The dominant insurgent faction in Thailand’s southern separatist conflict emerged last week to reject the Malaysian-led peace talks being held with the Thai government.
However, the hard-line National Revolutionary Front or Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) also signalled its willingness to open substantive negotiations, provided international mediation can be guaranteed.
In a rare opening to independent news media, representatives of the usually secretive BRN stressed repeatedly the party was not involved in the talks hosted by the Malaysian government and views them as a “negative phenomenon”.
Initiated in May after months of groundwork, the talks have brought together Thai negotiators headed by recently retired Gen Aksara Kerdphol and an umbrella organisation of several separatist factions known as "Mara Patani" which Malaysian officials have implied includes representatives of the BRN.
Meetings have raised hopes that common ground might be found in a conflict which since 2004 has left at least 6,500 dead and more than 10,000 wounded in the majority Malay-Muslim provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat and parts of Songkhla. There has even been discussion of setting up possible ceasefire or “safety’’ zones.
“Let me be very clear about the current peace process: the BRN is categorically not involved,” said one BRN official.
“The way in which this process has been set up is flatly rejected by BRN.”
But he added the party was not opposed to peace negotiations “provided such talks follow international standards and norms”.
In an interview in a regional capital outside Thailand, four officials of the BRN’s “Information Department’’ discussed the party’s views on negotiations that might end the bloodshed as well as noting concerns over the extremist ideology of the Islamic State (IS) in the violence-plagued border region.
A spokesman who introduced himself simply as “Yusuf’’, said the party’s senior leadership, a shadowy underground group known as the Dewan Pimpinan Parti or Party Leadership Council, had authorised them to meet a media correspondent familiar with the conflict.
Speaking in Malay, Yusuf said the BRN’s rejection of the talks with Mara Patani hinged on several issues.
“There are many aspects of this process that we see as unsettling and many of these things are caused by the fact the process bears no relation to the earlier peace process of 2013,” he said.
Malaysia's attempt to forge a peace talks "Mara Patani" group out of old Pulo factions living in Malaysia is likely doomed.
The talks initiated in 2013 by the Yingluck Shinawatra government had involved the BRN but were halted late that year following the collapse of an attempted Ramadan ceasefire in July and August, and the BRN’s issuing of five demands in a YouTube post to which Bangkok has yet to formally respond. These included demands for international mediation, detainee releases, and Bangkok’s recognition of the BRN as a liberation -- rather than separatist - movement.
Yusuf added the BRN now believes the current process - which involves three other separatist factions based outside Thailand and three individuals claiming to represent the BRN - is beyond repair. He said it would be better to scrap it in favour of a new initiative which could include separatist parties and southern civil society organisations in addition to the BRN.
But the real sticking point in the BRN’s call for renewed dialogue with the government will be its insistence on international mediation.
“We welcome Malaysian involvement in any peace process. But for Malaysia to be acting alone is insufficient,” Mr Yusuf said. “There needs to be other international actors involved as, bluntly speaking, we are deeply suspicious of any form of dialogue with the Thai government which does not involve the international community.
“We do not feel this is in any way a peculiar position,” he added. “Wherever there is political dialogue [between belligerents], you will find the involvement of the international community, be it in the shape of other states or international non-governmental organisations. This is entirely normal.”
The Thai government has consistently maintained the conflict is an internal matter to which the government is responding with improvements to the justice system and efforts at accelerated economic development in the region. Any suggestion of international intervention will almost certainly remain taboo for Bangkok, not least given a marked decline in violence over the past year and hopes that distrust of the state among local Muslims is waning.
While conceding that violence had dropped, BRN officials rejected the suggestion the insurgency was being weakened by improved counter-insurgency operations and a lack of popular support. They asserted the party was expanding its political campaign both inside southern Thailand and internationally while maintaining military pressure.
“Any decline you see in military operations may be temporary and the party is evolving and growing," they said. "The proof of this is that after the military coup, this government went all out to pressure us, but we remain active. If anyone in the Thai military imagines this might all be over in a few years, I would simply urge them to wait and see.”
Referring to the potential attraction of IS-inspired Islamist radicalism in the border region, Mr Yusuf said the BRN projected an ideology that had nothing to do with religious extremism and was “obviously concerned”.
