Brass visit war zone

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont yesterday announced plans to head to the deep South again, as bomb attacks left five soldiers and six civilians wounded while Council for National Security chairman Sonthi Boonyaratkalin was touring the restive region.

Gen Surayud said he would make a fresh visit to the troubled region after Gen Sonthi returns to Bangkok.

According to the prime minister, Gen Sonthi, who is also the army chief and director of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), was visiting the deep South to find out first-hand problems faced by security authorities, especially delays in equipment supplies.

Asked by reporters about how many schoolchildren would have to be relocated from schools in high-risk areas in the deep South, Gen Surayud said he did not have the details. But he had already discussed the matter with Education Minister Wijit Srisa-arn and Basic Education Commission secretary-general Kasama Voravan na Ayudhya.

In Yala province, Gen Sonthi yesterday visited 600 southern students chosen to receive training as nurses at 25 colleges across the country, as part of a programme to ease a serious shortage of medical workers in the region.

Asked about reports that authorities were seeking talks with key insurgent leaders, including Sapaeing Bazo, head of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Coordinate, Gen Sonthi said such talks would benefit the region if the officials were certain they were making contact with leaders of active insurgent groups willing to cooperate with state authorities.

Army spokesman Col Akkra Thiproj said a total of 22 suspects were arrested in Yala's Bannang Sata district on Wednesday at the start of a three-day search operation.

Seven of them were ranking members of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK), including a younger brother of RKK leader Ma-ae Aphibalbae, he added.

Another 12 suspects were arrested yesterday, he said.

A bomb went off yesterday in Yala's Muang district, injuring two soldiers on patrol and six civilian bystanders.

In Narathiwat, three soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb in Muang district yesterday after escorting students to downtown schools.

Another bomb went off some 60 metres away but no-one was injured.

In Pattani, a hospital security guard was killed in a drive-by shooting on Thursday in Panare district.

Meanwhile, Veerapol Srilert, director of the Industrial Promotion Centre Region 1, said manufacturers of Muslim headscarves (hijab) and Muslim caps (taqiyah) in Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala were finding it hard to expand their businesses given capital and labour shortages due to the ongoing violence.

Jureerat Buakaew, head of a research project on Muslim headscarves and caps, said the local markets for these products were dominated by middlemen who had control over capital, raw materials, transport and outlets.

Small producers still lacked management skills, she said, adding that relevant agencies had failed to come up with a systematic approach to support small producers.

Ms Jureerat said Pattani had the largest number of hijab and taqiyah manufacturers _ a total of 69 groups with 1,471 members altogether. The province produced about 380,000 headscarves yearly.

Narathiwat came second with about 369,000 pieces annually, followed by Yala which produced some 126,000 pieces a year, she said.

More than 662,000 pieces were sold in the three southernmost provinces yearly.

Malaysia was Thailand's traditional market, while Brunei and Indonesia have emerged as new markets with huge potential, she said.