Chalerm to hold talks on South in M'sia

Chalerm refused to reveal whom he planned to meet in Malaysia, saying only that the region’s problems required the cooperation not only of domestic groups, but also of neighbouring countries.
Holding talks with parties on the Malaysian side did not represent an upgrade of the problem to the international level, he said.
In Narathiwat’s Rangae district, a driver of a Tambon Administrative Organisation was seriously injured when insurgents ambushed a pickup truck he was driving for a deputy TAO chairman and other officials.
Driver Haribin Katai, 33, suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was rushed to a nearby hospital before being transferred to Narathiwatrachanakarin Hospital in serious condition.
Mayalee Salae, 38, deputy TAO chairman, said he and five other officials were in the pickup, being driven by Haribin to Narathiwat’s Muang district to attend a New Year party. Two men on a motorcycle opened fire on their vehicle as it travelled on a road in the district.
The bullets hit the driver, who managed to control the pickup and bring it to a halt on the roadside. None of the passengers was hurt.
The attack took place as Defence Minister General Sukampol Suwannathat was visiting the province’s Rusoh district. Sukampol was briefed that since April, 93 suspects have been arrested. Seven of them were the subjects of arrest warrants, while 32 others were wanted under the Emergency Decree.
In a related development, Edu-cation Minister Pongthep Thepkan-jana presided over a special seminar on “graduate teacher volunteers,” a project initiated to deploy qualified personnel to help teach students in the deep South as replacements for the many teachers who have applied for transfers out of the area. Karun Sakulpradit, a regional education official, said 1,610 graduates would be deployed to villages in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat in the near future.
 In Songkhla, security officials distributed sketches of four men suspected of involvement in the violence and of plotting to sneak into the province to instigate unrest during the New Year festival.
Meanwhile, police investigator Pol Lt-Colonel Kaisaeng Tawinwongse of Khon Kaen’s Ban Fang district said he and other officers would file complaints with the Police Commission today over a new policy to randomly select 150 police investigators to work in three southernmost provinces by drawing lots.
The drawing of lots by 6,000 investigators was ordered by National Police commissioner-general Pol General Adul Saengsingkaew, and would take place on January 7.
Kaisaeng described the process as unfair and discriminatory, as it was being used only to select police investigators, not for other positions. If the Royal Police Commission insisted on conducting the draw, he and other officers would file complaints with the Administrative Court, he said.