Bangkok Post : Malaysian, Thai PMs in key visit to troubled region

The Malaysian and Thai prime ministers made a historic joint visit Wednesday to Thailand's restive south where a bloody separatist insurgency has left more than 4,000 dead.

Security was tight for the trip after a spike in deadly bombings and shootings that has left 10 people dead since Monday, underscoring the difficulties in finding a solution to the six-year uprising.

Thai Muslim students pray at Attarkiah Islamic schoolin the the southern restive province of Narathiwat. The Malaysian and Thai prime ministers made a historic joint visit Wednesday to Thailand's restive south where a bloody separatist insurgency has left more than 4,000 dead.

"With many people and goods crossing over this bridge every day we are strengthening our bonds," Prime  MInister Abhisit Vejjajive said at the naming ceremony.

"I have no doubt in my mind that this Friendship Bridge will serve its noble purpose,"  Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak added.

The two leaders arrived at the bridge near the Thai town of Bukit Ta in military helicopters. Thai army choppers circled the area and authorities cut mobile phone signals to guard against possible remote-controlled bombs.

Hundreds of Thai troops manned checkpoints leading to the border and bomb disposal squads checked the area, while police boats patrolled the muddy waters of the Sunai Kolok River flowing below the bridge.

In the latest violence, eight policemen were wounded in bomb explosions that rocked Muang district of Yala province on Wednesday morning.

The police reported that the first bomb went off at a shelter by the Pattani river in the Yala municipality at about 10am, wounding three policemen. The home-made bomb, weighing about 4kg, in a plastic bucket was being examined by a team of police when it was detonated.

While Pol Col Phumphet Pipatphetphum, deputy Yala police chief, was leading another team of police to the spot, the second bomb planted under a solar cell at a lamp post near the Chalermthai intersection went off.  Nobody was hurt.

When Pol Maj-Gen Sayan Krasaesaen, the Yala police chief, arrived later at the scene, he ordered police to scour the area. The third bomb, planted in the ground only five metres from the first spot, was activated with a remote control. The explosion wounded five other policemen.

A police officer, Pol Cpl Pornchai Phopchai, went missing after the third explosion. He was believed to have fallen into the river. A search was immediately carried out, but it was not yet known if he had been recovered.

On the same day, another insurgent attack took place in Narathiwat province when troops tried to collect banners criticising Abhisit's policies on the South.

Gunmen hiding in roadside trees detonated a bomb and fired on the soldiers near Ban Yango Moo 5 in Narathiwat's Yi-ngor district. The troops fired back, police said.

The attackers fled the scene after about ten minutes. Two marines were reported to have been wounded and were taken to Yi-ngor hospital.

On Tuesday, another roadside bomb wounded two troops and a policeman protecting teachers in neighbouring Yala province, while a bomb killed a soldier in a border town.

A soldier wounded in a clash with insurgents late Tuesday on a road due to be used by Abhisit and Najib died in hospital overnight, taking the toll from the incident to three security officials and one militant.

Two people were killed by a powerful motorcycle bomb in the town of Narathiwat on Monday while two other civilians were shot dead earlier this week.

The two-lane bridge was opened in December 2007 by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Surayud Chulanont, the then-prime ministers of Malaysia and Thailand, in a bid to boost the border region's economy.

Badawi did not visit any other parts of southern Thailand at the time.

In Bangkok on Tuesday Najib pledged his support for Thailand's "constructive" plans to curb the violence after holding talks with Abhisit but said it remained essentially a domestic problem for Thailand.

Abhisit said Najib had also offered support "in terms of making sure that the people engaging in violence do not use Malaysia as a base for their operations".

Thailand has in the past accused Malaysia of failing to prevent insurgents criss-crossing the porous 650-kilometre (400-mile) border.

But since Najib came to power in April the rhetoric has softened. In October he called on Thailand to offer "some form" of autonomy to the region, a proposal backed by Abhisit, who called it the "right approach".

The two leaders were later Wednesday due to visit one public school, a handicraft village and a "widow village" that shelters some 140 families affected by the unrest.

Tensions have simmered in the troubled region, formerly an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate, since it was annexed in 1902 by mainly Buddhist Thailand. The current insurgency erupted in January 2004.

Brussels-based think-tank International Crisis Group said Tuesday that Thailand must deal with the perceived impunity of security forces and disarm civilian militias.