Top security authorities visit Thai deep South

PATTANI, THAILAND, October 3 (TNA) - A team of top security authorities, led by Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan, is visiting the Thai far South to present the new government's policies and solutions to the violence-plagued region. Accompanied by new Army Chief General Udomdej Sitabutr and new National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Anusit Kunakorn, General Prawit is scheduled to first attend a meeting with high-ranking army officers at Sirindhorn Army Camp in Pattani Province's Yarang District, before proceeding to inspect military operations in nearby Yala Province. Genera Prawit told journalists before his departure from Bangkok on Friday morning that attempted solutions to end unrest in the Thai deep South are in line with Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha's orders, under which General Udomdej, in his capacity as Deputy Director of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), is tasked with supervising military operations in the troubled southern border region. Touching on the appointment of a Thai government team to negotiate with representatives of insurgent groups in the Thai far South, aimed at ending violent incidents mostly taking place in the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat since January 2004, the deputy prime minister said that the Thai Cabinet, the NSC and the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC) will first discuss and decide whether the chief of the government's negotiation team should be a military officer or an NSC official and the prime minister will then make the final decision. (TNA)