‘Front command’ team’s road map aims to end violence in deep South

THE “front command” team, led by Deputy Defence Minister General Udomdech Sitabutr, will submit its road map to the Cabinet on Tuesday, according to team secretary Panu Uthairat. 
The road map will help stop violence in the deep South next year as per the government’s goal, Panu told the press after the delegation’s meeting yesterday with related agencies at the Defence Ministry in Bangkok. 
The head of the Committee to Mobilise Policy and Strategy to Solve Problems in the Southern Border Provinces’ Front Command Office, General Suthat Jarumanee, said the road map had seven working plans, including national security, development and public understanding. 
They would select high-potential projects for the three main working plans to be implemented next year at all areas of the region, with some areas being more intense. 
The road map – to be submitted today to Deputy PM General Prawit Wongsuwan – would announce its results every quarter, and by the second quarter some concrete results should be visible, he added.
Panu said the government’s “Triangle of Stability, Prosperity, and Sustainability” project to develop three model city districts of Nong Chik in Pattani, Betong in Yala, and Sungai Kolok in Narathiwat has progressed and received a good response from locals in the first three months of implementation. 
Eighty-nine additional development projects worth Bt1.7 billion proposed by public-private sectors are pending. Each province would set up a subcommittee for the triangle project to help screen the projects, Panu added.
Another delegate, General Udomchai Thammasaroraj, said he and General Aksara Kerdphol, being in charge of the 7th working plan to find peaceful solutions for the conflict, had two key missions: the peace dialogue and the creation of an atmosphere for negotiations. They also aimed to bridge the gap between state agencies and the people to create two-way communication, he said.
Another delegate, General Prakan Cholayuth, said the meeting also discussed the use of civilians and semi-military manpower, established in 109 tambons since 2013 to aid and eventually take over the military’s task of tambon defence. 
They found that manpower in the past three years was 80 per cent effective while the other 20 per cent required further training. The authorities also planned to expand anti-drug “strong community” villages from the existing 300 in 20 tambons to cover all 200 tambons, he added.