http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/thai-rivals-unite-over-insurgency/story-e6frg6so-1226474394277
ON Tuesday, political foes Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of the so-called Red Shirts faction and the opposition leader, deposed prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of the Yellow Shirts, will join forces in a forum aimed at addressing the escalating problem of Muslim insurgents in the country's southernmost provinces.
Events in recent weeks - the beheading of a soldier and the raising of the Malaysian flag at about 160 separate flashpoints across the south - have galvanised the nation's political class to address the worst insurgency in Southeast Asia.
While the Thai and Malaysian prime ministers have pledged co-operation, the influential Bangkok Post declared Thailand could not afford further casualties while both leaders made "flowery-yet-ambiguous" pledges.
Four days ago, 91 insurgents surrendered to government forces in what was claimed as the most positive breakthrough in the conflict in years. Ms Yingluck promised to help find the defectors jobs and offer them start-up loans.
Thai security expert Don Pathan dismissed the surrender of the insurgents as a "public relations stunt" and said: "Insurgents on the ground were dismissive of the so-called surrendered individuals, saying they weren't combatants. Their names came up on the army's blacklist and their parents were informed about how they could be taken off the blacklist if they just take part in this PR exercise."
The recent rash of government initiatives, including the co-operation between Malaysia and Thailand over insurgents living in Malaysia, and the meeting of the respective country's prime ministers with subsequent announcements of co-operation to resolve the issues in southern Thailand, have made front page news in a Buddhist country largely indifferent to the fate of the Muslim minority in the south. That the issue is disturbing the nation's highest elites was demonstrated by the announcement that the Thai Queen had spent millions of dollars of her own money on welfare projects in southern villages. But commentators have little hope this week's political posturing will produce concrete results. A spokesman for the International Crisis Group, Jim Della-Giacoma, said leaving the military out of the discussions was a mistake and the violence could be expected to continue.
"The insurgency is not getting better," he said. "The insurgents in recent years have shown the ability to use increasingly sophisticated strategy and tactics. They have a resilience and discipline not yet matched by the Thai political elite."
A researcher at Human Rights Watch, Sunai Phasuk, described southern Thailand as "a state within a state" and said the growing power of the military was allowing for state-perpetrated abuses, including torture, killings and disappearances. He dismissed the forum as "a political game".
Author of numerous works on the southern conflict, including Tearing Apart the Land, Duncan McCargo told The Weekend Australian a succession of serious attacks demonstrated the failure of the Thai security forces, and he held little hope for this week's conference. "I am one of a small group of experts who has tried to convince the Thai elite that this is a political problem in need of a political solution, but it is a message that Bangkok would generally rather not hear."
Thailand's watchdog group, Deep South Watch, estimates more than 5000 people have died in 11,000 incidents since the conflict escalated into bloody violence in 2004.
