Defence Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat has asked Jakarta to extradite southern insurgents in the event that they escape and take refuge in Indonesia.
ACM Sukumpol said he made his request in a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart while attending the Asean Defence Ministers Meeting in Brunei from Monday to Wednesday.
He told Indonesia's Defence Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro that if Thailand knows insurgents from the deep South are hiding in Indonesia, it will inform Indonesian authorities of their names and seek their extradition.
The Thai defence minister said Indonesia was ready to cooperate.
Mr Purnomo said Thai authorities know of eight or nine active insurgency movements in the far South.
Regarding Malaysia's current electoral dispute, ACM Sukumpol said he did not think this would affect the peace talks between Thailand's National Security Council (NSC) and insurgency movements led by the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN). He said Malaysia only facilitated the peace talks and had a clear policy to do so.
ACM Sukumpol pointed out that negotiations would take time as insurgency representatives usually came up with unreasonable demands and Thai authorities took a firm stance that the militant movements were operating on Thai soil.
The defence minister said the government was implementing the right solutions in the deep South and he expected progress in the region later this year.
He added that more police officers would be deployed in the South. About 1,700 officers were recently sent to the region for security operations.
The government's Southern Command Centre held a meeting on solutions for the restive region's woes yesterday.
Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung, the director of the centre, said the government is ready to lift the executive decree on public administration in emergency situations in areas where peace holds for 90 days.
NSC secretary-general Paradorn Pattanatabut said the government would impose the Internal Security Act in place of the executive decree to relax the degree of security operations on the condition that residents joined forces with the government to reduce violent incidents in the region.
He said the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre and the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) would specify the districts where the executive decree could be lifted.
He expects two districts in each of the three southernmost provinces to be involved.
Regarding the facilitation of justice in the far South, Lt Gen Paradorn said suspects facing summonses relating to violations of the executive decree, the Internal Security Act and the Criminal Code could turn themselves in to Isoc's southern outpost and discuss their cases.
As for a proposal for Thai authorities to hold sub-negotiations with local insurgents in addition to the NSC's peace talks with the BRN in Malaysia, Lt Gen Paradorn insisted the NSC would proceed with its negotiations with the BRN for the time being and other talks could take place after the main negotiations had built mutual trust.
The next round of talks with the BRN is set for June 29.
In more violence in the far South, a suspected militant and his young brother were killed in a drive-by shooting in Pattani's Kapho district on Thursday night, police said yesterday.
They were identified as Lukeman Dorloh, 29, and Muhammadpusao Dorloh, 12, residents of Pattani's Sai Buri district.
According to eyewitnesses, the brothers were travelling in a pickup truck on the Ban Khok Wua-Ban Kurabi road at Moo 8, tambon Plong Hoi of Kapho district when a gunman in another pickup opened fire on them.
Both men were shot in the head and torso and they died at the scene. The attackers fled.
Police said four arrest warrants had been issued for Lukeman. He was arrested on Feb 1, 2013.
Lukeman had been suspected of shooting police, irrigation staff and marine officers but he was acquitted in 1999.
He was free on bail pending prosecution for alleged possession of firearms and explosives in Pattani. He was reportedly a member of the BRN insurgency movement.