'Peace process' will unravel as truth emerges

Thai authorities, in their haste to help Thaksin Shinawatra, have botched the latest attempt to the end the insurgency in the deep South

We have to wonder why the Thai authorities didn't ask Hasan Taib - the self-proclaimed "liaison" for the separatist Barisan Revolusi Nasional-Coordinate (BRN-C) - to prove that he has command and control of Malay-Muslim insurgents on the ground before they signed the February 28 "peace agreement" with him?

National Security Council chief Lieutenant General Paradon Pattanatabut said Hasan has until the next scheduled meeting, on June 13, to demonstrate that he has influence over the militants in the three southernmost provinces. But he did not go as far as saying that, otherwise, the peace process would come to an end.

Paradon was responding to Hasan's five demands - the release of all prisoners convicted of security- and insurgency-related charges; elevating the Malaysian government's status from "facilitator" to "mediator"; permission for international NGOs, Asean members and the Organisation of Islamic Conference to join the process; and recognising the BRN-C as a "liberation" organisation, not a "separatist" group.

Sources in various separatist organisations - including BRN-C cadres who call Hasan and his associates opportunists and a "Thai creation" - have said the "peace agreement" was doomed to fail from the beginning. Hasanm they point our, does not have the blessing of the real BRN-C or other long-standing separatist groups.

Moreover, sources in the Thai government say the thinking behind this peace plan came from a small number of people whose priority is to whitewash former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the current administration headed by his sister Yingluck.

The Army, the Foreign Ministry and just about every security and intelligence agency were caught off guard by the peace plan. They were only informed of it days before the February 28 signing.

Keep in mind that Thaksin's roughshod handling of the insurgency in the deep South was one of the reasons the coup-makers decided to oust him in September 2006. Now Yingluck has been travelling abroad talking about her administration's good heart for extending an olive branch to the insurgents.

According to BRN-C sources not affiliated with Hasan's camp as well as other long-standing separatist groups, the five demands are designed to derail the talks initiated on February 28. The peace agreement was never genuine, they say, because Hasan was forced into signing it by the Malaysian authorities - at the insistence of Thaksin's camp.

Certainly there are other ways to derail the process, such as Hasan admitting that the entire thing is a set-up to save Thaksin's hide.

But what would the consequences be if Hasan were to say that outright? One can only imagine the furore. So the logical thing to do was to demand agreement to these five points, knowing that the Thai authorities could never go along with them for legal and political reasons.

"Team Thaksin" - which is made up of Paradon, the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre secretary-general, Police Colonel Thawee Sodsong, and a number of trusted politicians, including those from the government's Wadah faction - naively thought the Pheu Thai strategy designed to save Thaksin's skin could also bring peace to the deep South.

Perhaps the promise of rewards awaiting them was so overwhelming that they were unable to resist the temptation to set up this over-optimistic "peace process".

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Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2013/05/03/peace-process-will-unravel-as-truth-emerges/