158 INSURGENTS TO GIVE UP ARMS, SAYS THAI OFFICIAL
Socio-economic development, education needed to prevent youth from joining rebels
THAI authorities claimed that nearly 160 rebels have taken up the offer to disarm as the junta government believes it is making significant progress in weakening the insurgency in the southern region, now in its 70th year.
Thai Armed Forces, which wrested power from the civil government in May 2014, following a longstanding political turbulence, claimed that this had led to a sharp plunge in violent incidents last year.
The junta government’s Internal Security Operations Command Region 4 director Lieutenant-General Piyavat Nakvanich claimed that 158 separatists from the southern Thai provinces had taken up the neutralisation offer.
He claimed that this had contributed to a significant dip in the violent incidents by 45 per cent last year, as compared with 2016. The incidents further declined 72 per cent between October and early this month.
Piyavat claimed that the neutralised rebels said they decided to give up the fight after realising that they had been misled into joining the insurgency to demand autonomy for Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.
“They are our people (Thais). In fact, they are our brothers who were misled to join the separatist movement.
“We encouraged them to return to society and lead a normal life.
“They may choose to remain in their hometown or relocate to a new place.
“We provide protection for the neutralised rebels and their family members, so that they can start fresh,” he said when receiving a courtesy visit from the Kedah media club’s representatives at Sirindhon Camp here on Saturday.
Piyavat, who is commander of Thai Armed Forces in 14 southern provinces, claimed that almost 95 per cent of the Muslimmajority population in the southern Thai provinces were rejecting the uprising, which started in 1948, before it escalated into a violent insurgency in 2004. Piyavat attributed the success in neutralising the rebels to the Royal Thought initiative, the brainchild of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, which began a decade ago.
He said the initiative focused on three main thrusts — understanding the Muslim community, reach-out programmes and bringing development to the southern Thai provinces.
“After 10 years, we are making favourable progress as 95 per cent of the Muslim population in southern Thailand are rejecting violent insurgence.
“We have engaged with community leaders, including religious leaders, throughout the period. We discovered that the rebel groups only represent five per cent of Thai Muslims as 95 per cent of them are with the government,” he claimed.
Piyavat added that the Thai government’s initiative to improve the education and socioeconomic position of the southern Thai Muslim community prevented them from being lured by the separatist groups.
He said the main factors that had driven Muslim youth into the rebel movement were the lack of education and jobs.
“It is normal for any community to be easily influenced by rebel movement as they had no jobs.
“So, these extremist groups took advantage of them by offering false promises. The government responded by initiating projects to create jobs for the community and this kept them away from such influences.”
Piyavat said the main focus of the junta government was to continue with projects to spur growth in the southern region to create wealth among the Muslim community.
He said the government had introduced new agricultural and aquacultural projects to diversify the southern provinces’ dependency on rubber.
Piyavat, however, declined to comment on the ongoing peace talks between the junta government and the separatist groups, where Malaysia is playing the facilitator role.