Thailand ready to talk with separatists

[chuckwoww]

 

Thailand ready to talk with separatists

 

Monday 24 May 2004, 8:26 Makka Time, 5:26 GMT

 

Thailand says it is ready to hold peace talks with the leader of a separatist organisation after he reportedly gave up a demand for an autonomous homeland in the country's Muslim south.

 

Defence Minister Chetta Thanajaro told reporters on Monday the government had already made "official-level contact" with Wan Kadir Che Man, the leader of Bersatu, an umbrella organisation of three separatist groups.

 

"If the leader wishes to talk, we are ready to talk. Don't forget that he is a Thai national," Chetta said.

 

Meanwhile, Wan Kadir was quoted by The Nation newspaper as saying he was willing to give up a century-old demand for a separate homeland in the south, the only Muslim-majority area in the predominantly Buddhist Thailand.

 

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8CBF502A-62DC-4653-913F-D770565CBAAE.htm

[Guest]

as nobody really knows who is behind the violence that might be rather fruitless amd just a publicity stunt to justify further violence if those talks don't have any effect.

the leader of that organisation has already said that he has no authority over the militants, and is just an umbrella organisation.

nobody for example knows if it still is a purely local thing, or if, and to what extent, the JI is involved.

 

it's like in kashmir, when the indian government had talks with the JKLF while everybody in the field knew already that the JKLF was by that time irrelavant and the action has been taken over by the different international jihad groups.

 

lets hope for the best, but i fear that it is too late.