A former insurgent who took part in the 2004 raid of a military armoury was found shot dead on his rubber farm in the southern border province of Narathiwat on Saturday.
Wae Ali Copter Waeji, 67, was once a leader of an insurgent group that stole weaponry from the Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra military camp in Cho Airong district of Narathiwat on Jan 4, 2004. The incident resulted in the deaths of four soldiers.
The armoury raid was seen as the starting point of a new phase of the insurgency in the three border provinces, where low-level separatist violence had been taking place on and off for decades. The conflict continues to this day.
The body of the reformed separatist was found on his rubber tree plantation in Rueso district. The military was alerted at 8.15am on Saturday.
He appeared to have been gunned down, and investigations are under way to determine the perpetrator and the motive.
In addition to leading the 2004 raid, Wae Ali Copter Waeji was known for turning himself and 99 other insurgents in for re-education, acknowledging that violence was not productive to their cause. He would go on to be part of a national development initiative and worked with state programmes to reintegrate former southern separatists into society.
From 2004 to November last year, the most recent date for which figures have been compiled by the monitoring group Deep South Watch, a total of 7,540 deaths and over 14,000 injuries have been linked to more than 22,200 violent incidents in Thailand’s southernmost region.
Peace talks have been ongoing for many years between the government and separatist groups, but no agreement has lasted.
- EDITORIAL: Southern comfort