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The king agreed that Mahathir should play a role in bringing the two sides together. |
BANGKOK — Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej has given his backing to talks held by former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad with rebel leaders in Muslim-majority southern Thailand under a peace drive to stabilize the restive region, Mahathir's son revealed Tuesday, October 10.
Mukhriz Mahathir told Reuters in exclusive statements that former Thai prime minister Anand Panyarachun, who was appointed by ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra as head of a National Reconciliation Commission, first approached his father for help.
"Later this request was endorsed by the King in an audience my father had with the King in November last year," Mukhriz said.
"It was at that meeting that the King agreed with that Dr. Mahathir should play a role in bringing the two sides together," he added.
Mukhriz said the peace talks — sponsored by Mahathir's non-governmental Perdana Global Peace Organisation — were held with more than 50 senior members of various rebel groups in the south, and stretched from the middle of last year to August this year.
The groups represented were all separatist groups active in the 1970s and 1980s in the three southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, an independent sultanate until annexed by overwhelmingly Buddhist Thailand a century ago.
To this day, 80 percent of the population in the jungle-clad region are Muslim and speak Malay as a first language.
Mukhriz listed them as Bersatu, an umbrella grouping, the Pattani United Liberation Organisation, the Barasi Revolusi Nasional (BRN), or National Revolutionary Front in Malay, and the Gerakan Mujahideen Islam Pattani, or Pattani Islamic Mujahideen Movement.
The talks were held on Malaysia's northwestern island of Langkawi, as well as in the nation's administrative capital, Putrajaya, he said.
No Secession
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| "We discovered that it was not secession they wanted, but really more attention by the Thai government for the south," said Mukhriz. |
Mukhriz said the talks were aimed to understand what really are their grievances and grouses and what they want from the Thai government.
"We discovered that it was not secession they wanted, but really more attention by the Thai government for the south, in particular economic development and education," he said.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) has said the government's failure to address Muslim injustices, like unemployment and discrimination, and open a genuine dialogue with Muslim leaders in the south is the real reason behind unrest in the country.
Mukhriz said Perdana had passed its findings to General Vaipot Srinual, now head of Thailand's National Intelligence Agency following a September 19 coup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Vaipot had subsequently made contact with the same people, Mukhriz said.
Mukhriz said Thaksin's overthrow could make a real difference to a simmering decades-old problem.
"The statements coming out of the Thai government have been very encouraging, contrasting to what Thaksin's administration was saying particularly in the last four or five months before his downfall," Mukhriz said.
Coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin opposed the ousted government's heavy-handed policies in the south and suggested talks to solve the conflict.
New Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont vowed after taking the oath on October 2 to end unrest in the Muslim-majority south and heal the nation's political divisions within one year.
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