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| Southeast Asia | |
| Thai government turns away Malaysia mediation offer | |
| 2007-02-15 | |
| Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram denied on Wednesday that Thailand was seeking help from Malaysia as a go-between with insurgents, or planning to ask Kuala Lumpur to take any such mediation role. Immediately after he arrived back in Kuala Lumpur from a three-day trip to Thailand, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Malaysia probably would act as a mediator in arranging talks between insurgents and Thai authorities. Mr Abdullah said he expected a formal request from Thailand. Mr Nitya said the remarks by Mr Abdullah as carried by the Bernama news agency on Tuesday may have been misquoted. "We are checking with Kuala Lumpur. We believe His Excellency the Prime Minister of Malaysia has been misquoted. There is no plan for such mediation that would necessitate any request," he said in a statement issued by the foreign ministry. According to Bernama, Mr Abdullah said that "Malaysia is well-placed to mediate in negotiations between Thailand and Muslim separatists" in the South. The Bernama report continued: "He said Malaysia had the capacity and ability to mediate in the issue as it understood the situation in Muslim-majority southern Thailand and the Thai government's stand to end the continuing violence. 'Moreover, we know the separatist groups, in the sense that they are Muslims, of Malay descent and that Malaysia has good relations with Thailand,' he told a news conference with Malaysian journalists at the end of his three-day visit to Thailand." But the Thai side appeared surprised. "We are checking with Kuala Lumpur. There is no plan for such mediation that would necessitate any request," the Foreign Ministry's statement quoted Mr Nitya as saying. In a related development, Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn has expressed concern for the plight of students in the restive South who travel far from home to attend school during the rainy season, Basic Education Commission (BEC) secretary-general Kasama Voravarn na Ayudhaya said yesterday. Khunying Kasama said the princess, who recently visited the troubled region, instructed the BEC to arrange accommodation in nearby communities for the affected students throughout the rainy season, to make life easier for them. She also said the BEC is about to talk to the foreign affairs minister about a plan to send teachers to Malaysia to teach the Thai language to the children of Thai labourers working there. The teaching could be done in a "home-school" style, she said. There are more than 100,000 Thai people living in Malaysia. Council for National Security chairman Sonthi Boonyaratkalin said yesterday security personnel had been aware of the PNYS (Pattani-Narathiwat-Yala-Songkhla) network - a student group at Ramkhamhaeng University that is allegedly connected with a suspect in the New Year bombings - for some time. He made the remarks in response to intelligence reports that security officers had monitored the university network, which has also spread in the South. Gen Sonthi, who is also army chief, said concerned authorities were to meet with the university network soon, adding talks had been held with some network members in the South. He said it was too early to conclude that students with PNYS links were "bad guys". In Yala, three people were killed in separate rebel attacks in Krong Pinang sub-district. The first victim was a rubber tapper who was shot dead by three armed attackers early yesterday morning. Later, two herb traders were killed in a drive-by shooting. The victims were identified as Sonthaya Khamsikaew, 53, and his 29-year-old son, Choo. A teachers' security escort was hit by a roadside bomb in Bannang Sata district yesterday. Five soldiers were wounded. I would post this last bit as a seperate story on page 1, but I can't use the web address twice and I can't anything about the latest violence anywhere else.
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| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 The Malaysian mediation is likely to consist of offering to detach these provinces from Thailand and add them to Malaysia's territory. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2007-02-15 11:50 |