FAR SOUTH NEW MINISTER'S THOUGHTS, DAILY UNREST
Consideration will be given to setting up an autonomous area in the far South, using models adapted from China or Germany, as a means of redressing the violence in the region, Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung yesterday. ''I am looking for new solutions. The violence must be reduced,'' he said.
''I haven't decided on granting autonomy, but a communist nation like China allows Xinjiang to be an autonomous region with its own elections.
''Funds are allocated to the region and there is no fighting there.
This also happens in Germany, where they have their own budget and elections.
''I will see if any of the formulas being used in these two countries can be applied in the South,'' the new interior minister said.
Finding a solution to the unrest in the deep South was a priority of his government. He was also looking into ways of generating real unity among local administrators, soldiers and police in the region. Former prime minister Surayud Chulanont had said government officials there were disunited.
Mr Chalerm said his first steps would include talks with the governors of the five southern-most provinces, assistant national police chief Pol Lt-Gen Adul Saengsingkaew, chief of the southern police outposts in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces, and the director of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC).
He would use the information he obtained when discussing the issue with military leaders.
Mr Chalerm made it clear he was not planning to dissolve the SBPAC, as has been speculated, but would support its operation so that a lasting solution to the region's problems could be found.Citing his past experience, he insisted that he was a capable minister and especially suited for security affairs.
''I started security-related work when I was 25-26 years old. I used to work in investigation and crime suppression and handled important cases,'' the former police captain said.
He would rely on intelligence gathering and integrated strategies in his efforts to bring normalcy back to the troubled region.
In Yala, four border patrol police officemen were wounded in an ambush in Than To district yesterday afternoon. They were attacked while patrolling the Bannang Kajae-Ban Buathong Tai road.
They were taken to Yala Regional Hospital.
One of them was said to be in critical condition.
In Narathiwat, police yesterday arrested three men for possession of 3,260 methamphetamine pills, two 9mm pistols and 125 bullets in Bacho district.
They were identified as Masoray Hayeelording, 42, Aleeya Waehama, 48, and Afandee Madeng, 22.
Mr Masoray was a member of a volunteer defence force and a local singer, police said.
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