BANGKOK, March 22 (UPI) -- Thai villagers in Narathiwat's Rueso district have objected to the government's intention to withdraw soldiers.
Narathiwat is in the southeastern area of Thailand's Kra Isthmus, near the country's southern frontier with Malaysia. Since November 2004 the region has been roiled by a rising insurgency of the region's Muslim separatists, The Bangkok Post reported Tuesday.
Thailand is predominantly Buddhist but has a significant Muslim population in its southern provinces.
The Rueso district residents said that without army troops their lives would be imperiled by Muslim extremist insurgent attacks. About 300 villagers protested by establishing a presence near a makeshift outpost of soldiers from the army's 30th special unit based in the compound of the Wat Suantham temple in tambon Rueso.
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The soldiers recently received orders to withdraw to the Sri Sakhon district. Residents objected, saying that they got along well with the military presence and felt that the soldiers added to their sense of security.
Narathiwat Gov. Thanon Vetchakornkamont subsequently met the demonstrators and promised to relay their concerns to army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha and relevant agencies, after which the crowd dispersed.
Narathiwat, along with neighboring provinces Yala and Pattani, have been the focus of a Muslim insurgency for the last seven years, which Bangkok has been unable to quell. Muslim militant groups include the Mujahedeen Pattani Movement, the Pattani United Liberation Organization, the Pattani Islamic Mujahedeen Movement, the Mujahedeen Islamic Pattani Group, the National Revolution Front, the Pattani Liberation National Front, Jemaah Islamiyah and Runda Kumpulan Kecil.
Of these groups, Jemaah Islamiyah has attracted the most attention from Western intelligence agencies because its activities aren't limited to Thailand but spread across Southeast Asia, including Indonesia and Malaysia.
Earlier this month, the government conceded that violence was increasing and couldn't be solved in the near future.
Last year authorities in Bangkok were more optimistic, as the government of Abhisit Vejjajiva's Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya proclaimed a "sense of optimism," adding that he was confident of bringing peace to the region.
More than 4,400 people have been killed since the uprising began in 2004, when the regional heavy-handed approach by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra inflamed the three provinces' Muslims. The demands of the diverse insurgent groups range across the political spectrum, from increased local autonomy to a fully independent Muslim state implementing Shariah law.
Earlier this month, in the wake of a series of increasing bombing and gun attacks in the provinces National Security Council Secretary-General Tawin Pleansri acknowledged, "I concede that the violent unrest is increasing but our officials are determined to work to their utmost ability" to address the region's issues.
