Sonthi will focus on unrest in far South

Newly-named Deputy Prime Minister Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratkalin is taking charge of security matters involving the southernmost region, Prime Minister Gen. Surayud Chulanont said Wednesday.

Gen. Sonthi, who earlier retired as Army chief and resigned as head of the Council for National Security, was named deputy prime minister for national security affairs, which includes the running of government missions to resolve unrest in the southernmost provinces, according to the prime minister.

Meanwhile, the Internal Security Operations Command will consider in consultations with the deputy prime minister whether or not curfew, earlier lifted during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan throughout the southernmost region, should be re-imposed in the wake of insurgent assaults on local villagers as well as government personnel, Gen. Surayud said.

Meanwhile, an insurgent suspect, identified as Mayaki Hayikaji, 27, was led by police to a crime enactment scene in Rueso district of Narathiwat after he and two others, only identified as Suriya and Ma-ae, had brutally killed a vendor, namely Surachai Narumayasiri, another man, identified as Warin Nualtan, and a 13-year-old boy, identified as Anusorn Nak-em, in the southernmost district in June.

The suspect, who had allegedly worked for the RKK separatist movement, told the police he had merely been a lookout for the gunmen at the scene of the crime while they shot dead the three victims and then beheaded the hawker. (TNA)