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Published on November 6, 2007

Fourth Army Area commander Lt-General Viroj Buracha-roon yesterday said he would allow some of the 277 suspected insurgents that he had banned from returning to their homes in the deep South for six months to do so, but not those who had launched a formal complaint against him.

The move is the latest round in an escalating battle between Viroj and non-governmental organisations that was sparked by his announcement of the ban on July 22. He acknowledged at the time that there was insufficient evidence to take the suspects to court.

Some of the 277, as well as a number of human-rights groups, have lobbied both the government and the court to take up Viroj's decision, accusing him of overstepping his authority.

Viroj contended he could make such decisions under the emergency law imposed in the region.

A number of the 277 joined the Army-sponsored four-month "job training" camps, conducted at military bases in the upper South, in hopes that they would be permitted to return home afterwards.

One of the lawyers involved in the case, Thanu Ekchote, criticised Viroj's statement yesterday and questioned the logic of him deciding who could return home and who could not. He also blasted the Army's training camps. Critics have said the participants are coerced into attending.

Last Tuesday, the courts ruled that the Army's actions in sending the residents to the camps may have not been unlawful, but said the nearly 400 men taking part could return home if they wished.

The ruling proved to be humiliating to the Army, as the entire group decided to return home immediately.

About 180 out of the 400 are taking refuge in a central mosque in Surat Thani, according to Pornpen Khongkachornkiet, a member of the Working Group on Justice for Peace and a human-rights advocate working on the deep South.

Pornpen said three of the men in the mosque had been arrested and would be tried in Yala and Pattani courts this week.

Thanu was part of the legal team that lobbied the court to release the residents who had been sent on the training scheme. Human-rights groups and lawyers representing them said the residents, who the authorities said showed a tendency to join the insurgency, had been coerced into joining.

Thanu said both initiatives - the so-called job training and prohibiting the 277 residents from returning to their homes - went against the stated policy of reconciliation, as they would further polarise the community.

Speaking to the media yesterday, Colonel Acra Thiproj, spokesman for the Internal Security Operation Command - Fourth Area, defended the two projects and blasted critics for overlooking the safety of the local people.

Acra said the actions of the activists and the lawyers who filed complaints with the courts were politically motivated, but did not say who would stand to benefit.

The Nation