3 replies to this topic

[Harold]

"The government will not enter into talks with a southern separatist group as suggested by former prime minister Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban insisted on Friday.

Gen Chavalit said during a panel discussion on security in the southern border provinces on Thursday that the present government had failed to tackle the problems. He also read out a letter from the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), a separatist group, which said it wanted talks with the government.

Mr Suthep said the government has a clear policy for dealing with the southern problem. Under this policy, while government officials must respect the human rights of the people, they must not tolerate violations of the law. The government had not been informed of the BRN letter, he said, but would definitely not hold talks with any separatist group because doing so would lead to other problems.

"I respect Gen Chavalit because he is a former prime minister, but this does not mean everything he says is right," Mr Suthep said."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/14...-talks-with-brn

[DOLLY]

I don't understand the government's position not to talk to the rebels. Both are Thai people, so what good is all this talk about the unity of the Thai people when the government won't talk to fellow Thais, who are no more terrorists than the government troops doing all the massacres there. It took Sir Lanka over 25 years to end its civil war, with hundreds of thousands killed. Let's hope that isn't where Thailand is heading.

[TheYenta]

Let's hope that isn't where Thailand is heading.

It's there already, and the Bangkok Buddhists who are making this "no talks" policy are living on borrowed time before the conflict goes international, with all sorts of Islamic crazies getting involved.

[Hedda]

One of the great dangers of allowing the southern insurgency to fester for years like an open would is not only that international Islamists will find the temptation irresistible to get involved in aiding their muslim brothers, but that the immediate northern states of neighboring Malaysia will become active in supporting the insurrection with cross-border aid. The Buddhist Bangkok elite
cannot play too heavy a hand in the south without risking a serious deterioration in relations with Malaysia, especially given the changing political landscape in Kuala Lumpur. The history of Thailand's sometimes brutal subjugation of Pattani is a subject which does not play well in northern Malaysia's political mix.