Military and medical personnel take part in a drill in Yala yesterday to prepare for possible emergency, following a series of violent attacks in the southern border region.

He rejected an allegation that the government had blacklisted 90 per cent of around 1,000 overseas graduates. Only 10 per cent of them are under close surveillance to monitor any involvement in the killings that blight the predominantly Muslim region, the acting premier revealed.

Some 300 southern overseas graduates listened to Chidchai's call to discuss how they could participate in the government's effort to contain violence and boost development in the region.

"As the government has dissolved the Lower House, the most important task for me is the situation here. If the political trouble is over, we need to seriously discuss Islamic models of development that could be adapted for the region," he said.

"The situation is improving as nobody is spreading misunderstanding as was happening two years ago during the killing at Krue Se and the Tak Bai protest but independent militant cells remain active," Chidchai said.

Abdullohni Kahama, a member of Pattani's Islamic committee, who attended the meeting, said the government had ignored southern intellectuals. He blamed the Thai Rak Thai administration for not encouraging students to take degrees abroad.

Most foreign graduates at yesterday's meeting had made great efforts to study overseas and incurred considerable costs as a result, he said.

They often lived overseas in taxing conditions and returned home with no hope of using their knowledge in the region, Abdullohni said.

"All we can do here is teach in Islamic boarding schools and we're blacklisted by the government from other jobs on suspicion of breeding militants," he said.

Piyanart Srivalo

The Nation

Pattani