Thai PM arrives in restive South

PATTANI, April 29 (TNA) - Accompanied by ministers and senior officials, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Sunday visited the restive southern province of Pattani. Her one-day visit came four weeks after car bomb attacks hit the Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel in Hat Yai district, near the Thai-Malaysian border, and the nearby province of Yala on March 31. Arriving at the Internal Security Operations Command’s Region 4 office in Pattani’s Yarang district, Miss Yingluck told the local people on Sunday morning that all concerned government agencies were ready to solve unrest in the deep southern region by following the advice of His Majesty the King. Miss Yingluck, who was accompanied by Defence Minister General Yuthasak Sasiprapha and Army Chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha, added that her government was determined to develop the region including its economy in order to boost people’s income and their livelihood. Miss Yingluck told journalists earlier in Bangkok before departing for Pattani that senior military officers and the National Security Council would heed the local problem and later adjust their policies accordingly. Meanwhile, Miss Yingluck was scheduled to confer with the local people and religious leaders, with an aim to find ways to solve the local insurgency, which had been rocking the region more than eight years now. More than 5,000 persons, including civilians, security forces, monks, teachers and insurgents were killed since the insurgency re-erupted in Thailand’s three Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat in early 2004. (TNA)