October 25, 2013 marks the 9th anniversary of the Tak Bai incident in Narathiwat in which 85 Malay Muslims died, 78 of them of suffocation after they were stacked on top of one another on trucks for five hours ride to the Ingkayuth army camp in Pattani.
Thongchai "Bird" McIntyre’s song, Noei Mai? (Tired?), appears to fit the condition of the peace talks between the government and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional separatist group which are marred with obstacles
"I don’t know what to say. It pains my heart. You know if the other side (the separatists) come to me and ask me to sow some spikes on the road or fell a tree to block a road, I will do it unhesitantly."
The new round of peace talk between the government and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) separatist group looks likely to be postponed to after the 9th anniversary of the Tak Bai incident on October 25 from the tentatively scheduled October 20.
The recent surge of violence in the deep South can be attributable to three factors, according to informed security sources.
The five demands put forward to the government by the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) separatist group are just "old wine in a new bottle" as they are the same demands raised by Haji Sulong, the spiritual leader of southern Malay Muslims with the government of Luang Thamrong more than six decades ago.
The Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) has responded to the five demands of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) separatist group.
The ongoing peace talks between the government and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) separatist group appear to hit the snag due to conflicts within the BRN and Pattani United Liberation Organisation (PULO) which also wants to join the talks.
Peace talks between the government and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) may hit the snag as the army is adamantly against the separatist group’s demand for a special administrative zone for the far South.
The 38-page English-language document of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) contains not just the five key demands that are already well known but also several other interesting sub-demands and conditions some of which require parliamentary approval.