Brunei can assist peace efforts in southern Thailand

LIMBARUH HIJAU OCTOBER 29, 2006: NDP will support any initiative by the Government of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Negara Brunei Darussalam to assist Bangkok in dealing with the situation in southern Thailand.

The new Government headed by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont was formed with the blessing of King Bumibhol Adulyadej following a coup led by General Sondhi Boonyaratglin last 19th September to oust Thanksin Shinawatra from office.

The coup shocked the region and generated mix reactions from around the world.

Media reports on the post-coup government speculated that there is now hope to revive the stalled peace efforts in the mainly Muslim southern Thailand where more than 1,700 people have been killed in nearly three years of separatist violence.

During the infamous incident in the month of Ramadan 2004 in the town of Tak Bai soldiers and police shot dead six people to disperse a crowd protesting and demanding the release o€f Muslim villagers they said had been arrested wrongly.

A further 78 were crushed or suffocated to death after being stacked "like logs", in the words of one survivor, in the back of army trucks and transported to a nearby military camp.

Since his appointment after a Sept. 19 bloodless coup against Thaksin, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont has promised to eschew violence in a bid to bring peace to the mainly Malay region, an independent sultanate until annexed by Bangkok a century ago.

So far Malaysia and Singapore is responding to the current situation by offering assistance to facilitate efforts to end the conflict in the Muslim-dominated southernmost provinces of Thailand.

In this context, NDP strongly believes that Brunei too could contribute to the efforts to bring stability and peace to the restive southern region of Thailand.

Malai Hassan Othman, the Head of International Relations and Peace Committee of NDP said Brunei should seize this opportunity and NDP, in line with its vision for global peace and security, would not hesitate to support such initiative should the Government of His Majesty the Sultan decided to take part.

He said Brunei has the potential to play mediatory role and he believed that such initiative would be most welcome by all parties considering the respectable position of His Majesty in the region and in he international arena.

Furthermore, he said, Brunei is widely seen as having neutral foreign policy. Another advantage for Brunei is, its widely-known moderate Islamic approach that would make all parties comfortable to address the issue with Brunei, he added,