DEEP SOUTH
Minister backs amnesty plan
Narathiwat Provincial Police deputy commander Colonel Nopadol Puerksomon is recovering both physically and psychologically, doctors say. He was critically injured in a bomb blast last week.
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Boonrawd says he would support Army proposal if it could help restore peace to troubled region
Defence Minister General Boonrawd Somtas yesterday threw his support behind an Army recommendation to offer an amnesty to deep South militants. Fourth Army Region commander Ongkorn Thongprasom earlier suggested an amnesty would go a long way to restoring peace in the troubled region. Boonrawd said if the idea could end the insurgency in the Muslim-majority region, he would support it. A blanket amnesty was offered by the Communist Act of 1952 that the government used to win a surrender of party members and an end to their insurgency. "It is a strategy which is part of the conformity policy in my view. The state should consider if it could restore peace in the South region," Boonrawd said. Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont last week said he had asked officials to explore the possibility of granting an amnesty to militants in the Malay-speaking region as part of a government strategy to restore peace there. Manop Muenpreecha, the railway stationmaster at Tan Yong Mat in Narathiwat, believed the amnesty would protect passengers. Rail services in the South were suspended for a week following armed attacks on passenger trains. Services resumed yesterday and Manop believed passengers would travel again when they became confident of military security measures. Meanwhile, rail services from Yala to Sungai Kolok resumed yesterday after being suspended last week. The first train to use the route was the Surat Thani-to-Sungai Kolok service that left Surat Thani at noon. The service was suspended on April 14 after Muslim insurgents opened fire on a train between Laloh and Rusoh in Narathiwat, injuring a railway worker and two passengers. In Pattani, a Muslim man was killed and his wife injured in a drive-by shooting here yesterday morning. Two motorcycle gunmen carried out the 9.30am attack on a village road in Tambon Tanyong Juanga of Yaring district. Ayu Tayeh, 46, died at Panare Hospital while his wife Mualah Yayeh remained in critical condition late yesterday.
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