NSC-BRN peace talks likely to resume next month

BANGKOK, August 26 (TNA) - The National Security Council (NSC) says it expects to resume next month its new round of peace talks with representatives of insurgent groups in the Thai far South, led by the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) insurgency movement. Speaking at a press conference on security solutions to the violence-plagued Thai deep South at the Ministry of Defence on Monday, Colonel Charoon Ampha, an NSC adviser assessed that the next round of NSC-BRN peace talks is likely to happen in September but the exact date will later be set based on the readiness of all concerned parties. Colonel Charoon also said Thailand has informed Malaysia, the facilitator of the peace negotiations, that Thai authorities will consider only proposals the BRN officially files through Malaysia but discards any proposal it airs through social media. The NSC advisor insisted that Thailand wants to not only reduce violence in the southern border region, but also to truly restore peace in the region. Colonel Banpote Poolpian, Spokesman of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), told the press conference that, despite the peace negotiations, there are violence-oriented groups, other threats and symbolic violent attacks, showing that problems in the Thai deep South are complicated. Babor Adsaman Sideh, an executive of an Islamic school in Pattani province, acknowledged that drug addiction appears to be the biggest problem in the southernmost Thai region and the abuse of kratom leaves remains widespread in Pattani. According to the executive, more than 700 local students are under drug rehabilitation and about 500 of them are about to quit illicit drugs, while religious teachings are also applied to rehabilitate the people. The executive urged the Thai government to seriously tackle narcotic problems in the Thai far South. Kulras Ananpongsuk, Deputy Director-General of the Land Development Department, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, revealed, meanwhile, that her ministry has implemented a project to revive deserted paddy fields in five southernmost Thai provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Satun and Songkhla, as her department has been allocated a budget of 93 million baht in the forthcoming 2014 fiscal year to revive about 15 square kilometers of paddy fields there. (TNA)