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| Southeast Asia |
| Thailand prepares for peace talks |
| 2014-12-04 |
| An informed source reported that Thailand's government was planning to hold peace talks with 14 insurgent groups starting with the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) whose liaison office chief Hassan Taib attended the 2013 talks. This time, the dialogue will be facilitated by Ahmad Zamzamin bin Hashim, the former chief of Malaysia's national intelligence agency. During Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's visit to Malaysia on Monday, he and Prime Minister Najib Razak discussed issues related to the insurgency in southern Thailand, including the dual-nationality status that is taken advantage of by insurgents. However, the two leaders did not deal with the BRN's five-point demand. Meanwhile, Sama-ae "Hayisama-ae Thanam" Sa-ah, former chief of the Pattani United Liberation Organisation who has been serving a life sentence since 2011, called on the government to learn from the previous administration's mistake of talking to just one group of rebels. He said success would come if the separatist groups were united - possibly like the Palestine Liberation Organization, to represent and follow the talks. |
| Posted by:ryuge |