FORMER CPM MEMBERS GATHER IN HATYAI FOR REUNION

By D. Arul Rajoo

HATYAI, Nov 30 (Bernama) -- Hundreds of former members of the outlawed
Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) and peace negotiators gathered here Monday, to
mark the 20th anniversary of the historic signing of the Peace Accord between
CPM and the governments of Malaysia and Thailand.

The one-day event at the Lee Garden Hotel, the same venue where government
representatives from the two neighbouring countries signed the deal with CPM on
Dec 2, 1989 that ended the communist armed campaign, was also attended by former
CPM secretary-general Chin Peng, 85.

Also present were a number of former top CPM members who fought the guerilla
war in the jungles with Malaysian and Thai security forces until the peace
accord was signed in 1989.

According to an organising committee member, about 800 people were invited
for the event, including government officials and opposition lawmakers from both
Thailand and Malaysia.

He said the 21st Century Friendship Association of Malaysia, comprising
former members of CPM who had settled down in Malaysia after the peace accord,
organised the reunion.

"We have been organising annual gatherings of our former members in Malaysia
for many years. But this is the first time we are doing it in Hatyai," he said.

In fact, another member said Chin Peng, once a feared man in Malaysia where
thousands of people were killed during the bloody conflict, had told them that
this would be the last time such a gathering would take place here.

He said, among the resolutions being tabled at the meeting, was to urge the
Malaysian Government to allow the remaining former CPM members to return to
Malaysia and facilitate the issuance of identity cards to them.

Under the peace accord, 339 former CPM members returned in 13 groups to
Malaysia from the Thai-Malaysia borders from between August 1991 and December
1992, while some settled down at several peace villages established by the Thai
government in Yala province.
-- BERNAMA