Pulo to stage "unity talk" meeting among separatist groups in Germany’s Hamburg

The Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo) is to hold a so-called "unity talk" meeting of anti-government insurgency groups in Hamburg of Germany on January 24 in an attempt to forge a common ground among them before holding peace talks with the Thai government. 

          Informed security sources said that Mr Gustury Magota, head of the New Pulo and a key organiser of the meeting, had sent invitations to separatist groups which include the BRN, the BIPP and GMP asking them to join a meeting in Hamburg to mark the 47th anniversary of the founding of Pulo which falls on January 22.

          However, the sources said that the Pulo’s 47th anniversary was just a pretext used by Mr Gustury to bring together as many groups as possible for the "unity talk" meeting.

          Some groups have accepted the invitation to attend such as the GMP but it remains to be see whether the two other Pulo factions and the BRN will join the meeting or not.

          Pulo has split into three factions namely the New Pulo led by Mr Gustury, the Pattani Liberation Army led by  Zamzudin Khan and the the
Informed Malaysian sources, meanwhile, claimed that the "unity talk" initiative was backed by some Thai security agencies whose representatives recently met Mr Gustury in Indonesia.

          There seems to be little progress about the peace talks with the government ever since Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha’s one-day visit to Malaysia on December 1 to meet with his Malaysian counterpart, Mr Najib Razak.

          Meanwhile, Malaysia in its role as the facilitator has reportedly tried to hold a meeting of all the insurgency groups without much success as such as the BRN have declined to attend.

          Mr Panitharn Wattanayakorn, an advisor to the deputy prime minister on security affairs, said that informal peace talks have already started with some insurgency groups namely Pulo and BRN.

          He said that General Aksara Kerdphol, head of the peace talks team, was acceptable by the insurgency groups.

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Caption : Patani map in PULO website http://puloinfo.net/