BANGKOK, May 27 – Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha disclosed today that he has proposed to the government to erect fences along the entire 600-km Thai-Malaysian border in another attempt to tackle insurgency in Thailand’s southern provinces.
He said he raised the issue during talks with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra last night.
“It is impossible to keep an eye on the 600-km border all the time and some spots are narrow waterways. We don’t have a problem with demarcation; so building fences along the border could be one of the solutions,” he said.
Gen Prayuth’s proposal was in response to escalating attacks by militants in Thailand’s far South.
He said southern insurgents were putting pressure on the government to fulfill their demands while security forces have successively suppressed them.
Some of the suspects in explosions in the South were released on bail, he said, calling on neighbouring Malaysia to crack down on the transport of explosives across the border to Thai soil.
