After 10 years of on-and-off dialogue, Thailand’s peace negotiators and representatives of the biggest separatist group in southern Thailand finally hope to be able to reach a peace agreement by the end of this year, according to the head of the Thai delegation.

Chatchai Bangchuad, deputy secretary general of the National Security Council, said the result of the latest session of peace dialogue hosted by Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur on February 6-7 gave him confidence that peace is returning to the troubled region.

He confirmed in a recent interview with Thai PBS World that the Thai peace delegation and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu Patani (BRN) are committed to reaching a peace agreement by December 31 this year.  The timeframe is included in what is referred to as the final draft of a peace roadmap agreed upon by the two sides at the recent meeting.

The peace plan, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan towards Peace (JCPP), lays out three stages leading to a peace agreement. They include cessation of violence, followed by public consultations and political solutions.

Chatchai said he expected the Thai delegation and BRN to formally endorse the peace roadmap in March.

“Once we sign the JCPP we hope to see a reduction of violence…It will be a turning point that demonstrates that both sides are committed to peaceful means in solving the conflict,” he said.

He said the BRN has reaffirmed its commitment to cease armed activities while Thai security authorities will suspend what is referred to as “cordon-raid-arrest operations” against local residents to create an atmosphere conducive to peace building.

Chatchai said once violence significantly subsides, both sides will work on mechanisms that will be charged with designing and organizing public consultations on socio-political and economic issues.

“We certainly want such consultations to be credible and inclusive.  We want to have representatives from academics, NGOs, and local communities. Even those opposed to the state will also be welcomed,” he said, adding that the authorities will consider ensuring immunity for members of separatist groups who may have arrest warrants to return to join the consultations or return to the fold.

Feedbacks from these consultations, he said, will form a basis for future political solutions to the conflict.

While admitting that there could be divergent views between the BRN’s political leadership and its military wing regarding the peace process, Chatchai insisted that the Thai military is totally behind the Thai peace delegation.

“We speak with one voice,” he said, in response to reports that hardliners in the Thai military are against what they fear might be concessions to the separatist group.

Chatchai is the first civilian to head the Thai peace talks team.  Since the peace process began in 2013, all of his predecessors were military men.

Chatchai said he envisaged an “endgame” of the peace process in which there is cessation of violence followed by a return to normalcy in the provinces.  “Normal in the sense that we will no longer need special laws for these areas,” he said, referring to emergency and other security-related laws that critics see as a root cause of tensions in the region.

He said it should culminate in the fulfilling of some of the BRN’s demands for recognition of the local people’s cultural and ethnic identity or even on issues of governance.

The geographical scope of the peace roadmap under negotiation includes Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and four districts of Chana, Tepha, Natawee and Saba Yoi of Songkhla.  These southernmost areas bordering Malaysia have been plagued by more than 20 years of armed violence that claimed over 7,000 lives.

By Thepchai Yong