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PATTANI, Thailand: Thailand rejected on Friday a US
offer of military assistance to help quell an insurgency in the
country’s Muslim-majority south, saying the unrest was an internal
matter.
The United States, a close ally
of Thailand, has reportedly offered to help the kingdom rein in the
unrest, which has killed more than 2,100 people since January 2004.
“It’s not necessary. This is
our own internal problem which we have to solve among ourselves,”
the kingdom’s army-installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont told
reporters in the insurgency-torn south.
The violence has escalated since
Surayud, a former general, took office after a September military
coup (whose leader is a Muslim general), despite a series of peace
efforts, including an apology to Muslims for past abuses.
Surayud was making a one-day trip
Friday to the troubled south in an effort to boost the morale of
security officers and see relatives of victims in the unrest.
“This is the problem where all
Thais need to cooperate and participate in,” Surayud said of the
conflict.
His comments also followed a
Human Rights Watch report that argued the military-backed government
has stepped up its use of militias in a bid to solve the
long-running insurgency, putting civilians at greater risk of
violence.
Surayud said his government would
act forcefully against militants but insisted that it would not
employ “any illegal methods” in battling the insurgency.
The three Muslim-majority
provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani were once an autonomous
sultanate, until the region was annexed by mainly Buddhist Thailand
a century ago. Separatist unrest has erupted periodically ever
since.
--AFP
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