Thailand seeks new path to end deadly southern insurgency: top negotiator

Bangkok is signalling willingness to explore decentralised governance and amnesties for BRN rebels to revitalise a long-stalled peace process

Thailand is ready to shift its approach to a slow-burn insurgency in its Muslim-majority deep south and revitalise a peace process, Bangkok’s chief negotiator has said, as violence simmers in one of Southeast Asia’s longest-running conflicts.

Any such move could mark a return to addressing the political roots of a conflict that has killed more than 7,800 people since 2004, when the latest round of the insurgency led mainly by the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) flared in Thailand’s southernmost provinces, bordering Malaysia. In the latest violence in the region, five security personnel were killed in an attack last month.

Since talks facilitated by Malaysia began in 2013, the peace process has repeatedly stalled amid changing governments in Bangkok, internal divisions on both sides and a focus on trading concessions for a reduction in violence.

Thanut Suvarnananda, head of Thailand’s National Intelligence Agency who was appointed by the government in April to lead the peace process, said he wanted to move away from a transactional approach.

“My principle is not ‘deal or no deal’,” he said in a rare media interview, underlining the traditional approach and pointing to previous confidence-building measures that yielded limited results.