Their Majesties ‘gravely concerned’

Published on November 06, 2005 - PM vows to step up terrorist arrests. Their Majesties the King and Queen have expressed concern about the violence in the South and wish peace be restored as soon as possible, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday. “Whenever I am granted an audience, HM the King asks about the situation in the southern provinces. The King wishes the situation to return to normal.

HM the Queen also has spent time in the South and has done a lot of work to help,” Thaksin said in his weekly radio programme.

He vowed to intensify the hunt for Islamic insurgents, saying they brainwashed young Muslims into launching attacks.

“From now on, the proactive plan to arrest insurgents will become more and more serious.”

The militants give young Muslims a 10-day course of mental and physical training so they can carry out bombings and shootings, he said.

“They indoctrinate these kids with the idea that we have stolen their land. But this is Thai territory, and these people are Thais.”

Thaksin will travel to Narathiwat today and chair a krathin ceremony tomorrow.

Violence continued unabated yesterday as three villagers were shot dead by suspected Islamic militants in two separate attacks.

Dee Thonglert and his brother Somkit Thonglert were shot dead by suspected militants who followed them by motorcycle from their plantation in Narathiwat’s Joh I Rong district. In an earlier attack, Muslim villager Leeya Samukama, 27, was killed in an ambush late on Friday in Narathiwat, police said.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon met Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was passing through Bangkok. Kantathi quoted Saleh as saying he understood the situation in the South, and that it had nothing to do with religion and that the problems were internal.

Saleh chaired a June meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, with which Thailand engaged in a war of words.