taib was only a coordinator with no authority to represent insurgent groups.
Sunai said the insurgents did not want to participate in peace talks but they were forced by the Malaysian government to join the talks. He said insurgents acted inhumanely against innocent people so the Thai government had justification to enforce the law to suppress them.
The Thai government and communities in the deep South should help to try to create peace by accepting the Malay identity, he said, and try to minimise causes of conflict cited by insurgents in their campaign of violence.
But Samret said he hoped the next round of talks with BRN-Coordinate on Thursday would lead to a clearer picture on how to create peace in the deep South.
He said it would require talks to be held both at higher and lower levels to try to achieve peace.
Srisompop said the BRN-Coordinate was initially doubted as to whether it really represented insurgent groups and whether they could talk to the insurgents and represent local people. But later BRN-Coordinate was accepted by both the Thai and Malaysian governments.
Srisompop said he believed BRN-Coordinate had mechanisms for coordinating with insurgent groups in southern border provinces.