A roadside bomb killed three soldiers and seriously wounded two others in Tambon Mohmawee in Yarang district yesterday, while in Narathiwat's Rangae district a security unit and a Buddhist novice out receiving alms came under attack by gunmen using AK47 and M16 automatic rifles.

Police found a 30-metre electrical wire leading off a Yarang back road that they believe was used to trigger the bomb, which was estimated to be about 20 kilograms. The vehicle was overturned by the explosion, which left a crater in the road three metres wide and one metre deep. One soldier died at the scene while the other two died at the Yala Hospital.

Soldiers sealed off the road until bomb squads checked the area to ensure no more bombs were hidden nearby.

Concern over the militants' use of second bombs has prompted the army to publish 5,000 copies of a handbook to warn security officials on the ground to take extra precautions. The second-bomb tactic earlier this week blew off the left leg and left hand of the deputy commander of Narathiwat Provincial Police, Colonel Nopadol Puerksomon, who came through the critical stage yesterday.

The gunfight in Rangae district, meanwhile, lasted about five minutes until the militants retreated to a wooded area. Four soldiers were escorting the novice - one in front, two behind and one on a motorbike - at the time of the attack, which was carried out just 30 metres from an army outpost.

Separately, in Pattani's Mayo district, suspected insurgents torched the cafeteria of a public school in Tambon Kohchan, while in nearby Yarang district police quoted eyewitnesses as saying they had seen two young men torching a public telephone booth.

The attacks came one day after Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont began a one-day visit to the restive region, where he reiterated his policy of reconciliation with the Malay-speaking population.

In a rare admission, a senior Border Patrol Police officer, Colonel Sompong Kornkaen, said he was frustrated by the lack of cooperation from the villagers in Songkhla's Saba Yoi district, saying many appeared to be indifferent to the positive contribution of his men.

Sompong said he planned to pull out the 44-strong Border Patrol Police unit in Saba Yoi's Tambon Prea because of a lack of cooperation from local Muslims in pointing out suspected insurgents.

He criticised political and national leaders for overlooking the plight of the local residents, especially the 100-plus Buddhist families who had moved out of the district in fear.

During his visit to the region, Surayud also asked officials to explore the possibility of granting an amnesty to militants as part of a government strategy to restore peace in the Muslim-majority region. The region has been plagued by more than three years of almost daily killings that have claimed more than 2,000 lives.

Surayud said the goal was to draw the insurgents back into the country's "legal fold".

If approved, the amnesty would be the first time such a law had been implemented since the early 1980s, at the height of the Cold War, when the government granted a blanket amnesty to members of the Communist Party of Thailand in return for surrender.

Associate Professor Srisomphob Chitpiromsri from Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani said the situation was very different from the time the government fought the communists.

Any talk of drafting a new amnesty law for the insurgents would have to take into consideration a wide range of factors and implications, he said. "First, the government will have to get a better understanding of the motivation of the people they are fighting."

Abdul-aziz Tadae-in, head of the Young Muslim Association of Thailand, said he supported the idea wholeheartedly. "I am concerned, though, whether such a plan can be implemented, given the fact that the government policy of reconciliation has not manifested itself at the local level," he said.

Nimu Makaje, a leading Islamic cleric in Yala, said he also welcomed the idea of granting an amnesty but added that input from the local community was vital.

The Nation

Pattani