Army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin said yesterday the Defence Council has established guidelines for the Southern Border Provinces Peace-building Command (SBPPC), which oversees security matters in the deep South, to use the blacklist to tackle insurgents.

"The names of suspects should be brought into consideration for a panel to double check. Officials cannot arrest somebody just because they see their names on the lists," Sonthi said.

The army chief expressed his concern over the so-called blacklist used by authorities to catch suspected militants in the predominantly Muslim region. He said the way individuals came to be listed was questionable and personal grudges might be the underlying motive.

Reports about the lists surfaced almost two years ago with each security agency, including the military, provincial officials and police - all thought to have prepared their own versions. People on the lists were said to be targets of manhunts or summary executions by rogue officials.

A religious leader in Yala told The Nation the list affected the lives of local residents, as they feared somebody might tell officials to put their names on the list due to personal conflicts. Many of them had bribed officials to check if their names were on the list and then had them removed, he said on condition of anonymity.

Narathiwat Governor Pracha Therat, who holds approximately 2,000 suspected names, admitted some officials' informants might have entered the names of their enemies. "It's possible local politicians might have used their influence to manipulate the blacklist to get rid of their opponents," he said.

"It's better if we had more people to help screen and check before putting any names on the list," he said.

Yala Governor Bounyasith Suwannarat, however, defended the accuracy of the lists saying concerned officials, including the military and police, compared notes and double-checked before compiling them.

"It is not easy to make the lists. We have to check through concerned parties before putting somebody on," he said.

People on the list are divided into four categories, comprising suspects with arrest warrants, militant leaders, cell members and militant sympathisers, Bounyasith said.

People in the respective groups receive different treatment from authorities, he said. The first group would be arrested, while the last group would be sent to re-education camps.