The government's handling of these outstanding cases and a few prominent others, such as the forced disappearance of Muslim human rights lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit and the Krue Se mosque attack, has been viewed with extreme mistrust and suspicion by local Muslims in general that they are denied basic justice. In the Tak Bai case, the court ruled that the victims died of suffocation and none of the military officers charged were held accountable
The last time Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva visited the violence-plagued far South was on December 9, 2009 when he was accompanied by his visiting Malaysian counterpart, Najib Razak. But the working trip was marred by a spate of bombings and shootings believed to be perpetrated by radical militants, leaving two officials and one female civilian dead and many more injured.
Despite the violence, the two prime ministers managed to preside over the opening of a friendship bridge in Narathiwat and to visit a village of widows, also in the same province. It was, however, very disappointing that Mr Abhisit decided to cut short the trip; he flew back to Bangkok that afternoon in order to be able to attend the official opening of the SEA Games in Vientiane in the evening, leaving Mr Najib to be taken care of by Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban for the rest of the planned itinerary.
For seasoned observers, Mr Abhisit's last visit to the region, specifically Narathiwat, could hardly be described as an achievement that would contribute to the improvement of the situation in the far South. If he is not satisfied with the performance of authorities concerned in their handling of the situation down there, as he recently admitted, then, he too might be partly held accountable for their failure, in his capacity as the government leader.
As PM Abhisit is due to visit the restive region today, his third since he assumed the premiership 13 months ago, he should have the grasp of the situation down there, especially with the key outstanding issues perceived by the ethnic Malay Muslims as the main stumbling blocks to the efforts for trust and confidence building between local Muslims and state officials. At least, he should have some answers for the locals regarding a few outstanding prominent cases, namely the attack on the Al Furagon Mosque in Cho Airong district of Narathiwat in the middle of last year which left 10 worshippers dead and 12 injured, and the Tak Bai massacre in which more than 80 Muslim protesters died of suffocation while being trucked to an army camp in Narathiwat.
The government's handling of these outstanding cases and a few prominent others, such as the forced disappearance of Muslim human rights lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit and the Krue Se mosque attack, has been viewed with extreme mistrust and suspicion by local Muslims in general that they are denied basic justice. In the Tak Bai case, the court ruled that the victims died of suffocation and none of the military officers charged were held accountable. And as for the Al Furagon attack, the perpetrators remain at large although warrants have been issued for their arrest.
On top of the cases where justice has yet to be delivered, the government's plan to let non-military officials take over from the military all the development projects under the Thai Khem Khaeng programme - in line with the policy to apply political means instead of military means to resolve the southern unrest - appears to have been aborted by the military. All the development projects now have to be endorsed by a centre directly supervised by the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc).
PM Abhisit's visit today will be pointless and fruitless like his previous two visits unless he earnestly addresses the problem of perceived injustice due to the outstanding cases. Even if any progress in the cases fails to lead to a decline of violence, it will greatly help restore the people's trust in government, which is an important factor in the war against insurgency in the deep South.
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