KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 – A Thai security team attending peace talks in the Malaysian capital on Monday acknowledged but refused to commit on the five-point demand by an insurgent group in Thailand’s far South
National Security Council secretary general Paradorn Pattanathabut told reporters after almost eight hours of meeting that he would report details of the dialogues to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra today.
“They repeatedly stressed the demand but we could not accept it. We only listened.” he said.
Lt Gen Paradorn led the 10-member delegation to the talks during which senior Malaysian officials were present.
Both parties set June 13 for the third round of peace talks.
The NSC chief said before attending the meeting that Thailand was disappointed with the fresh demand of the BRN which was announced by its liaison office chief Hassan Taib on YouTube on Sunday.
He told Mr Hassan in yesterday’s meeting that Thailand wanted to see less violence in the country’s southern border provinces which is the only way to prove Mr Hassan’s true control of the BRN.
Gen Paradorn said he gave Mr Hassan one month to prove that he really represented the BRN despite his insistence that he controlled the movement
The group insisted that Malaysia be given the role of mediator, not facilitator, in the peace talks and other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Organization of Islamic Conference be involve in the peace process.
It also called on the Thai government to recognise the BRN as a liberation movement, not as a separatist group.
