A new panel to heal wounds in the deep South
The government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has given a greenlight to the proposal of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to heal the wounds caused to people in the deep South from actions perpetrated by security forces.
A panel led by Deputy Prime Minister Pracha Promnok was set up by the Cabinet on October 4. The 25-member committee is made up of representatives from the government, the people’s sector and non-governmental organizations.
The objective of the panel is to compensate and rehabilitate people affected by violence in the strife-torn deep South, especially victims of violence or abuses perpetrated by state officials.
Victims of the Tak Bai massacre, the Krue Se incident and the Ai-payae mosque attack in which ten Muslims were shot dead will be given the top priority treatment by the panel.
One significant aspect of the new committee is that it will receive input from members of the Organisation of Islamic Countries in order to demonstrate the Thai government’s sincerity to resolve the problem in southern Thailand in a fair and just manner.
Besides the new panel, the government is pondering the establishment of a new administrative body for the deep South to be officially called the Southern Border Provinces Problem-Solving and Development Centre.
A workshop to discuss about the new administrative body is scheduled on October 18-19. It is organized by the Internal Security Operations Command.
The new administrative body will adopt His Majesty the King’s idea of development and sufficiency economy as its main strategy. It is also tasked to, among others, to promote better understanding and to reduce conflicts between people of different religious faiths; to address illegal activities such as human, drug and contraband trafficking; to improve human rights situation and to ensure safety for people in the region.
The new body will not replace the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre which will continue to function as a forward command.
Meanwhile, the forward command of ISOC reported that a total of 4,417 people were killed in the deep South in the past eight years of senseless violence from January 2004 up to August 31, 2011.
Of the total death toll, 1,848 were Buddhists and 2,450 were Muslims with the rest whose religious faiths could not be determined. There were altogether 7,857 people. Of these, 4,885 were Buddhists, 2,488 were Muslims and 484 were people whose religious could not be established.
For the last fiscal year from October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011, there were altogether 447 shooting incidents, 175 bombings and ten arson attacks. Also, there were 217 ordinary violent incidents.
Narathiwat topped the most violent province with 154 shooting incidents, 83 bombings, two arson attacks and six disruption incidents. This was followed by Pattani with 200 shooting incidents, 32 bombings and seven arson attacks. Yala came third with 88 shootings, 55 bombings and one arson attack. There were five shootings and five bombings in four districts of Songkhla.
Compared to a year earlier, the number of shootings increased from 400 to 447 but the number of bombings dropped from 202 to 175. Arson attacks also dropped by 11.
The worst violent month was August during which 72 violent incidents were recorded. These included 46 shootings and 23 bombings and two arson attacks.
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Caption : New administrative body for the deep South to be officially called the Southern Border Provinces Problem-Solving and Development Centre.