Anti-insurgent mission winds down
Soldiers on a special security mission will be phased out from the far South by 2027, according to the 4th Region Army.
The number of soldiers on the special mission — those deployed to counter insurgents — is being reduced every year and their number will be down to zero by 2027, said 4th Region Army commander Lt Gen Santi Sakuntanak.
By then, only soldiers in routine operations who are stationed in permanent locations will remain, he added.
In the meantime, the soldiers continue to play a vital part in reinforcing southern border security. The military will present a security management plan for the region to the new government once it takes office.
The unit was established after the insurgency flared up in January 2004 when militants overran the 4th Development Battalion at the Kromluang Narathiwat Ratchanakarin military camp in Narathiwat’s Cho Airong district, taking off with a large cache of firearms.
The theft preceded a wave of attacks and snowballed into a separatist movement seeking autonomy. State authorities have resorted to various strategies to campaign against violence, albeit without success.
Lt Gen Santi insisted the military was driven by a strong resolve to restore peace in the far South as it works to protect residents from the impacts of the unrest.
The soldiers operate on the principle of attending to the need of residents while also bringing development to local areas.
“I have full confidence that peace will return to the southern border provinces,” the commander said.
The security forces are looking into public events that could provoke people to rise up and call for separatism. Lt Gen Santi said his forces have spoken to event organisers and he was confident there will be no more such events.
At the same time, a probe continues into people who pulled the strings behind a recent university event where a mock referendum was held on separatism.
Kannavee Suebsang, secretary-general of the FAR Party, said the party has dismissed Hakim Pongtigor as party deputy secretary-general, and Yamaruddin Songsiri as party deputy spokesman, over calls at the university forum. The politicians joined the forum in Pattani in which participants were sounded out on the issue of whether an independent Muslim “Patani State” in the South should be established.
The party executives sacked the pair, in a decision signed by party leader, Pitipong Temcharoen, on June 12. The politicians were expelled on the grounds that they are unfit to hold party membership.
Mr Kannavee said that while the party respects its members’ right to free expression, it does not condone separatism — which is in violation of the constitution.
Members of Pelajar Bangsa, or the “national student movement”, which represents students from the three southernmost provinces, stirred controversy on June 7 when they simulated a public referendum on the separation of the deep South from the rest of the country during a seminar held at Prince of Songkla University’s Pattani campus.