BANGKOK, March 14 – An army representative will be in the 15-member delegation in the March 28 peace talks with a Muslim insurgent group although the National Security Council (NSC) earlier said the army would be excluded from the preliminary dialogue.
Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha said today that an army officer will be on the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) team.
NSC chief Paradorn Pattanatabut had said yesterday that the government representatives holding talks with BRN militants on March 28 were to be working-level officials with no army personnel, but that the results of the talks would be reported to the Royal Thai Army.
Gen Prayuth today urged the NSC to make good use of representing the state in negotiating with the insurgent groups.
It is a positive sign that nine militant groups offered to join the talks but they should be integrated into a single group for a common directive, or the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) group should take the lead, the army chief said.
The March 28 dialogue is a follow-up of an agreement under the peace process, signed by NSC and BRN leaders in Kuala Lumpur on Feb 28.
Gen Prayuth added that the army has no objection to a proposal to abolish enforcement of the Emergency Decree in Thailand’s far South as requested by some in the region.
The army has so far pulled out 6,000 personnel from the southern border provinces, he said, referring to a recent call by some southern people for an army withdrawal from the restive South.
