Showing 41 - 50 of 58
Dress the Tak Bai wound
News, Editorial, Published on 16/10/2017
» The 13th anniversary of the Tak Bai "incident" is coming next week. Authorities in the South claim to be worried that insurgents might mark that shameful event with terrorist attacks. That is a clear and present danger, but the people who should be most worried have so far stayed silent and perhaps oblivious. The military government and the army have the power to take away the resentment and motive for violence, but once again have chosen not to act.
Deaths sully army image
News, Editorial, Published on 26/08/2017
» Another young conscript has died in mysterious circumstances. This time the incident took place at a military base in Surat Thani.
Patrols watch porous border
News, Editorial, Published on 07/06/2017
» The move by the 15th Infantry Division to step up patrols along the Malaysian border is well taken. The army began the new security steps more than three weeks ago. The patrols were a direct response to an upsurge in arms smuggling. Both Malaysian and Thai authorities have recently apprehended a number of men carrying weapons across the border. Since the trade almost certainly is linked to the insurgency in the deep South, serious steps are necessary to try to stop it.
Police chief owes us an explanation
News, Editorial, Published on 14/05/2017
» While anyone who launched the bomb blasts targeting civilians at a Big C Supercenter in Pattani province that resulted in at least 61 injuries last Tuesday must be condemned, security officers have to be held responsible over what seemed to be their lax operations.
Isoc showing the way
News, Editorial, Published on 10/03/2017
» Finally, the military made the right decision this week to correct a misguided move. The Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) deserves praise for its withdrawal of defamation lawsuits against three human rights activists who authored a report on the torture and ill-treatment of security officers in the South, and agreed to work with them to probe the allegations.
No hope for separatism
News, Editorial, Published on 06/01/2017
» The latest statistics and statements from the deep South paint a depressing portrait of that restive region. While the military regime places the low-intensity war among its top security problems, it has actually stacked more layers of stultifying bureaucracy on the debilitating violence, now in its 14th year. Nor was there even a shred of optimism from the army commander's message for the new year, saying he hopes to tame some of the violence within a few years.
Don't let panic seize the day
News, Editorial, Published on 05/11/2016
» The government must take care to maintain a balance between keeping the public adequately informed in the face of clear and present danger and ensuring they are not engulfed in a state of panic.
The South's deep pain
News, Editorial, Published on 01/11/2016
» It is time for the military regime to admit its deep and tragic failings in the deep South. Most notably, it must be acknowledged that nearly 12 years of counter-insurgency strategy by the Royal Thai Armed Forces have failed, abysmally, to halt the killings or advance to a peace accord.
Agonising blow to peace
News, Editorial, Published on 09/09/2016
» A heartbreaking incident took place on Tuesday in Narathiwat when a motorcycle bomb went off at around school time, killing a five-year old girl along with her father and a street vendor.
An appeal for harmony
News, Editorial, Published on 30/08/2016
» When Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha promised two years ago to make frequent and important use of his Section 44 powers under the interim charter, he wasn't joking. He stunned Bangkok and MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra last week with an order suspending the governor from work. And he signed a second order under Section 44 that is far more sensitive. The order to address misunderstandings on the new constitution's clauses on religion could see matters worsen before they improve.