Yala – Public cooperation is being sought during the upcoming Chinese New Year celebration to ensure security in the southern border provinces.
Fourth Region Army Commander Lt. Gen. Viroj Buacharoon chaired a special meeting on Sunday in the southern province of Yala. In addition to security officials, business owners in Yala provincial seat also attended the meeting.
Top on the agenda was the promotion of better cooperation between public and private sectors in ensuring security in the violence-plagued region.
Public cooperation had proved efficient in helping reduce violent incidents in the restive South, according to Pol. Lt. Gen. Adul Saengsingkaew, assistant national police chief and also police head for Yala.
Pol. Lt. Gen. Adul said officials were able to smash the major militant Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) group, reducing its offensive capability to smaller attacks against government forces.
So far, an insurgent was sentenced to death, 18 to life imprisonment and 40 others to terms of less than 50 years each, said Pol. Lt. Gen. Adul.
Earlier on Sunday, combined government forces meanwhile searched a village in Narathiwat province and apprehended a man suspected of being an insurgent group leader.
More than 200 police and army personnel searched the village in Sungai Kolok district at about 5 am and arrested 31 year old Jakariya Ali who was wanted by authorities in relation to several cases of violence in the restive South. They also seized documents and computers showing maps and information concerning the `brainwashing` of youths into joining the insurgency.
Mr. Jakariya was being detained for further interrogation at an army base in nearby Pattani province.
About 2,800 people have been killed by insurgents in the three troubled southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat in the renewed violence which erupted in January 2004.
Source: enews.mcot.net (4 Februari 2008)
