PM:Peace is being restored in Thai far South

BANGKOK, December 26 (TNA) - Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha says that the government is implementing a long-term strategy to restore and sustain peace in the Thai far South. Prime Minister General Prayut, who is leading his working team to visit the southern Thai region on Friday, told southerners that, based on the 2015-2020 strategy, there must not be war weapons in the Thai deep South, where bloody violence has continued since early 2004, as Thailand, like other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), is preparing for the formation of the ASEAN Community (AC) by the end of 2015. According to the prime minister, peace must prevail in the southernmost Thai region with no fighting between insurgents and state security forces and negotiations must be held to find a solution so that development plans can be made under the 2015-2020 strategy, aimed to promote and sustain national stability with wealthy people. The prime minister insisted that it is time for Thailand to move forward, after national development has been considerably stalled, noting what the government is doing is to create peace in the Thai far South with no more war weapons, as the country is preparing for the AC. The prime minister, who is visiting the Thai South for the first time after taking his office in September 2014, was also briefed on the ongoing flooding in many areas over the past week, including Tak Bai District in the southernmost Narathiwat Province, where more than 4,400 households have been affected, as over 170 houses have been damaged and nearly 13,200 rai of farmlands have been under floodwater, considered the worst flooding situation in Tak Bai over the past 47 years. In response, the prime minister stressed his government is prepared to assist the flood victims in the Thai South in both short and long-terms. Touching on current falling rubber prices, the prime minister urged rubber planters not to make any movement, as his government has already mapped out measures to assist them, including a plan to set up new six or seven large-sized rubber-processing plants, along with more rubber factories to be opened in new economic special zones in border areas to boost rubber value. The Thai premier is scheduled to later preside over a memorial service in Phang-nga Province for those killed in a great tsunami disaster on December 26, 2004. (TNA)