Thailand Won’t Let Southern Rebels Sway Peace Talks Through Violence: Chief Negotiator

Thailand’s government will not negotiate with southern insurgents who use violence to press it into accepting their demands, the chief Thai negotiator in peace talks with Deep South rebels said Friday.

Gen. Aksara Kerdpol was reacting to a BBC Thai news report that quoted a Barisan Revolusi Nasional insurgent as saying that BRN would keep such pressure up to force Bangkok to agree to its terms.

“There are many extreme groups. We won’t talk with these kinds of groups that create violence to pressure the government to accept their terms and conditions,” Aksara told BenarNews in a phone interview.

For more than two years, Aksara has headed the Thai military government’s delegation in ongoing talks in Kuala Lumpur with various rebel groups represented by a panel known as MARA Patani, and that have been facilitated by Malaysia.

“Solving Deep South problems needs the comprehensive implementation of strategy, operations and tactics. The peace talks are the nation’s strategy,” Aksara said. “The idea is to denounce ‘terrorism’ by using peaceful solutions via peace talks.”

BRN, the most powerful of the rebel groups in Thailand’s troubled southern border region, is represented on the panel, but a hardline faction has repeatedly denounced the current peace efforts.