No military solution for Thai south crisis

THAI Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday his government was conducting a comprehensive review of the way the conflict in the country's south was being handled, and promising a new direction to achieve peace.

A five-year-old conflict in Thailand's southernmost region has resulted in the loss of almost 3,300 lives and cost the state an estimated 109 billion baht ($4.5 billion).

In a January report, Amnesty International accused Thai security forces in the mostly Muslim provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, Songkhla, and Yala of systematically engaging in torture, and said at least four people had died because of mistreatment in custody.

Amnesty said people were beaten, burnt with candles, buried up to their necks in the ground, subjected to electric shocks and exposed to intense heat or cold.

Abhisit, speaking at the secretariat of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations in Jakarta, said he had seen the report and the promised that the allegations were being seriously investigated.

He also said the government had ordered a review of various laws applied in the provinces and that an emergency decree in force during the past four years would not be automatically extended in April.

The army chief has also accepted as a matter of policy to investigate reports of military abuses and punish officers responsible, the prime minister said.

"I think all the changes we have seen over the last couple of months will set a clear new direction in the way we handle the southern situation, which I believe is the right direction in trying to solve the problem in a sustainable manner," Abhisit said during a two-day visit to Muslim-majority Indonesia.

"I don't pretend it's easy. I don't pretend it's going to take a short time," he said.

Abhisit said the problems in the south could not be solved by military force alone but required a "complete policy package" addressing issues such as economic development, education and culture.

He said the government would seek input from local residents on how martial law, the emergency decree and a new national security law had been applied. DPA