Thai junta reveals new plan to counteract insurgency

By Arun Saronchai

BANGKOK (AA) - Thailand's military government revealed new plans Friday to solve a decades long insurgency in its three southern Muslim-majority provinces.

The plan calls for increased security presence and the promotion of business and social investment in rural communities to combat radicalization.

"We envision the completion of 'model villages' throughout the region to increase social security for citizens," a handout detailing the plans said.

Such villages are heavily subsidized by the government to provide jobs and security presence for locals.

They are singled out by the military for their strategic and geographical importance, along with a high risk of insurgent recruitment.

The government increases investment in such villages to act as a deterrent and also increases security personnel in the area.

Similar plans were used during the Vietnam War era, when the United States tried to stop villages from being radicalized by communists fighting the U.S.-backed government.

Deputy Prime Minister Udomdej Sitabutr is expected to present the plans to the cabinet Tuesday.

The southern insurgency -- active in the three southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, close to Thailand's border with Malaysia -- is rooted in a century-old ethno-cultural conflict between Malay Muslims living in the region and the Thai central state where Buddhism is considered the de-facto national religion.

Armed insurgent groups were formed in the 1960s after the then-military dictatorship tried to interfere in Islamic schools, but the insurgency faded in the 1990s.

In 2004, a rejuvenated armed movement -- composed of numerous local cells of fighters loosely grouped around the National Revolutionary Front, or BRN -- emerged.

After the military seized power in May 2014, the junta continued the overthrown elected civilian government’s policy of holding peace talks with insurgent groups.

A recent report on the south by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, has claimed, however, that the talks have “foundered” as both sides “prefer hostilities to compromise”.

“The National Council for Peace and Order [NCPO], which seized power in the 2014 coup, professes to support dialogue to end the insurgency but avoids commitment,” the report said, referring to the ruling junta by its official name.