The general who is the brains behind the army's operations in the southernmost provinces is vowing to do whatever he can to solve security problems there in his last year of military service.
Samrej: Force alone won’t win the battle
Gen Samrej Srirai, special adviser of the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defence, called the insurgency in the deep South a "people's war". He said insurgents there considered themselves as Malays, not Thais, and they hated Thais.
Gen Samrej had been a special warfare officer and experienced battles with communists and border skirmishes for 24 years. He obtained a medal of honour for his contributions. After the massive firearms robbery at a military camp in Narathiwat province on Jan 4, 2004, he went to work in the deep South.
There, he was a deputy commander of the 4th Army that supervises the South, the first commander of the 15th Infantry Division that oversees the three southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, and the commander of a joint force of civil, police and military officers in the South.
He worked in the far South for eight years. He was expected to become the 4th Army chief but politics brought him back to Bangkok.
During his eight years in the region, Gen Samrej opened an office near the Sirindhorn military camp in Yarang district of Pattani to receive complaints from locals.
"Most visitors showed up to file complaints and apportion blame. We must listen to villagers' complaints and then create understanding. We must be calm enough and I was open-minded talking to them," Gen Samrej said.
Over 5,000 locals talked to him at the office and they gave him useful information about southern problems.
Gen Samrej also talked to hundreds of arrested key insurgents and followers as well as Islamic teachers. Then he wrote books about southern insurgency movements and solutions for peace restoration in the deep South.
"I can say the BRN [Barisan Revolusi Nasional] is the only group behind violent incidents in the three southernmost provinces of Thailand. Other groups are history.
"So the peace talks must continue and they will let us see key insurgents who will gradually reveal themselves," said Gen Samrej, who is part of the Thai negotiating team involved in peace talks with the BRN insurgency movement.
He said a serious movement striving for an independent Pattani state has been under way for about two decades.
Insurgents were recruited and organised and sent to rob firearms from government officials including the military arms depot robbery in Narathiwat in January 2004.
Gen Samrej said the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) militants number around 3,000 in the far South. The RKK is a splinter group of the Coordinate branch of the BRN.
"I must admit these militants are no ordinary fighting force. They are well trained," he said.
The Permuda youth separatist groups are also active. There are more than 10,000 of them in the far South.
The Permuda members undergo eight steps of training before they can qualify to become the more advanced RKK fighters. They will replace the RKK members who die or are captured by authorities.
Many of them are middle-aged people who think like revolutionaries.
"They are constantly preoccupied with the thoughts of fighting the Siamese state," he said.
"They are not bad and I don't mean to admire them," the general said.
It is important, he said, for the authorities to assess the strength of the insurgents and know who they are fighting against. "That's why I said this is a people's war," he said.
Gen Samrej said he opposed the use of force to disperse the protesters in the Tak Bai incident in 2004. The authorities had played into the hands of insurgents who were out to discredit the government.
Gen Samrej insisted the way to quell unrest in the far South may sometimes require hawkish approaches involving military operations.
However, there must be a balance between soft and hard approaches. The military must face the fact that they must work to win the hearts and minds of local people by forging community relations.