New Thai PM outlines policy for troubled south

THAILAND: Thailand’s new prime minister Tuesday outlined an “urgent” policy to tackle five years of unrest in the Muslim deep south, including the creation of an administrative body for the region.

Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva also assigned one of his deputy prime ministers to oversee the overall situation in the troubled south, which is a stronghold of Abhisit’s Democrat Party.

“The government will adopt a new law to set up new administrative organisation to supervise and administer the region,” Abhisit told reporters after his first cabinet meeting.

“My government considers the southern policy as one of the most urgent policies and after this I will summon all existing and concerned agencies to discuss the southern issue,” he said.

More than 3,500 people have been killed since separatist unrest erupted in early 2004 in southern Thailand, with a soldier killed in a drive-by shooting Tuesday.

Tensions have simmered since Thailand annexed the mainly Malay sultanate in 1902.

Abhisit said his government would use not only security measures to tackle the problem but also address economic and cultural differences in the region.

“Otherwise we will have to send enormous forces and that’s not the answer nor a sustainable solution. We will review the laws and all measures will be implemented simultaneously,” he said.

Suthep Thaugsuban, one of Thailand’s three deputy prime ministers, would take up the role of overseeing the policy, he said.

The violence in the southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, along with part of Songkhla province, has continued almost daily since the Democrats assumed power on December 15.

Bangkok, Tuesday, AFP