Ramadan calm kindles peace hopes
Talks team aim for long-term ceasefire
The government’s peace negotiators expect to secure a long-lasting ceasefire agreement with insurgent groups by the end of this year, according to the team leader, Gen Wallop Raksanoh.
Aside from an attack in Pattani’s Sai Buri district which killed one civilian and injured three police officers, the holy fasting month of Ramadan has been relatively peaceful, as was agreed in previous talks, said Gen Wallop, a former National Security Council (NSC) secretary-general.
He was speaking at a meeting in Pattani with
4th Army Region commander Lt Gen Kriangkrai Srirak, concurrently director of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) Region 4. The meeting discussed a framework for the next round of peace talks.
He noted the attack during Ramadan was perpetrated by an insurgent group other than the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), which has been involved in the talks.
A ceasefire during Ramadan from April 3 to May 14 was agreed to by the BRN as a condition for continuing the negotiations. The double bomb attack carried out on April 15 was believed to be the work of a group operating under the Patani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo).
Pulo, a part of Mara Patani — an umbrella organisation of Malay-Muslim separatist fronts from southern Thailand — was not included in the most recent rounds of talks.
The latest talks in Kuala Lumpur from March 31 to April 1 featured the Thai government team and the BRN.
This year’s relatively peaceful Ramadan was taken as a sign of the growing trust between the two sides. The next step is to try and achieve a more concrete and longlasting ceasefire agreement by the end of the year, said Lt Gen Kriangkrai.
The next round of talks is expected between June and August, he added. They will focus on reviewing the security situation in recent months and further expanding the scope of the existing agreement in order to reach a longerterm ceasefire, he noted.
All insurgent groups will be welcome to engage in the next round of talks, while representatives of communities in the deep South will also be able to have their say through indirect mechanisms.
In previous rounds, opinions and calls gathered from affected communities were also brought to the table, Lt Gen Kriangkrai said.