Malaysia’s facilitator said on Wednesday, February 7,2024 that the Thai government and Muslim separatist rebels in southern Thailand have agreed in principle on a road map to try to end a decades-long Muslim insurgency.
The sides held two days of talks in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, and will meet again over the next two months to iron out details of the peace plan, Malaysian facilitator Zulkifli Zainal Abidin said.
“It is a major breakthrough after the dialogue was stalled the past year due to the Thai election,” he told a news conference.
“The (peace plan), if the technical teams agree, will be signed as soon as possible. … There is light at the end of the tunnel. Both parties are willing to put pen on paper. Previously there was no talk of signing any documents.”
Malaysia has hosted and facilitated talks between the separatist groups and the Thai government since 2013, but little progress has been made. Almost 7,000 people have died in the insurgency in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces, the only ones with Muslim majorities, since 2004. The fighting is intermittent but brutal, with the separatists carrying out drive-by shootings and bombings, and the government accused of torturing suspects and other abuses.
Anas Abdulrahman, the head of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional — the largest of the insurgents groups in southern Thai — told presspersons that he has high hopes for a lasting solution under the new Thai government led by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.
