Muslims seek a role in drawing up charter
A group of labour leaders submits a letter asking for improved working conditions and welfare to the Council for National Security at Army headquarters on Rajdamnoen Avenue yesterday.
|
|
|
A one-time Jemaah Islamiyah suspect and now senator-elect has asked the new prime minister to include Thai Muslims from the Malay-speaking South in the drafting of the constitution and law-making procedures.
Waemahadee Waedaoh said the moves would help in efforts to restore calm to the southern region where violence continues unabated. In the latest attacks yesterday, a deputy village headman was killed and two others injured. The Narathiwat Senate representative made his suggestions as expectations rose over General Surayud Chulanont's ability to tackle the many problems facing Thailand, in particular the southern insurgency. "To solve the problem in the South effectively, first the National Assembly must include Thai Muslims on a proportionate basis," Waemahadee said. He suggested a Muslim representative be included in the Council for National Security's panel searching for highly qualified people to draft the constitution. "We must allow the local people in the deep South to partake in the problem-solving process because they know what is going on and which direction to take in order to restore peace in the region," Waemahadee said. Furthermore, Surayud should decree the violence in the deep South as a national agenda item that needed to be solved immediately. "The new government must try its best to prevent further violent incidents from happening as well as find solutions to the problem," he said. Waemahadee said the government should use the suggestions by the National Reconciliation Commission as the guidelines to find solutions. Meanwhile, violence continued to rock the region as a deputy village headman, Korde Baga, was shot dead by two gunmen while riding home on his motorcycle in Thepha district of Songkhla. Police suspected Muslim militants were behind the attack but did not rule out a personal conflict as the motive. In Than To district of Yala, a female border patrol police officer Police Corporal Siriporn Sangkaharat, who is also a teacher at a local school, and her 13-year-old son Saknarin Sangkaharat were critically injured in a drive-by shooting. They were shot by two gunmen while riding their motorcycle home. The bullets missed Siriporn's right arm but penetrated her son's back. He was in a coma. In Bannang Sata district of Yala, a bomb hidden in a motorcycle went off next to a roadside food stall where five soldiers were having their lunch, but none was injured. More than 1,300 people have been killed since the violence re-emerged in January 2004.
|
