"Old hands" brought in to strengthen government’s team
Until this moment, it remains unclear whether the Barisan Revolusi Nasional is still serious with carrying on with the peace process following widespread rumours about a split in the separatist group’s leadership.
But as far as the government’s negotiating team is concerned, some adjustments have been made with a few "old hands" being brought in to strengthen the team to do away with the criticism that the team has always been the underdog vis-à-vis the BRN’s team led by Hassan Taib.
At the initiative of Pol Col Thawee Sodsong, secretary-general of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre and a key member of the government’s negotiating team led by Lt-Gen Paradorn Pattanatabut, a reliable source said that the police colonel had recently recruited Somkiat Boonchu, former secretary-general of the National Security Council, to be one of his advisors.
Somkiat was regarded as a protégé of ex-NSC chief Thawil Pliengsri who was sacked by the Pheu Thai-led government because he was seen as too close to the opposition Democrat party.
The source added that Pol Col Thawee had also asked Paradorn to allow Danai Musa, director of the NSC’s office of strategic security and mixed cultures, to help him out.
The source noted that Col Thawee’s men, many of them Special Branch police officers, had lately been active in dealing with the BRN.
The adjustments are necessary to strengthen the government’s negotiating team in light of growing concern that the peace process may collapse in the future.
According to the source, a security unit has painted the unrest situation in the deep South in the next five years in four scenarios: the first scenario is that the government is in partial control of the situation or the situation is under control while violence continues; the second scenario is that the government is in complete control of the situation; the third scenario is that violence has escalated prompting the government to step up suppression operations which may risk the intervention of the international community or the Organisation of Islamic Conference; and the final scenario is that the unrest situation is beyond control and spreads out to other provinces.
The scenarios are grim whereas the peace talks are in doubt, said the source.
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Caption : Thawee Sodsong