NSC sees progress in peace talks with BRN insurgent group in two weeks

BANGKOK, March 4 (TNA) - Thailand's National Security Council (NSC) has foreseen progress in peace negotiations with the Barisan Revolusi National (BRN) insurgent group over the next two weeks. NSC Secretary-General Lieutenant General Paradorn Pattanatabutr made the projection on Monday, acknowledging that a joint working group of the Thai government and the BRN insurgent group will then be formed. General Sonthi Bunyaratglin, a former Thai army chief who is now the leader of the Matubhum Party, assessed that the peace talks between the Thai government, through the NSC, and the BRN insurgent group should not allow any third-party country to intervene in the troubled Thai far South, and that the peace talks pact, signed between the NSC and the BRN last week, is a reconciliatory solution which several countries have adopted. The former army chief suggested, however, that solutions to the violence-plagued southern border Thai region should take times because there have been movements of many groups in the region, pointing out if the BRN could communicate with other movements, insurgency in the southernmost Thai region could be relieved. Meanwhile, the NSC resolved in its Monday's meeting to extend the imposition of the executive decree on public administration in emergency situations in the Thai deep South for three more months, after it expires on March 19, 2013. The NSC chief said the resoultion at March 4's meeting, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung, will later be proposed to the Thai Cabinet for further consideration. Besides, the NSC's latest meeting accepted for consideration a proposal of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Center (SBPAC) to end the imposition of the executive decree in five districts in the southernmost Thai region, including Kapho district in Pattani, Betong and Kabang Districts in Yala and Waeng and Sukhirin districts in Narathiwat, but the NSC is to first review the updated situation in the proposed areas and to talk with local people. If the situation is found to improve, the NSC will impose the Internal Security Act (ISA), instead of the executive decree. (TNA)