BANGKOK, April 24 – Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra today instructed state agencies to strictly adhere to peaceful means to resolving the escalating violence in Thailand’s far South.
In a meeting with high-level officials on security in the South, she reportedly called on the Centre to Mobilise Policy and Strategy to Solve Problems in the Southern Border Provinces to urgently and clearly define areas in the region to facilitate the government’s implementation of various development projects.
National Security Council (NSC) Secretary General Paradorn Pattathabut, who attended the meeting, said the premier repeatedly ordered security officials to resolve the southern crisis in a peaceful manner.
He gave reassurances that the southern situation is under control though opponents have been trying to call for attention with “psychological politics.”
He said the army was leaving all doors open for communication with all factions.
A recent protest by an unidentified group which put up banners in public places was not against the government’s peace talks in which representatives of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) were participating, he said.
The protesters wanted other southern people to take part in the talks, he added.
The next round of the peace dialogue between a Thai security team, led by Lt-Gen Paradorn, and southern militant leaders, led by the BRN group, is scheduled in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
Gen Paradorn said the meeting will be held as scheduled with nine representatives from the Thai government side.
