Thailand’s military government has announced peace talks can go ahead with Muslim separatists in the far south of the country but insisted they observe a ceasefire.
What's the over/under?
Separatists from the far south Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat are suspected of involvement in a string of bombings last month in several tourist towns that killed four people and wounded dozens.
A decades-old insurgency in the deep south of predominately Buddhist Thailand flared in 2004 and more than 6,500 people have been killed since then, according to the independent monitoring group Deep South Watch.
Talks between the government and insurgents began in 2013 when Yingluck Shinawatra was prime minister of a civilian government but have stalled since the military threw her out of office in 2014.
The Thai defence minister, Prawit Wongsuwan, said negotiations would restart on Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
General Aksara Kerdphol, the Thai government’s lead negotiator, said the rebels had to show good faith by ending violence.
“I have been instructed to tell the groups that there must be a peaceful situation on the ground before we are willing to sign any document,” he said.
Malaysia’s Bernama state news agency said Thai officials would meet representatives of the Mara Pattani “separatist umbrella group”.
Bangkok-based analyst Anthony Davis, at security consulting firm IHS-Jane’s, said a ceasefire was unlikely as the main group behind the violence, Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), had been left out of the talks.
Wonder why -- perhaps because they're the main group behind the violence?
“BRN has made it entirely clear that they reject the current process of peace talks between Bangkok and the group of small factions-in-exile in Malaysia called Mara Pattani,” he said.
The three ethnic-Malay majority provinces were part of a Malay sultanate before being annexed by Thailand more than a century ago.
You do have to wonder if the Thais would be smarter just to let the provinces go...
The 11-12 August bombings in several towns including Hua Hin, Surat Thai and on Phuket island spread alarm in a tourist industry that had been largely spared a spillover of violence from the insurgency.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2016 00:00 ||
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[Inquirer] The number of troops hunting down the Abu Sayyaf in the southern island province of Sulu is expected to grow to about 9,000 by next week, the Philippine military said on Thursday, amid taunts by the ruthless kidnap-for-ransom militants that it was prepared for a jihad.
The deployment is the largest concentration of troops in a single area in recent memory. It comes shortly after 15 soldiers were killed by the Abu Sayyaf in fierce battles this week in Jolo, where the terrorists are holding a number of foreign hostages.
President Duterte called on citizens to be vigilant against retaliatory attacks in the wake of intensified military operations. Duterte said, "You should be on guard since we're hitting them hard. I expect some…retribution also from them. That's their reprisal."
He said the rebels "do not live by the laws of civilization. They are really evil."
Abu Sayyaf spokesman Alhabsi Misaya said they were ready for the offensive, as he called on all Tausugs to join in a jihad. Misaya, in text messages, said the Abu Sayyaf had anticipated that "by Sept. 1, the Abu Sayyaf and soldiers of Duterte will test each other in a liberation."
Misaya, under the command of Abu Sayyaf leader Radulan Sahiron, said this would be "the last war of Patikul to the finish."
"If they are given courage, this war is more fierce than in Zamboanga,” he wrote adding that they would rather "initiate the attack against the soldiers of Duterte."
"The Abu Sayyaf is ready with its more than 1,000 forces to do a jihad," Misaya added.
Lt. Gen. Mayoralgo dela Cruz said he received a similar message but minimized the Abu Sayyaf's real force as being between 200-250. Dela Cruz said the military would prefer the Abu Sayyaf launched their attacks as "it's better to be this way, so that we will no longer be hunting them."
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: ryuge ||
09/02/2016 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
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