Thawee pushes for peace by recompense

Thawee pushes for peace by recompense

Thawee Sodsong believes a new, friendly strategy of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre will succeed in quelling the violence and silence the critics who fear it will only inflame the situation in the restive deep South.

Thawee Sodsong, left, secretary-general of the SBPAC, is welcomed during a visit to Yala on Nov 3, 2011.

Shortly after being appointed the new SBPAC secretary-general, the former deputy permanent secretary for justice announced his policy of paying out fair compensation to victims in Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala and part of Songkhla, which have borne the brunt of insurgent attacks since the violence erupted in 2004.

The policy underlying Police Colonel Thawee's approach has been used since he was at the Justice Ministry. He pushed for use of the Justice Fund under the Rights and Liberties Protection Department to help villagers in the northeastern region climb out from under a pile of debt and high interest charged by loan sharks, and bail out red shirt protesters facing terrorism charges and violations of the emergency decree.

Pol Col Thawee also pushed for the Rights and Liberties Protection Department to provide legal assistance and lawyers to members of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) to fight the charges.

The strategy is based on his thinking that the colour-coded political turmoil which culminated in the 2010 bloody crackdown in Bangkok has its roots in unfair treatment meted out by the authorities. What has happened in the deep South also is also rooted in the abuse of authority in Muslim-dominated areas, with villagers being the victims.

After the government's approval of a 7.75-million-baht compensation for each political victim from 2005 to May 2010 in line with the recommendation of the Truth for Reconciliation Commission, the SBPAC is now pushing for victims of the southern violence to receive the same amount of compensation to end claims of double standards.

The Yala-based agency's move is backed by Justice Minister Pracha Promnok after his recent visit to the southernmost provinces to listen to the plight of the victims. He promised them that the compensation scheme for political victims would also be applied to southerners who have suffered from violent incidents.

Pol Col Thawee once said he wanted to return to the southernmost region to tackle the problems there and give people fairness and justice in the judicial process.

For Pol Col Thawee, the southern region is not unfamiliar territory. When working for the Crime Suppression Division, he'd been tasked with handling irresponsibility for cases concerning extra-judicial killings caused by the anti-drugs policy. It was during this time that a group of armed militants raided the 4th Development Battalion in Cho Ai-rong district in Narathiwat and fled with a huge cache of weapons on Jan 4, 2004 _ an incident which marked the beginning of renewed violence in the deep South.

He then moved to become deputy chief of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) and was later transferred to an inactive post at the Office of the Narcotics Control Board when the Democrat Party came to power.

Pol Col Thawee returned as DSI chief in the People Power Party-led government under then prime minister Samak Sundaravej, and was deputy permanent secretary for justice when Somchai Wongsawat was the government leader.

When Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra came to power, she assigned him to the troubled region in October last year.

A politician with Pheu Thai Party who asked to remain unnamed, said Pol Col Thawee is the right man to resolve the southern violence _ armed with an SBPAC budget of 20 billion baht.

Pol Col Thawee has known, since the time he was a police officer handling southern cases, who was behind the extra-judicial killings, mainly against Islamic religious leaders and villagers, but he could not do anything much. His return to the region as SBPAC chief with full authority this time is seen as his attempt to aid those who suffered from abuse of authority by the officials in charge.

His first mission as the new SBPAC chief was to hold talks with community and religious leaders, activists, academics, politicians and officials in the area, to listen to their input on attempts to solve the problem. He made a good impression on the local Muslims when he decided to reopen the Islam Burapha school in Muang district of Narathiwat in late December, after a four-year closure. The school was shut down by security authorities after they nabbed seven suspected insurgents along with home-made bombs and bomb-making equipment, in a deserted house within the school compound.

The bold decision to let the school reopen has boosted his image and gained him recognition from religious and village leaders.

But the highlight of his mission concerns the planned financial compensation for victims in the far South.

Critics have expressed concern about his policy of fair compensation, saying it could backfire and lead to more violence in the region by ill-intentioned people, who would then blame it on the officials so that the victims could claim financial compensation in the future.

Angkhana Nilaphaijit, chairwoman of the Justice for Peace Foundation, praised Pol Col Thawee for his sincerity and seriousness in helping the victims, but called for a clear direction regarding the compensation scheme he is pushing for. She also questioned how the agency would find the necessary budget for the plan and how the SBPAC would prevent possible corruption.

"Even though the plan is still in the blueprint stage, villagers have already been approached by some people who claim they can handle the compensation cases on behalf of the victims by coordinating with the government agencies _ all for a 2% commission," Mrs Angkhana said.

She said it should be made clear to Pol Col Thawee that "in many cases involving southern violence, no witnesses want to come out to talk to officials because they are afraid for their lives. With no solid evidence, the court rejects these cases and the victims are unable to receive compensation".

Pol Col Thawee insists on going ahead with his plan and first on the list eligible for compensation would be the victims of the 2004 Krue Se tragedy which claimed 108 lives and the Tak Bai massacre which led to 85 deaths also in 2004; the brutal 2009 Al-Furqan mosque attack which killed 10 Muslims in Cho Ai-rong district of Narathiwat, and other cases involving a total of 200 victims.

But over the past eight years since the violence erupted, more than 5,000 people have died. So the question is how will the SBPAC compensate the families of these victims; indeed, how to define which deaths were the result of insurgent violence and which were personal conflicts.

His decision to approve financial disbursement to the family of Fakhruddin Boto, a former senator of Narathiwat killed in 2006, has already raised eyebrows as many people in the area believe his death was the result of a personal conflict and thus should not be included in the compensation scheme.

Pol Col Thawee is working under pressure from villagers on the ground, who complain that they should receive the same amount of compensation as the political victims.

If he is successful in disbursing fair compensation to the victims of southern violence, it will without doubt benefit Pheu Thai Party, whose popularity in the deep South lags far behind that of the Democrats, Chartthaipattana and Matubhum parties. This state of affairs was clearly seen in the last election, wherein all Pheu Thai candidates competing in the South lost.

King-oua Laohong

Reporter

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