Govt uses helicopter to distribute leaflets in Yala
Security authorities will use helicopters to distribute leaflets in some districts of Yala province in a bid to build up more understanding with local villagers, a senior security official said Thursday.
About 2,000 leaflets would be dropped in Bannangsata, Yaha and Than Tho districts very soon, Maj Gen Chamlong Kunsong, secretary general of Southern Border Provinces Peace Building Command, said.
The move is aimed at restoring confidence over the government among the villagers after the insurgents have intensified their moves by faking shootings and crimes and then putting the blames on the authorities.
In many occasions, the militants would dress like soldiers to create misunderstanding that the soldiers shot or assaulted people, he said.
Once the villagers believed the insurgents, they would mastermind violence and protests of the villagers and demanded removal of the security officials from the areas.
Chamlong said the insurgents will do by all means to make sure that confrontation between the authorities and the villagers happened.
The leaflets that will be in Thai and Malay will explain the authorities' campaigns to end the southern violence and ask the villagers to be restraint to the militants' propaganda. They would be asked to keep close watch on strangers in their villages.
"At present, we will do everything to control the situations and solve the problems by peaceful means," the general said.
Earlier some 200 villagers paraded to district office Yala's Than Tho district a body of a teenage villager whom they claimed was shot dead by policeaffiliated village security staff.
They briefly surrounded the office and demanded officials to investigate into the death of Mayoe Kalor.
After a tense negotiation, they cancelled their protest after police promised to investigate into the matter and report the results to them as soon as possible.
However when the protesters paraded the body to a mosque nearby, some of them threw stones and sticks into the houses and shops along their way.
Some teenage protesters stopped a vehicle of a government agency driving past them and tried to attack officials in the car. The officials then sought help from soldiers patrolling near the incident. The soldiers rushed the scene and fired about 20 warning shots which were enough to disperse the protesters.
The Nation
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