Thailand has agreed to peace talks with Muslim militants in the country’s south, in an apparent breakthrough towards ending a nearly decade-long conflict that has claimed more than 5,000 lives.
Senior Thai government officials signed the deal yesterday with members of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, where they agreed to launch a “dialogue process”. They gave no date for talks.
Thai authorities have blamed BRN for a bloody Islamic insurgency that has been a daily fact of life in Thailand’s southernmost provinces since 2004. – (Guardian service)