Army’s tighter grip threatens peace initiative in far South

Don Pathan
Special to The Nation
March 10, 2018

Yala

Concern is growing that the military’s eagerness to please bosses in Bangkok could lead to collapse of safety zone project

The tension between Internal Security Operation Command (Isoc) Region 4 and civic leaders working on the conflict in Thailand’s far South has reached an unprecedented height as neither side shows signs of backing down. 

A week ago, 38 civil society organisations (CSOs) and 22 individual academics and activists signed a petition calling on Isoc Region 4 Command to stop intimidating the media and human rights defenders, and to be realistic about the challenges people in the region face. Signatories pointed to alleged harassment of local human rights activist Ismail Teh, who won an eight-year legal battle when a Thai court ordered the government to compensate him financially for the beating inflicted upon him while he was in detention.

Just weeks ago, 4th Army commander Lt-General Piyawat Nakwanich filed defamation charges against Ismail for talking to the media about his case.  Late last month, Aiman Hadeng, president of Justice of Peace Network, a local CSO made up of former detainees, was held incommunicado without charges for a week.  Other similar incidents over the past few weeks include the raid of a private Islamic school in Pattani’s Nong Chik district that turned up nothing incriminating and the detention of 14 youths camping on a Yala’s hilltop popular among local tourists. The March 2 press statement was signed by both Muslims and Thai Buddhist academics and CSO leaders who are fed up with what they say amounts to a campaign of intimidation from the military.

These activists accuse the Fourth Army Area Command, the engine behind Isoc Region 4, of ignoring the reality on the ground and refusing to address the root cause of the conflict. A government source in Bangkok who monitors the conflict in the far South said concern is growing that Lt-General Piyawat’s activities could drive a bigger wedge between the state and a local Malay population which the Army is supposed to be winning over.

There is also concern that his heavy-handedness could affect the ongoing peace dialogue between the central government and MARA Patani, an umbrella organisation made up of six long-standing Patani Malay separatist movements. Thailand’s engagement with MARA Patani has reached an important juncture that includes the implementation of a Safety Zone, a pilot project in which the two sides will designate a district in the far South where a period of ceasefire will be observed. 

The Thai government and MARA Patani will also set up a “Safe House” where representatives from both sides can jointly monitor the security situation in the Safety Zone and take up issues raised by the local residents.  The designated district is set to be announced by May, once technical teams from the two sides have ironed out the details of a project that had been on the table for more than two years.

Bangkok and MARA Patani were able to push for implementation only after the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), the group that controls virtually all of the insurgent combatants but is not taking part in peace negotiations, agreed not to sabotage the initiative. In 2013, alleged extrajudicial and “target” killings by Thai forces came into focus when a BRN liaison, Hasan Taib, raised the issue at a meeting with Thai representatives in the peace talks. Negotiations at the time were also complicated when local activists marched to the Malaysian Consulate in Songkhla to raise the same case and called on Kuala Lumpur, in its capacity as talks facilitator, to intervene and end alleged torture and assassination of former detainees. Now, there is growing concern that Piyawat’s aggressive tactics in the South could see the BRN wash its hands of (or place severe limitations on) the Safety Zone project. 

Rebel sources said they were extremely upset at Piyawat’s “blind” sweep operation in Bannang Sata, Yala, in early January, during which government troops netted about 50 local residents for detention. The round-up was in response to an arson attack on a passenger bus by a local militant cell in mid-December 2017. A Thai government security official said Piyawat was out to impress his superiors in Bangkok with his heavy-handed tactics while giving no consideration to the consequences. 

But senior government officials and the top brass don’t seem to mind the aggression, while the predominantly Buddhist Thai general public outside of this restive region remains largely indifferent to the plight of the Patani Malays. For many, the very idea of sitting at the same table with Patani Malay movements as equals is unpalatable. “In the eyes of the military leaders, they [Patani Malay separatist movements] will always be criminals,” said the Thai government source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. In this line of thinking, said the source, Piaywat’s questionable tactics on the ground will generate little opposition among the top brass in Bangkok, who are running the show and will continue to do so until the mandate is eventually handed back to the Thai people.

 Don Pathan is a founding member of the Patani Forum (www.pataniforum.com), a civil society organisation dedicated to critical discussion on the conflict in Thailand’s far South. He is based in Yala, one of the three southernmost provinces in this historically contested region known as Patani.TagsArmyfar SouthpeaceinitiativeArmy’s tighterBangkok

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