OPINION

South may stay the loneliest planet of all

News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 05/05/2012

» It is better late, proverbially speaking, than never. Nine months after she won the election to become prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra last Sunday visited the deep South for the first time since she took office. Surrounding her at a Pattani barracks - for the well-dressed dignitaries wouldn't be so foolhardy as to step out of the fenced quarters - were high-profile ministers and generals. The visit was on April 29, a day after the 8th anniversary of the harrowing siege of the Krue Se mosque, on April 28, 2004, in which soldiers killed 108 people and left dozens more widowed and orphaned in multiple places including Saba Yoi district in Songkhla and Krong Penang district in Pattani. At Krue Se alone, 32 people were killed.