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Thailand will play host to a parade of Southeast Asia's naval firepower Sunday as warships from the region gather for the first time for a fleet review aimed at celebrating 50 years of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), organizers said.
More than 40 modern ships, including 26 from the Southeast Asian region, will be on display Sunday for the International Fleet Review around Pattaya Bay in Chonburi province, 84 km (53 miles) southeast of Bangkok, event officials said.
"This is the first time that navies from 10 ASEAN countries would gather for a multilateral exercise," Adm. Luechai Ruddit, deputy commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Navy told a news conference last week. "This is a very important exercise to learn and get to know each other."
Battleships representing the United States, Russia, China and South Korea will also participate, organizers said.
ASEAN, which recorded U.S. $2.2 trillion in regional trade last year, was formed in Bangkok on Aug. 8, 1967 with Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand as founding members. It has since expanded to include Brunei, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.
The fleet review highlights the 10-day naval event that began on Nov. 13 and will include bilateral meetings of ASEAN naval commanders, during which officials will share ideas on improving capabilities and discuss regional security threats.
"This is a very important platform for all navy chiefs to play their key roles and express their concern on the new threats that the region is facing at the moment," Luechai said.
He said the meetings will help participants solve "big problems, such as the increasing illegal actions in ocean borders that is more complicated nowadays."
Luechai did not elaborate, but he made his comments a month after Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines launched trilateral air patrols to bolster a three-month-old joint maritime effort to rid their shared borders of threats from extremists linked to the Islamic State (IS).
Officials said the trilateral arrangement was similar to the Malacca Straits Patrol, a joint initiative among Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia in the Straits of Malacca that resulted in a sharp drop in piracy.
In late October, the Philippine government declared an end to a five-month battle against IS-backed militants in the southern city of Marawi, during which 930 militants, 165 soldiers and policemen and 47 civilians were killed.
Philippine government officials said even though the military wrested Marawi city from IS militants after a hard-fought battle that included aerial bombings, the militant group remains a threat that can be contained only through greater regional cross-border cooperation.
Thai's military leadership said the exercises will benefit its participants.
"This is to show that all navies in ASEAN countries could work together well with other allies," Lt. Gen. Weerachon Sukhonthapatipak told reporters last week. "This would reflect our determination that we would like to promote Southeast Asian as the sea of peace and the sea of the cooperation to benefit to all people in ASEAN and our friends."


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Thai authorities were looking for 20 Uyghurs who escaped from an immigration detention center near the Malaysian border before dawn on Monday by digging two holes and using blankets as ladders to escape, officials said.
The Uyghurs, who had been held for two years at the center in Sadao, a district of southern Songkhla province, escaped from their cells at about 2 a.m. and could have crossed into Malaysia, said police Capt. Surasak Siripan, the facility's deputy director.
"There were 20 Uyghurs who managed to escape," Surasak said. "Five others were intercepted before they could flee."
Authorities searched with dogs through a rubber plantation where the detainees could have crossed to reach Malaysia, about a mile away from the detention center, he said.
"We could not find their footprints because it rained last night and the rain wiped off their footprints," Surasak told reporters.
Without elaborating, he said the Uyghurs had "tried to escape once before" but authorities had recaptured them.
"This time around they were successful and walked toward Malaysia through a rubber plantation," he said.
Chalida Tajaroensuk, director of the Thai civil society group People's Empowerment, told BenarNews that Uyghurs were believed to be in detention centers throughout Thailand.
"There were about 60 Uyghurs around various centers, but we do not know for sure because the authorities do not let us see them," Chalida said following the escape.
Earlier, a high-ranking security source who requested anonymity told BenarNews that Thailand had been in an awkward position after Bangkok turned over 173 Uyghurs to Turkey on June 30, 2015. A week later, Thailand deported 109 Uyghurs to China.
"It is a hard position for us to either keep them or let them go somewhere," said the source, referring to the Uyghurs at the Sadao immigration facility.
Human rights groups condemned Bangkok's decision to deport the group to China, warning that the Uyghurs, who are Muslims, could face persecution and abuse.
China branded the deportees as "terrorists" and broadcast photos of them being flown back with hoods over their heads.
That forced repatriation may have precipitated a bomb blast in August 2015 that killed 20 people at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok's Rajprasong tourist district, according to security sources. Two Uyghur men, who were arrested by Thai authorities as suspects in that case, went on trial in late 2016.
Uyghurs flee to Thailand
Hundreds of Uyghurs who speak a Turkic language have passed through Thailand fleeing what they described as persecution in the Xinjiang region in China, where they are one of 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities. China has accused Uyghurs of involvement in attacks on ethnic Han Chinese.
Surasak said the 20 escapees were among a large group of Uyghurs who were detained in 2015 after they were found at the Tone Nga Chang waterfall in Songkhla.
The Uyghurs, who claimed they were Turkish and demanded that they be allowed to travel to Turkey, were kept at the detention center as authorities tried to verify their citizenship, officials said.
On Monday, a senior Islamic official expressed confidence that the escape would "bode well" for the Thai government.
The escape would help free Thailand of pressure from China to deport the Uyghurs, according to Wisut Binlateh, director of the coordination center for southern provinces of the Office of the Chularajmontri, Thailand's Islamic spiritual leader.
Wisut told The Nation newspaper that the Uyghurs had tried to escape to join their wives and children. He said the minority Muslim community in Thailand had been calling on the Thai government to allow the Uyghurs to move to a third country, preferably Turkey.


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A roadside bomb exploded in Thailand's Deep South on Tuesday, killing a border police officer and wounding two people in what investigators believed was an attack by insurgents, officials said.
The attackers detonated a 10-kilogram (22-lb) improvised explosive device (IED) as six officers on three motorcycles were patrolling Ban Saikaew village in Bannang Sata, a district of Yala province, said Capt. Thamarat Paraperng, the district's deputy police chief.
Another police officer and a civilian were wounded in the explosion. It was the sixth incident of violence this month in Thailand's troubled southern border region.
Militants claimed responsibility for Tuesday's bombing, which apparently was carried out in retaliation for the killings of two militants during a shootout in Saiburi, a district in neighboring Pattani province, earlier this month, Thamarat said.
"The attackers sprayed graffiti ... to claim responsibility," Thamarat told reporters, explaining that the insurgents spray-painted the word "Fatoni," the Malay term for "Patani freedom fighter" on the asphalt road near the blast site.
"They ambushed in retaliation for the deaths of their two fellow insurgents in the Nov. 8 shootout," he said.
The following week, at least two civilians died and two others were injured in three separate insurgency-related incidents in the Deep South, officials said. On Sunday, a nurse in Bannang Sata district was shot and seriously wounded.
Soldiers arrested the suspected gunman, Subree Jewae, a day later, officials said.
Police said Subree was believed to be a member of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (the National Revolutionary Front), a rebel group known by the local acronym BRN. They said Subree was under the command of insurgent leader Abdullah Tapoto, whose cell members were believed to be behind the bomb blast on Tuesday.
Abdullah was expected to launch bomb attacks after security officials received intelligence about his plans, Col. Suchart Sa-id, chief of the Betong district police station, told BenarNews.
Since 2004, almost 7,000 people have been killed in violence associated with the separatist insurgency in the predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South.
Simmering violence
Violence in the region has remained "steady" during the past few months as a result of tighter security, conflict analysts said.
Assistant professor Srisompob Jitpiromsri of Deep South Watch, a nongovernmental think-tank that monitors the violence in the region, told BenarNews last week that informal peace talks with rebels in the insurgency-torn south could be one reason for the low level of violence.
"The situation was steady, no worse, no better," Srisompob said, comparing the situation in the region with the same period last year. "We do hope the government could have patience and follow the course of peaceful solution through negotiations."
Since 2015, Malaysia has facilitated informal peace talks between the Thai government and Mara Patani, a panel that claims to represent Deep South insurgent groups and factions.
Violence hit a record low in 2015, with about 674 incidents compared with about 1,000 yearly since the militants stepped up their bombing and shooting attacks 13 years ago, according to Deep South Watch.
It said most of the casualties involved civilians who died at the hands of both insurgents and security forces, with an annual average of 550 throughout the conflict.
The insurgents are seeking greater autonomy from Buddhist-ruled Thailand, which annexed the southern border region that was part of a Malay Muslim sultanate in 1909.
In February, the government announced that it had reached an agreement with MARA for setting up a safety zone or a ceasefire in one district of the Deep South.
But local media reports questioned the viability of the peace process after the two sides failed to finalize the agreement during the peace talks held in Kuala Lumpur in September.
An earlier version incorrectly stated that a police officer died and two other people were wounded in the Nov. 8 shooting.This update also fixes a conversion of kilograms to pounds. 


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The family of a first-year cadet who died last month at Thailand's most prestigious military preparatory school asked the government Tuesday to explain why their own autopsy revealed that some of his vital organs were missing.
Pakapong Tanyakan (also known as Moei), an 18-year-old cadet at the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School in Nakhon Nayok province, died on campus Oct. 17. Officials listed the cause of death as heart failure.
After his body was released to his parents, Pichet and Sukanya Tanyakan, for cremation, they contracted for an autopsy, which found that his brain, heart, stomach, bladder, as well as a lung and kidney were missing, and he had a broken rib.
During a press conference on Tuesday to respond to the family's concerns, Gen. Tharnchaiyan Srisuwan, the supreme commander of the Thai military, which oversees the school, ordered an investigative committee to determine the cause of death and report on why Moei's organs were missing.
"Our family is glad that the school admits that. The organs were removed, and that showed that the family did not lie," a family member who asked to remain anonymous told BenarNews. "The military supreme commander previously said that the organs were not removed. The family asked why the organs were not there on the day they delivered the body."
"If the family had cremated it then, everything would be gone, wouldn't it?" the family member asked.
Moei's family contacted the school on Nov. 8 and asked for the organs to be returned along with a completed death certificate. After receiving no response, they contacted the media.
"The family is going to find out what caused the death. Not just heart failure as we were told without other explanations," the family member said. "We need those organs back to be able to send to the institution for an autopsy. Previously, the family requested the school return the organs with a death certificate, but we received no cooperation."
Discipline led to hospitalization
Moei's family alleged that he was subjected to discipline that led to an emergency hospitalization on Aug. 23 after he had been forced to stand on his head for a long time.
On Oct. 12, just days before his death, Moei stumbled and complained of pain in his left ribs during a visit to his home in Chonburi province near Bangkok, but said he had fallen down a flight of steps. He returned to school on Oct. 15 and died two days later.
"Moei's friend showed a text message where he wrote that his heart stopped beating once while being discipline, but the doctor saved him in time," the family member said. "He asked his friend not to tell anyone about this."
Pathologist explains findings
Lt. Col. Narut Thongsorn, the pathologist at Phramongkutklao Medical Center who performed the autopsy, also took part at the press conference at the Royal Thai Army headquarters in Bangkok, where the military's supreme commander spoke.
Narut confirmed that the cadet's organs were kept to determine the cause of death. His report was sent to the inquiry officer two weeks ago.
"We received his body on Oct. 18. We found no external injuries, but found broken ribs and bruises on the right chest and the left side of his abdomen," Narut said. "We did not have sufficient information to determine the cause of death so we had to test more and needed to keep the organs.
"There are signs that tend to show heart disorders, so the cause of death on certificate was listed as sudden heart failure."


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A Thai female suspect in a bombing that killed 20 people at Bangkok's Erawan Shrine in 2015 was arrested on Wednesday as she arrived in Thailand from Turkey, the deputy national police chief said.
Wanna Suansan, a native of Pang-nga province in southern Thailand, allegedly rented apartments in Bangkok suburbs for suspected militants to construct bombs.
Two Uyghurs who were arrested shortly after the attack on the Hindu shrine, a popular tourist destination in the Thai capital, are to return to a military court before year's end for the resumption of their trial. They could face the death penalty, if convicted.
"We were informed by immigration officers that Wanna was coming to Thailand via Suvarnabhumi Airport, so we arrested her using the warrant. She is the third suspect captured," Police Gen. Srivara Ransibrahmanakul told reporters at the national police headquarters.
Wanna and her Turkish husband, Emrah Davutoglu, fled to Turkey following the Aug. 17, 2015, deadly blast at the shrine in central Bangkok where more than 120 people were injured. They were accused of having roles in the terrorist plot.
Wanna, who faces five criminal charges including first-degree murder and possessing war weapons, was being held for questioning at headquarters, only 100 meters from the site of the bombing. Police said she was not traveling with her husband and she identified herself when presented with the warrant.
Following the blast and a small pipe-bomb attack on the Sathorn passenger pier in Bangkok the next day, police issued warrants for 17 suspects including Thais and foreigners.
Adem Karadag (also known as Bilal Mohammed) and Yusufu Mierali, who identified themselves as Uyghurs from Urumqi in China's Xinjiang region, were arrested a few weeks after the bomb attack. Srivara said investigators are searching for the other 14 suspects.
Malaysia: Escapee captured
Meanwhile, Malaysian authorities arrested a Uyghur man in northern Kedah state who is believed to have crossed into Malaysia after escaping from a Thai immigration detention center on Monday morning, an official said.
Kedah Police Chief Asri Yusoff said the man, in his 30s, was found Wednesday near a military post in Bukit Tangga. He said the suspect was detained by citizens, who alerted soldiers at the post before police were called.
"It is believed that the suspect was walking alone when he was found about eight kilometers (five miles) from Sadao, and checks revealed that he did not have any travel documents," Asri said.
Previously, Thai police Capt. Surasak Siripan told reporters that 20 Uyghurs who had been held for two years at a detention facility in the southern province of Songkhla, near the border with Malaysia, escaped from their cells at about 2 a.m. Monday.
Maj. Gen. Jessada Yaisoon, the chief of the Thai immigration police's 6th Region based in Songkhla, told BenarNews police from both nations have cooperated in the search for the Uyghurs. Jessada identified the escapee as Abdul Kayum, 28.
"We joined with Malaysian police to recapture Abdul. We took him to Sadao police station," Jessada told BenarNews by phone. "We are looking for the rest and we suspect they are still in rubber plantation on Thai soil, or crossed into Malaysia. We have warrants [for] all of them."
Hareez Lee in Kuala Lumpur and Fairuz Mazlan in Alor Setar, Malaysia, contributed to this report.


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Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha on Tuesday defended a police crackdown and arrest of 16 demonstrators who sought to meet him and deliver a letter of protest against a proposed coal-fired power plant.
The arrests took place Monday when Prayuth arrived in Songkhla province to visit the Deep South before chairing an out-of-office cabinet meeting.
He told reporters on Tuesday that about 100 demonstrators did not follow the law that restricts public gathering and refused to accept a forum designed for them to voice opinions regarding the proposed 2,200-megawatt project.
"In fact, no one can blame the government of violating citizens' rights because we have the Public Gathering Act they did not follow. We asked them to seek permission," Prayuth said. "We sent representatives to meet but they refused and they refused to attend any forum, stubborn all the way."
Prayuth accused the protesters of obstructing government officials and said they could be charged with violating the law that bans gatherings of more than five people.
"I doubt they needed to meet me in person before the media, which could exaggerate the issue," he said, adding that the National Energy Committee will decide the project's fate.
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand plans to build three coal-fired power plants valued at more than 100 billion baht (U.S. $3.1 billion) on beaches in Songkhla, Pattani and Krabi provinces, prompting resistance from locals and environmentalists.
Scuffle leads to injuries
On Friday, about 100 villagers led by local leaders and environmentalists started walking from the proposed plant site at Bangling beach in Songkhla, hoping to meet Prayuth during a Monday dinner or while he was meeting with his cabinet on Tuesday.
When the protesters arrived near the ministerial venues Monday afternoon, they were stopped by about 200 police, volunteers and military security forces, leading to a half-hour scuffle.
"Three people were injured in the scuffle and 16 were arrested and taken to the police station in Songkhla's Muang district. The rest, mostly women, retreated to Khan Seng mosque," Banjong Nasae, a private fishery conservationist who observed the rally, told BenarNews. "They did not instigate violence they just wanted to meet with the prime minister."
Demonstrators said their letter to Prayuth pointed out that 1,000 people would be relocated if the project is approved and another 20,000 people within 5 km (3.1 miles) would be affected by pollution.
A demonstrator said villagers did not expect any official to honestly listen to their concerns.
"We – villagers who would be affected by the plant and a deep sea port nearby – were upbeat as we thought we could see (Prayuth) and submit our complaint without going to Bangkok," UThai To-Lee, a member of opposition group "No Coal in Songkhla-Pattani" told BenarNews.
"But our mission is not over yet. We will fight to have those arrested absolved. We will protect to save our homeland from the coal plant and the deep sea port," he said.
On Tuesday, police Maj. Gen. Ronasilp Poosara, who has jurisdiction in the region, said 16 protesters, including a 16-year-old boy, were charged with assault which carries a maximum sentence of three years. They could also be charged with violating the 2015 public gathering law.

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Students at Prince of Songkhla University rally at the Pattani Campus to demand immediate release of those arrested, Nov. 28, 2017. [Mariyam Ahmad/BenarNews]

 
Rights officials demand release of protesters
National human rights officials spoke out against the arrests.
National Human Rights Commissioner Tuenjai Deetes called on the government to immediately release the 16 suspects, adding that the government must respect and protect human rights. She demanded that people be given the right to address their concerns over public policy.
Another commissioner expressed concern about the protest.
"We saw two contrasting pictures from what happened yesterday. The people who support the project were welcomed while the opposition was thwarted. I am concerned about the discrimination," Angkhana Neelapaijit told BenarNews.
Meanwhile, MARA Patani spokesman Abu Hafez Al-Hakim issued a statement Tuesday warning the government about negative repercussions.
"The government has again failed to demonstrate its openness to listen to the plight of its people. Thailand is a free country, a land of free people. As guaranteed by the constitution, the people has every right to determine what they want or do not want for themselves," Abu Hafez said.
MARA Patani is a panel representing Deep South insurgent groups in peace talks with the government.
"We ... remind the government that to proceed against the wish of the people and respond with iron fists will not only worsen the situation, but may cause an undesirable outcome, ," Abu said.


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A retired engineer who admitted to setting off a pipe bomb that injured 21 people at a Bangkok military hospital on the third anniversary of Thailand's latest military coup is to spend 31 years in prison, after a court convicted and sentenced him on Wednesday.
Watana Pumret, 62, confessed to planting a bomb packed with nails that exploded on May 22 near Phra Mongkutklao Hospital's Wongsuwan Room, which was established as a tribute to Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan, the current deputy prime minister. The blast struck an area frequented by military officials.
Wednesday's verdict and sentencing covered all charges against Watana.
"Punishment will be for every act – life imprisonment for the explosion causing serious injuries, three years imprisonment for assembling a device that exploded, one year imprisonment for possession of explosive devices without permission and a fine of 1,000 baht (U.S. $30.65) for bringing an explosive device into a public place without permission," the court ruled. "The defendant confessed, the penalty is reduced to half."
The total penalty is a 27-year sentence and a 500 baht ($15.33) fine. These are added to a four-year sentence and 975 baht ($30) fine following Watana's conviction on related charges in September.
Watana, supported by his wife and relatives, signed a form accepting the verdict. The couple hugged before he was taken off to prison.
Leaving the courtroom, Watana ignored reporters who asked if he would appeal the verdict.
In June, authorities announced that the retired engineer had confessed to setting off the bomb.
Watana said he acted alone because he despised the military-controlled government headed by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, the Bangkok Post reported. He said he did not want to hurt anyone, but wanted to make a statement against the government.
On May 22, 2014, Prayuth, then an army general, led a coup that toppled the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. He became Thailand's 29th prime minister and appointed Prawit to two ministerial posts.
Thailand has been rocked by at least nine successful coups since 1932.


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In Thailand, the saying that only the poor go to jail rings true because judges use a lack of money or assets to pay for a defendant's release as criteria to deny bail.
Each year, about 66,000 additional people are incarcerated in Thailand because they do not have enough cash or assets to post bail before and during their trials, according to the Rabi Bhadanasak Research and Development Institute. The local think-tank researches the Thai justice system, including ways to make the process of bailing out inmates more fair and equitable.
"I talked to a few inmates in a prison. Many had no other choice but to plead guilty for what they did not do because they did not have money to bail themselves out and then fight from outside of the cell," Rangsiman Rome, who was denied bail and held for nearly two weeks twice in the past year, told BenarNews.
"And doing so gives them a chance to get released faster than fighting the case which takes too long, so they gave up fighting," said Rangsiman, an anti-junta activist who faces two trials for defying government orders and campaigning against a constitutional referendum.
Relief for people like him could be on the way.
Justice advocates are experimenting with a program where bail is assessed according to a defendant's risk of flight before trial to replace a current system that requires large amounts of money or assets to secure release in cases where the maximum potential sentence is more than five years.
In February, the Rabi Bhadanasak Institute, which is under the independent Court of Justice, began advising five courts to experiment with flight-risk assessment for granting bail.
"They granted bail to roughly 700 defendants and about 5 percent of them jumped bail," Mukmetin Klannurak, a senior judge at the Supreme Court who directs the institute, told BenarNews, adding that seven more courts joined the program in July, bringing the total to 12.
The institute hopes to set up the program in 250 courts nationwide.
"By statistics, it does not matter how much the bail is or how severe the punishment is, the jumpers are jumpers and those who used to jump bail stand 17 times higher chance of doing so again," Mukmetin said.
'Bail bond is way too high'
Advocates are assessing the effectiveness of the program's new criteria, which include a 14-point assessment form expected to be adjusted every two to three years with cooperation from Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok, until it properly "predicts the mind" of suspects. The criteria also take into account a person's age, occupation, and whether he or she has a history of substance abuse, weapons use, as well as any attempts to escape from custody.
The courts should be inclined to grant bail and reduce bail bonds in order to ease crowding at Thailand's jails and prisons, a lawyer with an advocacy group said.
As of March, Thai jails and prisons – which were built to accommodate 200,000 inmates – housed 286,861 of them.
"The bail bond is way too high. The bail value should be reduced. The courts may also find other measures such as having a defendant periodically report to the court," attorney Yaowalak Anuphan who assists many people charged with violating the country's strict anti-royal defamation Lese-Majeste law, told BenarNews.
A law concerning prosecutorial procedure does not require bail for offenses with less than five years jail term but it does for defendants facing sentences of five or more years. In practice, Thai courts require sizeable money, bank accounts, assets or a rich or credible guarantor who is also a relative of the defendant to secure a defendant's bail.
Thai Jurists and lawyers who advocate for reforming the bail system point to the case of Yingluck Shinawatra, a wealthy former prime minister who was released from jail after posting 30 million baht (U.S. $930,000) for bail. But she jumped bail and fled the country before a local court convicted and sentenced her in September to five years in prison on charges of negligence in her government's failed national subsidy scheme for rice farmers.
Advocating for the poor
At a seminar at Bangkok's Thammasart University in October, Mukmetin, the judge, discussed the disparity in Thailand's bail system – in which the rich can be freed while the poor languish for months or years until trial – as well as the flight-risk assessment approach modeled on the American justice system.
The university launched an online campaign on the website change.org, seeking 66,000 signatures calling for the National Reform Committee to fix the bail system. So far, 32,000 have signed up for the petition through the campaign "The Poor Must Not Go to Jail."
Under the pilot program, police and home ministry officials would monitor high-risk defendants using cell-phone GPS systems and ankle bracelets, Mukmetin said.
Funding program in place
To minimize bail disparity, Thailand set up a "justice fund" in 2006, according to a Justice Ministry official.
"Many received help from the fund," Pitikarn Sitthidej, director general of the Rights and Liberty Protection Department under the Justice Ministry, told BenarNews.
The fund gives loans to low-income people to cover bail and legal costs, and is expected to be tied to the pilot project.
Of the 17,436 people who asked for loans from 2006 to 2016, as many as 16,484 were approved, Pitakarn said. The fund disbursed more than 438 million baht (U.S. $13.4 million) for legal fees and bail. In 2016 alone, 4,529 people received aid, she said.


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Thailand's military-controlled government on Tuesday welcomed a decision by the European Union to resume political contacts "at all levels," saying the move reflected E.U. recognition that the junta is steering the country back to democracy.
The E.U., a 28-nation bloc that is one of Thailand's top five trading partners, announced the move a day earlier as part of a gradual political re-engagement with Thailand.
"This is good for us. This is what the government has been trying to do in these three years, sending representatives to talk to every country where we have the investments and they are invested in our country, especially the European countries because they are a significant market," Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha told reporters in Bangkok. Prayuth, a former army general, heads a junta that has been in charge since the military toppled a civilian-led government in a May 2014 coup.
Last year, Thailand's overall trade volume with the E.U. equaled 35.9 billion euros (U.S. $42.1 billion), and the European bloc was the country's number three trading partner behind China and Japan in terms of total trade, according to statistics from the European Commission.
"The reaction of the European Union is not trying to make conditions to Thailand. Instead, it shows that they understand what the government has been working on to move forward the country forward," Prayuth said.
"Thailand is following the roadmap to the general election that is scheduled in November 2018. However, the exact period depends on the readiness of [related] laws," added Prayuth who, on previous occasions, postponed promises of staging the country's first elections since the coup.
He said the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs was instrumental in persuading the E.U. to resume political contacts by lobbying countries about how the government was implementing measures to put Thailand back on a path to democracy.
"The big issue is that political developments between Thailand and the European Union are getting better on one level and the E.U. has a more relaxed attitude at all official levels ... this shows our country has [improved] in these three years ... which satisfied the European Union, more or less," Don Pramudwinai, the minister of foreign affairs, told reporters at Government House in Bangkok.
European concerns
On Monday in Brussels, the E.U.'s Foreign Affairs Council announced it was restoring full political contacts with Thailand while calling on the junta to restore the democratic process.
The council said it remained concerned about how civil rights, liberties and free speech had "severely curtailed" in Thailand since the military takeover. But it also noted progress taken by the junta to promulgate a new constitution paving the way for a general election, adding it welcomed Prayuth's most recent announcement that voting would take place in November 2018.
The council urged the junta to ensure that laws needed to set up polls be enacted "as soon as possible," and said the E.U. looked forward to further deepening bilateral ties, depending on whether free and fair elections occur, a democratically elected government is installed and the situation with human rights improves.
"The council has decided therefore to resume political contacts at all level with Thailand in order to facilitate meaningful dialogue on issue of mutual importance, including on human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the road toward democracy. The council will make full use of such contacts to raise these issues of concern," it said in a statement.
Free and fair
Meanwhile, a Thai political commentator, former Elections Commissioner Kothom Areeya, said he was confident that elections would occur in 2018. But, he stressed, they should be free and fair.
"I believe we will have the general elections next year because all the authorities have done their jobs. ... More important, it should be a fair election and the government shouldn't do anything thing to support any political party in particular," Kothom told BenarNews.


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Southeast Asian nations have responded positively to Washington's calls for pressing North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program, a State Department official in charge of U.S. policy toward Pyongyang said Friday.
Thailand and other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have demonstrated "substantial change" in their dealings with Pyongyang, Joseph Yun, the American special representative on North Korea, said after holding meetings with senior Thai government officials in Bangkok.
"We had good discussions on all things DPRK and, especially of course, how we see the issues concerning de-nuclearization," Yun told reporters in the Thai capital, using the abbreviation for North Korea.
At recent international meetings, including the Asia Pacific Economic Forum (APEC) summit in Vietnam and the East Asia summit and other meetings this year in the Philippines, ASEAN countries had shown "very strong support for regional stability and peace," Yun said.
Participants loudly demanded that North Korea abandon its program of developing and testing nuclear weapons, the diplomat said.
"So, I would say, yes, the countries in the region are committed to upholding the requirements of the U.N. Security Council resolutions and, at the highest levels, they support the goal of a de-nuclearized North Korea," Yun said on the final day of a two-day trip to Thailand.
The U.S. State Department, in pursuing a policy this year of so-called "Maximum Pressure and Engagement" toward North Korea, has lobbied countries in the region to downgrade ties with North Korea. All 10 ASEAN members maintain relations with North Korea, and Pyongyang is also a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
In the wake of an escalation of North Korean missile tests, the United States in August urged ASEAN leaders meeting in Manila to expel Pyongyang from ARF, but the regional bloc backed away from taking concrete steps.
However, both the Philippines and Malaysia downgraded bilateral ties with North Korea. In September, the Philippine government announced it had cut trade relations with Pyongyang in compliance with U.N. Security Council resolutions.
And ties between Kuala Lumpur were shaken this year after the killing on Malaysian soil of the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, which Malaysia, South Korea and the United States blamed on the government in Pyongyang.
'There is no trade'
In Thailand's case, the kingdom had "substantially reduced" trade with North Korea – by as much as 95 percent – Yun said, noting that Thailand was the country that originally invited North Korea to join the ARF grouping, when it held the ASEAN chair back in the 1990s.
According to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, trade with North Korea stood at U.S. $1.6 million during the first three quarters of 2017, marking a 94-percent drop from the same period last year.
"It's expected that by late 2017 there will be no export or import of goods between Thailand and North Korea," Pimchanok Vonkorpon, head of the Thai Commerce Ministry's Trade Policy and Strategy Office, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Yun declined to confirm whether he and Thai officials talked about North Korean companies using Bangkok as a Southeast Asian hub. But for the United States, there were no remaining areas of concern regarding Thailand's bilateral relations with the communist regime, he said.
Yun said he came to Bangkok "with no agenda," and added it was "purely, by coincidence" that he was in the country while informal, backchannel diplomatic talks between low-level U.S. representatives and North Korean officials were taking place in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai.
On Thursday, Yun met with Gen. Wanlop Rugsanoah, secretary-general of Thailand's National Security Council, among other officials.
According to the NSC chief, Yun pressed the Thais to downgrade ties with Pyongyang.
"The U.S. asked Thailand to put more pressure on North Korea, put more trade and diplomatic pressure," Wanlop told AFP.
On Tuesday, the eve of Yun's arrival in Bangkok, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha denied that his country engaged in trade and commerce with the hermit kingdom.
"Thailand guarantees ... that we have abided by the United Nations resolutions," the Thai junta chief told reporters, according to Reuters.

"There have been reports about North Korean boats in our waters ... I prohibited them a long time ago," he said. "There is no trade ... there is no commerce."


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The army commander in Thailand's troubled Deep South called Monday for a village chief to be fired after suspected insurgents stopped a double-decker bus carrying about a dozen people and then burned it.
No one was hurt in the carjacking, which took place Sunday afternoon in Ban Kasod, a village in Yala province's Bunnang Sata district, as the bus headed from the southern border town of Betong to Bangkok. The 10 or so perpetrators, who were dressed like soldiers, ordered all the passengers to step off the bus before setting it on fire, the driver told BenarNews.
The village chief, other locals as well as defense volunteers and military officials could be at fault for failing to stop the incident, according to Lt. Gen. Piyawat Nakwanich, the army's commander in the region.
"The village headman said he did not know anything about the carjack and arson in his jurisdiction, which could not be. He deserves sacking," Piyawat told reporters after returning from Yala. He asked the Interior Ministry's administrator to dismiss the village official.
Piyawat also said authorities would investigate the security detail assigned to the village, defense volunteers and military personnel to determine if they were careless or even conspired with the suspected insurgents.
"They will be disciplined if anyone is found negligent or perhaps helped them in the action. ... Something looks suspicious," he said.
Abdulla Sabaebo, the driver of the bus, gave BenarNews details about the perpetrators.
"They said to us in Malay that they would not harm anyone. They told all 15 people onboard to leave the bus. We all ran into the woods on the roadside quickly because we were so frightened," he said. "It did not take too long before the military and the police came to help us and extinguish the fire, and take us to the police station."
After the fire, officials in the region showed flyers written in Thai seeking protection money from the bus operator, Siam Transport Co., and signed by "Fatoni Warriors," a name used by Malay insurgents who seek independence from Thailand.
In Bangkok, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan said insurgents had ceased using the tactic of burning passenger buses until Sunday, and he would discuss with regional commanders what measures to implement to stop the threat.
Meanwhile, Piyawat said, authorities would take steps to ensure security throughout the Deep South as the New Year's holiday approaches.
Since 2004, when the decades-old separatist conflict re-ignited in the predominantly Muslim region along Thailand's far southern border, nearly 7,000 people have been killed in related violence.


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Violence from an insurgency in Thailand's Deep South fell to a historic low in 2017, analysts said, even as peace talks gained little traction and failed to produce a long-awaited truce.
Insurgency-related incidents were at their lowest since the decades-old separatist conflict in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking southern border region flared in 2004, according to Deep South Watch, a think-tank based in Pattani province.
"The start of negotiations in 2013 is the pivotal point of the violence in Deep South. In general, the violence declined, and it benefits people," Professor Srisompob Jitpiromsri, who heads the think-tank, told BenarNews.
He was referring to peace talks with the rebels that began four years ago under the government of then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. In 2015, a military-led government that toppled Yingluck in a coup started exploratory talks with a new group, MARA Patani, an umbrella panel that claims to represent various rebel groups and factions in Malaysia-brokered negotiations.
Since 2004, nearly 7,000 people have been killed and more than 13,000 have been injured in violence associated with the insurgency in the heavily militarized region, according to Deep South Watch.
But violence has declined steadily since 2013, it said. This year, 235 people were killed and 356 injured in 545 incidents across the Deep South, compared with a high of 892 people killed and 1,681 wounded in 2007.
The 2017 statistics didn't include two suspected rebel attacks that killed one soldier and injured six other people on Tuesday in Narathiwat, another province in the region.
"In the past two years, we couldn't create much violence for many reasons. The military is everywhere, in the villages and so on," a member of the National Revolutionary Front (BRN), the largest and most powerful of rebel groups in the Deep South, told BenarNews.
"But there are orders to carry out attacks, and sometimes we failed," the rebel said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Zachary Abuza, a U.S.-based expert on the insurgency in the Thai Deep South, said the decline in violence resulted from the proliferation of military checkpoints and a change in tactics by the BRN, which underwent a change of leadership following the deaths of its two founders in 2017.
"Violence is down because the insurgents see no need for it. They have driven Buddhists out of large swaths of the south," Abuza wrote in a recent column for BenarNews.
"The BRN insurgents in southern Thailand have demonstrated that they are able to turn on the violence at will," he added.
Bad blood
Meanwhile, questions lingered throughout 2017 over whether MARA Patani truly represents all the rebel groups in the Deep South and whether BRN is on board with the current peace process.
Abu Hafiz Al-Hakim, a Malaysia-based spokesman for MARA, insisted in an interview with BenarNews this year that the panel represented BRN because, he said, BRN leaders occupied three of the seats on MARA.
In April, in a rare statement, BRN criticized the current negotiations between Thailand and MARA and suggested that the panel wasn't really negotiating on its behalf. BRN demanded a direct role in fresh talks that would be mediated by "impartial" members of the international community.
Don Pathan, a BenarNews contributor and security expert based in southern Thailand, said sources had informed him in September that there was "bad blood between the BRN and Mara Patani, and this will take time to overcome."
Srisompob, the director of Deep South Watch, said a different set of peace talks, including with the leader of BRN, could start sometime next year in Saudi Arabia.
"We heard a report that the BRN faction of Doonloh Wae-mano would join the talks. I heard it would be held in Saudi Arabia, not Malaysia. That is a good trend," Srisompob told Benar News.
What progress?
Despite the reduction in violence, rebels mounted several deadly attacks in 2017, and locals said they still lived in fear of BRN.
The group is believed to have instigated much of the violence in 2017, including three separate roadside ambushes in April and June that each killed six soldiers.
This year's violence also targeted civilians. On May 10, two car-bombs exploded outside the Big C, a department store in Pattani town, injuring at least 69 people. Although BRN hardly ever claims responsibility for attacks, a supporter of the group told BenarNews that the rebel group had carried out the twin bombings.
Among the civilians killed this year was a relative of "Dah," a rubber farmer in Yala province.
The woman was shot and killed at home, Dah told BenarNews.
"I and my kin suspect that the BRN insurgents killed our relative. We don't know if she did anything to them or not to invite death to herself. Our family is so scared," Dah said.
Citing fears for her safety and reports that young BRN militants had infiltrated her village, she asked that BenarNews use only her nickname.
Dah expressed skepticism about the peace talks in 2017.
"The government said the peace talks made progress, but how? They cannot explain how and why people kept getting killed," Dah said.
Elusive 'safety zone'
In 2017, full delegations representing MARA Patani and the Thai government met twice in Kuala Lumpur – once in February and once in September. Their discussions hinged on implementing a "safety zone," or limited ceasefire, in a yet-unnamed district in the Deep South.
Yet, nearly a year after the two sides agreed in February to a framework for such a truce, no such ceasefire has materialized.
According to a Thai security official, the ceasefire was delayed because MARA delegates demanded immunity from prosecution so they could venture into the Deep South to oversee the safety zone's implementation, and this issue had not yet been resolved.
Heading into 2018, Thai negotiators will bring a comprehensive plan for a safety zone to the next meeting with MARA Patani, Maj. Gen. Sithi Trakulwong, the secretary for the Thai delegation, told BenarNews.
The plan includes a safe house, where officials from both sides will meet under secure conditions, he said.
"The Safe House is a coordination office where representatives from the dissidents, Thai officials and local civil society would work together to deal with local people to hear their views on what the safety zone should be like," Sithi said.
After that, it could take another three months to implement the limited truce, he said.
Srisompob of Deep South Watch said he was optimistic about the peace process, noting that the meeting at the "safe house" was expected to take place next month.
"The peace talks will be more tangible, given that the safety zone is being arranged."


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Fifteen men with alleged links to insurgents in the Thai Deep South were arrested Thursday, including two suspected of plotting attacks targeting New Year's festivities in Phang-Nga province, a southern tourist hotspot located well outside the troubled region, police said.
The two suspects who were picked up in Phang-Nga were from Raman, a district in Yala, one of the provinces in the Deep South, and bomb-making material was found at their home, authorities said. The arrests of the 15 suspects came after Thailand's army chief ordered a crackdown on suspected militants to safeguard year-end celebrations.
"We suspect they have links to Deep South insurgents who came here to do attacks during New Year," police Lt. Col. Weerasak Srithong told BenarNews. "They initially denied the allegation but officials don't trust them either."
In Krabi, a province near Phang-Nga, the provincial police chief said his department had received intelligence that Deep South insurgents were preparing to attack tourist sites during the New Year.
"I ordered my policemen to search for suspicious men from Deep South and do surveillance on tourist sites, crowded areas and government establishment after I received reports that insurgents planned attacks on Dec. 31 evening," Maj. Gen. Boontawee Toraksa told BenarNews.
Phang-Nga and neighboring Phuket island are among popular touristic sites in Thailand's upper southern region that were targeted in coordinated bombings, which killed four people and injured more than 30 others in August 2016.
Soon after those attacks, a leader of a combat unit with Barisan Revolusi Nasional, the largest and most powerful of insurgent groups in the Deep South, told BenarNews that BRN operatives had carried out those bombings farther north. Officials privately agreed that Deep South rebels were responsible.
According to Weerasak, the two men suspects were detained at a checkpoint in Phang-Nga. When police later searched their residence, they found material that could be used to build homemade bombs, including a gas tank, nails and miscellaneous items. He said the two were not charged but transferred to a military facility in Pattani, a province in the Deep South.
On Thursday, in Yala and neighboring Narathiwat province, police also arrested 12 men on suspicion of being involved in recent militant attacks in Narathiwat. The suspects have not been charged but were being interrogated, officials said.
A day earlier, Gen. Chalermchai Sithisart, the army commander-in-chief, ordered a crackdown against militants following a series of recent attacks in the Deep South, including an incident on Dec. 17 when insurgents hijacked a double-decker bus and set it on fire after allowing its passengers to disembark.
"I ordered the commander of the 4th Army Region, Lt. Gen. Piyawat Nakwanich, to keep the peace and protect both Buddhist and Muslim Thais, during the New Year festivities," Chalermchai, the army chief, told reporters, referring to the region including the Deep South.
"We focus on limiting insurgents' movement and firearms," he said.
A 34-year-old man has been arrested and charged over the bus attack in Yala, police said Thursday. Three other suspects remain at large, officials said. 

Earlier this week, suspected insurgents opened fire at an army truck, killing one soldier and injuring three other soldiers and a civilian in Narathiwat's Srisakhon district, police said. Two other soldiers were injured when their truck hit a roadside bomb as they rushed to secure the area on Tuesday.

In Yala province, a senior police officer told BenarNews that authorities were bracing for attacks from young members of insurgent groups.
"As far as I see it, the perpetrators planned coordinated attacks," police Col. Chamroen Suwnachatree, director of the Ayer Weng police station in Yala, said Thursday.
"They practice doing violence before carrying out bigger violence. They also intimidate villagers and show off their capability that they can do anything at will."
Since 2004, almost 7,000 people have been killed in violence associated with the insurgency in Thailand's predominantly Muslim southern border region.
This week, Deep South Watch, a local think-tank reported that, in 2017, the number of insurgent-related attacks in the region had fallen to a 14-year low.
Malay-speaking insurgents in the Deep South are fighting for secession. Until the region was annexed in 1909, Buddhist-majority Thailand's three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat were part of an independent Malay Muslim sultanate.


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A court in Thailand's Yala province sentenced a blind woman Thursday to 18 months in prison for violating the country's strict royal defamation law, in the first Lese-Majeste case in the country's Deep South region, according to her lawyer.
Defendant Nurhayati Masoh, 23, was convicted under the Lese-Majeste law for commenting on an October 2016 Facebook post by Giles Ungpakorn, a Thai-British academic who fled Thailand after being charged with breaking the same law in 2009, defense attorney Kaosar Aleemama told BenarNews.
She said her client had used a computer voice application to post the comment, which was deemed as insulting to the monarchy following the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Police charged Nurhayati on Oct. 18, 2016, five days after King Bhumibol's death and after being contacted by another visually impaired person.
"The community leader informed her about the charge and she had to report to the police station with her relative," Kaosar said. "She confessed there when asked about the case because she did not realize this would be a serious charge."
Nurhayati, who pleaded guilty in Yala Provincial Court prior to sentencing, has been detained at the Yala central prison since November 2017. Her lawyers had discussed a potential appeal and possible request for bail – if reasonable – with her relatives, said Kaosar, who is with the Yala Muslim Attorney Center Foundation.
The Thai Deep South is a predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking region.
"Even the prison staff and her friends would like to bail her out as it is hard to take care of her – someone needs to be with her every time she has to use a bathroom. But the bail fee is high. Her relatives cannot guarantee they can raise 350,000 baht (U.S. $10,860)," the lawyer said.
"The court sentenced her today to three years but reduced it by half because she pleaded guilty," Kaosar said, adding that the court case was filed Nov. 28, 2017, and Nurhayati had been detained since then.
The criminal code for Lese-Majeste states that anyone who "defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir-apparent or the regent" will be punished with a jail term between three and 15 years.
Since the Thai junta seized power in a coup in May 2014, as many as 1,319 people were called in to report to or were visited by the military, according to iLaw, a local human rights NGO. Of those, 597 were arrested, at least 82 were charged with violating Lese-Majeste and at least 64 were charged with sedition.
In June 2017, a military court handed down the longest prison sentence for violating Lese-Majeste. A man identified only as Wichai, 34, was ordered to serve 35 years for posting content on a Facebook account that purported to belong to another user and that was deemed as offensive to the monarchy.


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Thai security forces said they arrested 25 suspected militants on Friday in raids in the troubled Deep South, including a group that allegedly killed five people and another believed to have been involved in burning a double-decker bus.
Meanwhile, citing insufficient evidence, the military said it released two men from the Deep South six days after they were arrested on Dec. 28 in Phang Nga, a province in the Thailand's upper south, on suspicion of links to an alleged plot targeting New Year's festivities.
On Friday, authorities arrested two batches of suspects, including five men who allegedly conspired to kill five people and injure another person in a series of attacks in Pattani province between 2010 and 2013.
"They coordinated the killings. The team included the mastermind, scout, spotter, transporter and gunman," Maj. Gen. Jatuporn Klumpasut, who commands the Pattani Task Force, told a news conference at Fort Inkayuth Boriharn in the province.
"They met at a tea shop and plotted killings, and delivered guns at a mosque where they also changed their clothes before fleeing," he said.
Village raid
In neighboring Yala province, security personnel rounded up a second batch of suspects, 20 men who were taken into custody on Friday in connection with the attack on the double-decker bus in Bunnang Sata, a local district, on Dec. 17.
That day, suspected insurgents stopped the bus on a highway as it was heading to Bangkok and ordered the driver and passengers to get off before torching the vehicle, police said. Previously, a 34-year-old suspect was charged on Dec. 28, officials said at the time.
A resident of Tambon Ubeng, a cluster of villages in Bunnang Sata, who identified herself only as "Ah," said security forces arrived early Friday and took 20 people way, including her son-in-law, without any explanation.
"We thought they were looking for the attackers of the passenger bus," she told BenarNews.
The 20 suspects were arrested under martial law – which is in force in the Thai Deep South – and their names were released later in the day when the military said they were being held at an interrogation center in Pattani.
"We would not visit them there because we know we are not allowed to meet them. But an official promised they will not be tortured," Ah said.
Following the bus attack, Lt. Gen. Piyawat Nakwanich, the army's commander in the region, said a local village chief, other area officials as well as defense volunteers and military officials could have been at fault for failing to prevent the incident.
Lack of evidence
The arrests of the 25 suspects on Friday came after army officials ordered a crackdown in late December to safeguard year-end celebrations, including in areas outside the Deep South.
The two men who were arrested in Phang Nga, a popular tourist destination north of Phuket island, were taken for interrogation at a military facility in Pattani. At the time of their arrest, authorities said materials which could be used to build bombs – including a gas tank, nails and electronic circuits – were found during a search of their residence in Phang Nga.
The two were released on Wednesday because the gathered materials lacked key components for a bomb and the men had no criminal records linking them to Deep South insurgents, Col. Pramote Prom-in, the military's spokesman in the Deep South, told BenarNews.
Some of the 13 other suspects who were arrested on Dec. 28 for alleged links to an insurgent plot targeting New Year's have been released as well, Pramote said without elaborating.
Since 2004, nearly 7,000 people have been killed in violence associated with the separatist insurgency in Thailand's predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking southern border region.


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Gunmen killed three relatives of a former defense volunteer inside a house in Thailand's insurgency-hit Deep South, police said Wednesday evening, hours after a roadside bombing wounded a soldier and five volunteers.
The gunmen fired into a house in Tung Yang Daeng, a district of Pattani province, killing Hasana Hama, 29, Nusaree Jaemeng, 32 and Yusoh Nilae, 73, authorities said.
"According to the initial investigation, four villains came on two motorbikes and started firing inside the house," police Lt. Boonthep Kerdmud said.
Earlier, police Lt. Gen. Thompong Petchpiroon, said a roadside bomb injured the six security personnel who were riding in a pickup truck to a school in Tambon Bang Khao, a village cluster in Nong Chik, another district of Pattani.
"The incident occurred while the security officers were on their way to investigate damage to two CCTVs burned down at Ban Sai Mo school," Thompong said.  "All were taken to Nong Chik hospital."

Col. Komkrit Ratanachaya, who commands the army's ranger unit in the Deep South, said the attack was likely related to insurgency in the area.  

"They performed a violent act to tell us that they are still here, and hope that we would get into it, but we know their intentions," Komkrit said. "More importantly, local people have cooperated with us."
Since 2004, nearly 7,000 people have died in violence associated with the insurgency in Thailand's predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking southern border region.
In 2015, Thailand's military-controlled government began peace talks with MARA Patani, a group representing various insurgent groups and factions. However, the Malaysia-brokered negotiations so far have failed to produce a limited ceasefire, which is seen as pivotal to future hopes for settling the long-running separatist conflict.


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Authorities have uncovered so-called dark websites while smashing an international child-porn ring and arresting dozens of suspects over the last two years, the chief of Thailand's Internet Crimes Against Children (TICAC) task force said Thursday.
Online child-sex abuse has increased, leading investigators to bring charges against 73 people and seize assets of more than 800 million baht (U.S. $25 million) from the suspects during a two-year period dating to December 2015, police Gen. Thammasak Witcharaya, the task force's chief, told reporters.
Thammasak said investigators had filed charges in 21 human trafficking cases, 13 child-sex abuse cases and 31 child pornography cases along with six deportations. During the last two years, 38 Thai nationals and 35 foreigners including 13 American, six British and five Australian citizens have been convicted, he said.
"There were many factors to allow such crimes to occur," Thammasak told BenarNews, adding, "children can access the internet very easily."
In October 2017, the chief of the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) global cybercrime program, called Thailand the "webcam center for child pornography." Neil Walsh said the proliferation of smart phones in Thailand allowed easy access to illicit websites even in rural areas.
Child pornography online is a growing concern, Thammasak said.
"We have to approach this with an offensive strategy because people are interested in this are addicted to social media and will always look for it," he said. "Arresting them will decrease demand, which is our goal.
"Whoever possesses child pornography likely will be involved with human trafficking eventually."
Going after predators
Thammasak said task force members take steps to help protect children, including enforcing strong monitoring measures, delivering suggestions to school students to keep them safe, forming cyber patrols, and, in some cases, disguising their online identities to get information in closed chat rooms to break up child-sex rings.
TICAC officials told of a young teen boy who was tricked into pleasuring himself on a live chat, not realizing that the activity was being recorded and later posted on social media. When his school friends found the clip, he became a laughingstock. Suffering from depression, his grades fell, leading his parents to file a police complaint.
Police arrested a predator who took advantage of at least 300 victims. He was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
In a separate case, a TICAC investigator got into a closed chat room, where members arranged live sex acts. Police arrested one member whose act involved a 3-year-old.
"This is depressing and concerning because this trend is increasing," Thammasak said.
"We've found similar cases that challenge our ability to integrate our work with other agencies to prevent this crime," he said, adding that the task force was proposing a full-time department to battle child-sex crimes along with the cyber patrol and digital evidence verification units already in place.
To establish the full-time department, TICAC is working with the immigration police bureau and Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division (ATPD).
On Thursday, ATPD chief Police Maj. Gen. Kornchai Klayklueng told reporters that a geographic information system, ArcGIS, had been created to follow and arrest people suspected of being involved in human trafficking. He said police would adapt the program to chase cyber criminals.
In one case, an ATPD officer used ArcGIS to track a woman who was reported missing for seven days and discovered that she had provided sex services in Bangkok.
In another case involving sex abuse, local police spent 15 days without making any progress in their investigation. ATPD interviewed a victim and learned that the suspect rode a motorcycle after midnight.
Officials used ArcGIS to limit a search area to 50 km (31 miles), which resulted in identifying a dozen suspects. Limiting the search area to 10 km (six miles) cut the suspect list to four.
Officials showed those images to a victim to verify and arrested a suspect within 12 hours.
The Philippines and Indonesia have expressed interest in the task force and U.S. Homeland Security partners with TICAC, Thammasak said.
Along with Homeland Security, TICAC cooperates with the FBI in the United States and Interpol internationally to combat online child-sex abuse. Thailand signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. to allow TICAC to access information, pictures and video clips to strengthen investigations into these crimes.


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Thai officials on Friday said they had arrested a Pakistani man who allegedly counterfeited passports for customers mainly from Middle East countries, including some criminals and others possibly linked to a terrorist organization.
Mohammad Iqbal, 52, was arrested Sunday in suburban Bangkok and charged with forgery, Immigration Police Commander Lt. Gen. Suttipong Vongpint told reporters.
Police said Iqbal had three fake Singaporean passports and an Indian passport, fake entry-visa stickers for Canada, France, Italy and Spain, a laptop as well as laminates to produce the forged documents. Immigration police charged him with passport forgery, possessing fake passports for sale and making counterfeit visas to overseas countries, and detained him for additional questioning.
Earlier this week, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters that Iqbal may be linked to the terror group Islamic State (IS).
"The suspect counterfeited passports for IS members preparing to have them travel from the Middle East to Thailand," he said, according to Agence France-Presse, adding that the efforts were unsuccessful. Prawit also said investigators had not determined if Iqbal was linked to IS.
On Friday, Maj. Gen. Ittipol Ittisarnronnachai, deputy commander of Immigration Bureau police, said Iqbal had sold passports to customers outside of Thailand.
"Major customers are from the Middle East. I would not specify their citizenship and do not prematurely conclude they are involved with terrorist groups," Ittipol told BenarNews. "It is a national security concern."
Beginning in 2015, police have interrogated suspects and arrested members of a passport forgery network linked to Iqbal. Iqbal is believed to have based his operation in Thailand for more than a decade and was a leading producer and trader of fake passports, according to Ittipol.
"We found he had Singaporean passports. It might be because Singaporean passports allow people to enter to many countries easily," Suttipong said. "Mostly, he produced French and Italian passports because Middle East customers has similar facial features and it's easy to help these people slip into Europe illegally."
Ittipol described two types of fake passports.
The first is a genuine one that is expired, so the person who has it illegally would request that fake pages be added. The cost to produce in Thailand is minimal, but the passport could be sold for more than 100,000 baht (U.S. $3,138) to a European customer.
The second type is a total forgery that can sell for 18,000 to 20,000 baht ($564 to $627).


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Three civilians were killed and 28 other people were injured when a bomb exploded at a market in Thailand's Deep South on Monday, in the deadliest attack by suspected insurgents in the troubled region in 2018 so far, local authorities said.
The bomb, which went off in the morning at the busy Pimonchai market in Yala province, was rigged to a motorcycle that had been stolen from a local woman, officials said.
Witnesses saw a suspect leave the bike next to a pork stall in the market in Yala town, Muang district, before the bomb exploded around 6:20 a.m., Col. Prawit Chorseng, the chief of Yala municipal police, told reporters.
The blast damaged houses, shops and vehicles within an 80-meter (262-feet) radius.
"An attacker rode a motorcycle to park at the bomb scene. Witness told him to not park the bike there, but he ignored this and got away, and the bomb went off four to five minutes later," Prawit said.
"I believe the insurgents did it to cause unrest," Pol. Lt. Eakapong Rattanachai, an inspector with the Yala's police station, said.
The bombing brought to 12 the number of people killed in attacks by separatist insurgents across the Deep South in the first three weeks of the new year, according to figures compiled by BenarNews. At least 42 other people were hurt in those attacks.
"The bombing shows the insurgents never stop trying to indiscriminately destroy lives and property," Col. Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) in the region, said Monday.
"It is the continued attempt of those bad guys to target civilians. They don't give up to sabotage urban areas, in particular, because that can cause lots of lives and damages. Such attacks create a lack of confidence in the government," he told reporters.
Robiyah Maming, a vegetable vendor at the market, said she escaped injury because she had gone elsewhere to deliver products when the blast occurred.
"I was frightened and almost passed out. How could this happen? Why do the innocent people have to be killed?" she told BenarNews, referring to the horrific scene she witnessed after returning to the market.
'A group of bad people'
According to another security official who declined to be identified, the bombing was carried out by Maroyee Ma-ae, the leader of an insurgent unit that calls itself the "Patani Revolution Organization."
However, Lt. Gen. Piyawat Nakwanich, the commander of the Fourth Army in the region, claimed that insurgents were not behind the attack. He suggested that other people had hired armed thugs to carry out the bombing in order to disrupt the local economy.
"There has been no such violence in the municipality for two to three years, but today's incident was aimed to destroy the economy. They knew that the market was packed in the morning," Piyawat told reporters.
"This has nothing to do with the insurgency at all. It's about a group of bad people who get an order to do this. There are three to four well-known families that are capable of doing this, we know that," he added.
Apart from the separatist insurgency that has dragged on for decades in Thailand's predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking border region, the Deep South is notorious for criminal activity.
Later on Monday, a 28-year-old man, identified as Makodafi Badee, was shot dead in Rue-soh, a district of Narathiwat, another province in the Deep South, but local authorities had yet to determine whether the shooting was related to the insurgency.
Bombing condemned
Nearly 7,000 people – many of them civilians – have been killed in violence associated with insurgency since the conflict re-ignited in 2004.
In the past few years, Thailand's military-controlled government has held exploratory talks with MARA Patani, a panel that claims to represent all of the various rebel groups in the region. But those talks, facilitated by Malaysia, so far have failed to produce a limited ceasefire, which is seen as a crucial first step in negotiations aimed at settling the conflict.
After Monday's deadly explosion at the market in Yala, the secretariat of the Thai government's delegation to the talks issued a statement condemning the attack.
"... The government and the peace-talk panel welcome all groups and open the doors for everyone to find a peaceful solution. But we have no room for ones who adopt violence on innocents because it is a crime. All involved agencies should enforce the law with military operations and maintain the rule of law against these criminals," the statement said.
A local group, the Buddhists' Network for Peace, urged the participants in the ongoing talks to step up efforts to advance the peace process.
"[We] are asking the militant groups or opposition group including armed elements in the area to stop violent action against innocent civilians. [We] demand all stakeholders and Thais nationwide to condemn and express their disagreement against violence ...," a statement from the network said.


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Forced labor and other reprehensible conditions persist in Thailand's fishing industry despite governmental promises of reforms, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday in a new report.
HRW presented its 134-page report, based on interviews with more than 200 migrant workers, boat owners and activists, to members of the European Parliament in Brussels.
The report spells out how migrants – many of them from Myanmar and Cambodia – can be victims of human trafficking who are forced to work on fishing boats, prevented from changing employers, have their pay held or not be paid the minimum wage.
"It was torture. One time I was so tired I fell off the boat, but they pulled me back on board," a trafficking survivor from Myanmar, identified as Zin Min Thet, told HRW interviewers in Thailand's Ranong province in March 2016.
HRW pointed out that Thailand had received a "yellow card" warning in 2015, a year after media reports exposed human trafficking and brutalization in the fishing industry – meaning it could face a ban on exporting seafood to the European Union (EU) because of its unregulated practices. In addition, the United States placed Thailand on Tier 2 of its Watch List in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report.
Despite those admonitions, HRW found "shortcomings in the implementation of new government regulations and resistance in the fishing industry to reforms."
"No one should be fooled by regulations that look good on paper but are not properly enforced," HRW Asia Director Brad Adams said in a news release issued with the report.
"The E.U. and U.S. urgently need to increase pressure on Thailand to protect the rights, health and safety of fishers."
A Thai official questioned the validity of the report, titled "Hidden Chains: Forced Labor and Rights Abuses in Thailand's Fishing Industry."
"What HRW showed was based on one-sided information that was compiled. This is somewhat obsolete," Vice Adm. Wanaphol Klomkaew, with the Command Center for Combating Illegal Fishing, told BenarNews. "We understand (HRW) wants to discredit us."
For the report, HRW interviewed 248 current and former workers in the Thai fishing industry, between 2015 and 2017. A total of 174 Burmese, 70 Cambodian, and four Thai nationals, participated in 58 focus-group and individual interviews.
Of those interviewed, HRW declared that 95 men had been designated as victims of trafficking who had either escaped or were rescued between May 2014 and July 2016. Most of the remaining 153 men were working in the fishing industry when they were interviewed.
 
 
Pink cards
Among the reforms instituted by the Thai government is a registration system where migrant workers are issued and must carry "pink cards" to reduce the number of undocumented workers. The cards tie the migrants to a specific location and, in some cases, require an employer's permission to change jobs.
"You can't leave because if you leave you won't get paid, and if you want to leave at the end, it's only if they let you. Unless you leave without your money and your [pink] card, you have to obtain their permission," Cambodian Bien Vorn told HRW interviewers in Rayong Province in November 2016.
HRW, however, did credit the Thai government for establishing a Port-in, Port-out (PIPO) system in all major ports. It requires boats to report for inspections, including of crew lists, as they depart and return to port, and creating procedures to inspect boats at sea.
The crew lists helped "end some of the worst abuses, such as captains killing crew members" before they returned to port and would need to be paid, HRW said.
Yet the rights watchdog also challenged the government's efforts.
"The labor inspection regime is largely a theatrical exercise for international consumption," HRW said. "For example, under the PIPO system, HRW found officials speak to ship captains and boat owners and check documents but rarely conduct interviews with migrant fishers."
Wanaphol, the official at the center for combating illegal fishing, defended the government's actions.
"PIPO outlets could not check all fishing boats," he said. "There are some independent fishing boats who might hire illegal workers.
"However, we have patrol boats from many government agencies – the navy, fisheries department, the marine department, marine police, and the Department of Marine and Coastal – to help detect them at sea."
In addition, the government conducts random checks.
"We have a way to assess the risk of certain groups of fishing boats – Common Risk Based Analysis – to determine who may have illegal laborers," Wanaphol said.
"We prioritize the groups that are at risk of breaking the laws, fishing rules or labor rules and we do check on them on both outbound and inbound legs. We randomly check otherwise non-risk boats."
Wanaphol said there had been no reports of illegal fishing boats in the last six months. "Except for some laborers who may have been smuggled into the country and did not register properly. If they haven't registered, the PIPO could not fully control them."
Recommendations
HRW recommended that the Thai government adopt legislation against forced labor that ensures appropriate criminal and civil penalties and protection for victims.
The advocacy group called for the government to end restrictions on migrant workers' freedom of movement, including eliminating the requirement that those with pink cards must seek prior permission to travel.
It also called on the prime minister's office to increase investigations and prosecutions of human trafficking and forced labor in the fishing industry.
The office should establish an independent commission to recommend changes in laws, regulations and policies adversely affecting migrant workers' rights, HRW said among its recommendations, adding that the employment department should revise regulations to permit migrant fishermen to change jobs at any time and without restriction.
Wilawan Watcharasakvet in Bangkok contributed to this report.


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A Thai court indicted nine politicians and activists Wednesday on charges of treason and terrorism for fomenting anti-government protests that turned deadly and shut down parts of the capital Bangkok for months ahead of a military coup in May 2014.
Suthep Thaugsuban, 68, who founded the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), a group that spearheaded the massive street demonstrations against the government of then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, and eight other defendants could face the death penalty or life terms in prison if convicted of the charges.
"The attorney general charged nine of us and took us to the criminal court to acknowledge the indictment on treason, terrorism, forming a criminal syndicate, breaking emergency decree, trespassing government premises and opposing general elections. All are serious offenses," Suthep told reporters outside a Bangkok criminal courthouse.
"[W]e agreed that we all would report to the attorney general when [the AG] would charge us because we, as Thai citizens, respect the nation's laws and the judicial system. We will fight the case," said Suthep. He had served as deputy prime minister under Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who led Thailand from 2008 to 2011 and now heads the Democrat Party.
A senior official from the attorney-general's office said 34 other people accused of similar offenses would be indicted at a later date because they failed to respond to a summons to appear in court on Wednesday.
"We indicted nine persons who were present today from the total of 43. There are 34 more that we would consecutively indict. If one of them wants to postpone the appointment, we would consider it," Deputy Attorney-General Chartpong Jiraphandhu told reporters.
At least 25 people were killed during the tumult of the protests that lasted from late 2013 into May 2014, including anti-government demonstrators, Yingluck supporters, and police officers.

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Anti-government protestors stand-off with police as they try to force their way into the office of then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, in Bangkok, Dec. 2, 2013. [Pimuk Rakkanam/BenarNews] Pimuk Rakkanam/BenarNews

 
A turbulent time
The protests against Yingluck started as she tried to push a package of bills through the legislature that would have granted her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, immunity from prosecution over alleged corruption, if he returned from self-imposed exile abroad. Thaksin was overthrown in a coup by the military in 2006.
"All children, women and elderly who fought alongside us and died remain in our thoughts. We adhere to the commitment to reform our country, regardless of the price. If we lose the case, we accept the punishment," Suthep said.
Yingluck refused to respond to protestors' calls for her to step down, but then the military, led by Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha, the current prime minister, removed her from power in a coup on May 22, 2014. The junta justified the coup, saying it was necessary because the situation had grown out of control and keeping Yingluck in office was fueling instability.
Since then, the junta has pledged to return Thailand to a path of democracy, but it has imposed strict controls on freedom of speech and public assembly, has arrested government critics as well as postponed promises of national elections several times over the past four years. According to the latest pronouncement from Prayuth's government, a general election is expected to take place in November of this year.


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Thai police charged seven pro-democracy activists Tuesday with sedition and defying a ban on public gatherings for leading a hundred-strong demonstration in downtown Bangkok that demanded the junta hold elections in November and not postpone them till 2019.
The seven who belong to an activist organization, the "Democracy Restoration Group," violated a military-government order prohibiting public political gatherings of five or more people by organizing the protest over the weekend, Deputy National Police Chief Gen. Srivarah Rangsipramanakul told reporters.
"The NCPO was a plaintiff, filing a complaint with the Pathumwan station police to charge the activist leaders. The next legal step is to summon them to hear the charges," Srivarah said, referring to the junta by its official acronym, the National Council for Peace and Order.
"We will investigate whether there is someone who finances them to hold anti-government activities," Srivarah said. He added that police had a suspect in mind, but he declined to reveal a name.
On Saturday, the group staged its demonstration at the corner of a busy metro station in Bangkok's Pathumwan district, where participants repeatedly chanted "elections."
The demonstration followed on the heels of public comments by two deputy prime ministers who indicated that national polls – which Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha had previously pledged to hold in November 2018 – could be postponed again, possibly till early next year. One of the deputies cited delays in passing laws that are required for setting up elections.
Before last week's comments by Prayuth's deputies, the NCPO postponed elections on at least four occasions since the military seized power in a coup that toppled a civilian government in May 2014, although junta leaders had vowed to put Thailand back on a path to democracy.
"The elections could be held in February next year. The inability to set a clear date for elections is due to the junta's lack confidence that military-friendly political parties could gain the most seats," Titipol Phakdeewanich, a lecturer in political science at Ubon Ratchathani University, told BenarNews.
'I am not worried'
Each of the activists who led Saturday's demonstration could face up to seven years in prison, if convicted, according to a legal expert.
Rangsiman Rome, one of the seven leaders, said he found out about the charges through media reports but had not been officially summoned by police to hear the charges.
"I am not worried as the prosecution will be through a civilian court, not a military one," Rangsiman told BenarNews in a phone interview.
"We can be charged with lawsuits but we can still fight. We will hold another [demonstration] this Feb. 10," Rangsiman said.
Since the May 2014 coup, at least 64 people have been charged with sedition and at least 82 have been charged with violating Lese-Majeste, Thailand's strict law against royal defamation, according to statistics compiled by iLaw, a local human rights NGO.
A 24-year-old pro-democracy activist, Chanoknan Ruamsap, fled Thailand earlier this week after she learned that she was being charged with Lese-Majeste for sharing via Facebook a BBC News profile of the country's new king, Maha Vajiralongkorn, published soon after the death King Bhumibol Adulyadej in October 2016, according to reports.
In August 2017, another activist, Jatupat Boonpattararaksa, was convicted and sentenced to 30 months in prison on a royal defamation charge for "liking" the same BBC article on his Facebook page.
"Thailand's military junta has used its unchecked powers to drop the country into an ever-deeper abyss of human rights abuses," Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said when HRW came out this month with its annual worldwide report. "Instead of restoring basic rights as promised, the junta prosecuted critics and dissenters, banned peaceful protests, and censored the media."
Prayuth: Junta needs more time
However, despite the ban on political demonstrations, some anti-junta protests have taken place since last year that reflected apparent growing discontent with the military government's policies and its repeated delays in holding the first polls since the coup.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Prayuth, the retired army general who led that coup, denied that he had postponed the elections till next year. He told reporters he could not give a specific date for polls.
"I don't know, it is up to the laws related to the elections ... They haven't finished passing laws ... I haven't postponed the date," Prayuth said in Bangkok.
"I beg for some more time to lay a foundation for the country, for how long, it would depend on the laws. Don't feel desperate in me and the NCPO. I beg you for your understanding," he said.
Correction: An earlier misquoted activist Rangsiman Rome as saying that police had not summoned him officially to appear in court to hear charges against him.


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Human Rights Watch (HRW) says it wants Thai authorities to drop charges against dozens of activists who appeared at a police station Friday in response to summons over their demonstration calling for government elections in November.
Earlier this week, police in Bangkok's Pathumwan district charged seven pro-democracy activists with sedition and defying a ban on public gatherings for leading a demonstration that drew about 100 people to a corner of the Siam metro station.
Since then, 32 others were charged with breaching the public gathering law by failing to seek advanced approval and assembling within 150 meters (492 feet) of a palace of Princess Sirindhorn.
Police agreed to delay their actual surrender before a judge to next week to give the suspects time to make bail arrangements to keep themselves out of jail.
"Human Rights Watch has issued a statement on its stance this morning asking the Thai police to drop all charges, be they sedition charge or defying the NCPO order. The cases must stop at the police level," Sunai Phasuk, a Thai HRW researcher told BenarNews.
"What happened causes concerns because the NCPO said it is paving a way for elections this year, but any political activities are disallowed," he said referring to the junta government by its official acronym, the National Council for Peace and Order. "It hints that the elections would not be democratically free and fair."
The demonstration, on Jan. 27, followed public comments by two deputy prime ministers that despite an earlier pledge from Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, the election could be postponed until early next year.
On Tuesday, Prayuth said he could not give a specific date.
"I beg for some more time to lay a foundation for the country, for how long, it would depend on the laws. Don't feel desperate in me and the NCPO. I beg you for your understanding," he said at the time.
Previously, the NCPO postponed elections at least four times since seizing power in a military coup in May 2014 even as junta leaders vowed to put Thailand back on a path to democracy.
"By prosecuting activists for peacefully protesting military rule, Thailand's junta shows just how unwilling it is to ease its political repression," said Brad Adams, HRW Asia director. "With each arbitrary charge against dissenters and critics, the junta makes a mockery of its promises to restore democracy to Thailand."
Proceeding delayed
A lawyer representing the suspects at the police station said about 30 had responded to the summons on Friday.
"[They] came to show that they did not break the laws as charged and are willing to go through the proceedings and won't escape," said Pawinee Chumsri, a lawyer at Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.
She said police agreed to delay proceedings until Feb. 8 to allow the suspects to prepare for bail bonds, which could range from 10,000 baht (U.S. $318) to 200,000 baht ($6,358).
A sedition conviction carries a maximum seven-year sentence while a public gathering conviction carries a maximum six-month sentence, Pawinee said. Thailand's strict Public Gathering Act bans gatherings of more than five people.
Nuttaa Mahattana, one of the seven charged with sedition and defying the junta order, said she expected police would try to jail her and the others because they had mentioned Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan, the deputy prime minister who oversees security affairs.
In most cases, those who receive summons only have to show up at summons to acknowledge the charge and be fingerprinted, she said.
"The police seeking to put us behind bars was not a surprise," Nuttaa told reporters. "They want to jail us all, so we decided to postpone our surrender."
Since the May 2014 coup, at least 64 people have been charged with sedition and at least 82 have been charged with violating Lese-Majeste, Thailand's strict law against royal defamation, according to statistics compiled by iLaw, a local human rights NGO.


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Thailand has revamped a program that aims to rehabilitate southern insurgents who lay down their weapons by focusing on hardcore rebels requiring special training, the Thai army's regional commander said.
The Thai military sharply reduced the number of enrollees and changed criteria for people signing up for the Bring People Home Project, which encourages rebels to surrender and transition back to civilian life in their home villages, he said.
"We reset the program, adopting all new measures," Lt. Gen. Piyawat Nakwanich, commander of the army's Fourth Region, which covers the troubled Thai Deep South, told reporters earlier this month.
In 2017, Thailand's defense minister ordered a review of the program, changes to it and closer vetting of applicants after one of its participants allegedly took part in a bombing that injured scores of civilians outside a department store in Pattani province last May.
Piyawat was speaking at a Feb. 2 ceremony in Yarang, a district of Pattani, where 288 men identified as separatist insurgents surrendered symbolically to the authorities as program enrollees, although they had already formally turned themselves in. The military was parading them before the local press as enrollees in the revamped program.
In the months leading up to the attack on the Big C department store, military officials claimed that as many as 4,400 insurgents had signed up for Bring People Home. But now, through the scaled down numbers, only the 288 remain enrolled, including 161 who signed up in 2018, Piyawat said.
"The more than 4,000 others enrolled before were found non-relevant. ... We want the real ones who have arrest warrants and other 'misled persons' to join the program. And we reset the program, we abandoned the old procedures and adopt new ones which are clearly different," Piyawat said.
The thousands of others who were not considered hardcore rebels were removed from the program's rolls and allowed to return to their villages in the predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South, where nearly 7,000 people have been killed in insurgency-related incidents and other violence since the separatist conflict reignited 14 years ago.
The number of enrollees was also revised down because program's staff could not effectively monitor and visit thousands of enrollees twice a month, officials said. Last year, the military allocated 106 million baht (U.S. $3.33 million) for Bring People Home.
"The program must be sped up because it not only reduces violence, but it sends a psychological effect on the attempts to train new insurgents," said Col. Pansit Supanchanaburi, the officer who oversees the program.
Hotline
The program, which was started in the Deep South in 2013, allows enrollees to live in their home villages while attending activities such as "attitude adjustment" indoctrination sessions and vocational training aimed at helping them get jobs and reintegrate back into civilian life.
A handful of those who enroll are subject to possible prosecution over past activities, but the military provides ex-insurgents with legal assistance and lawyers, Piyawat said.
"There are many more prospects, in and outside Thailand, who want to enroll," Piyawat added.
Meanwhile, at least 2,000 ex-members of Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) and Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO), two of the rebel groups in the Deep South, have expressed interest in joining Bring People Home, according to the Bangkok Post last week. It quoted a former PULO fighter who claimed he spoke for members of the group who were hiding out in Malaysia, Brunei, Scandinavia and the Middle East.
Piyawat said he had set up a "hotline" number for insurgents to call if they were thinking of surrendering through the program. Last February, the general made headlines when he flew by helicopter to personally take a southern militant into custody as the man surrendered to Thai authorities through Bring People Home.
'The smiles of everyone'
Harong Maroh called the hotline in April 2017 saying he decided to move back to the Deep South after a decade on the run from Thai authorities and hiding out in neighboring Malaysia.
Harong got into trouble with the Thai authorities because his brother was involved in an anti-government demonstration in Tak Bai, Narathiwat province, where 85 protesters died in October 2004 after authorities packed them into and stacked their bodies on top of each other inside a truck.
Harong fled the Deep South in 2007.
"One day my wife learned that I got a subpoena, so she and our kids came to join me there [in Kelantan, Malaysia]," he told reporters at the Feb. 2 ceremony in Pattani, adding that a court case against him was dismissed after he signed up for Bring People Home.
At last week's ceremony where enrollees symbolically handed over their weapons to Thai soldiers, Piwayat claimed that "we heartily embrace them, showing them sincerity, giving them justice and safety," so the former insurgents can see "the smiles of everyone in their families."
But, he also warned, if one of the enrollees returned to his old life of rebellion, it would be "hard to fix."
"If so, we would bring them to justice," Piyawat said.
Last year, soon after the general choppered into Yala province to take custody of alleged insurgent Ahama Duere, Thai security expert Don Pathan raised questions about whether Bring People Home was simply a public relations exercise or an effective counter-insurgency tool in winning "hearts and minds" in the Deep South.
"[T]he Thai government calls the project a success but offers no meaningful justification to support that claim. Every now and then, authorities put together a boot-stomping public ceremony where former combatants and authorities get together in a show of force and unity with hugs and handshakes in front of the media and villagers," Pathan wrote in a column for BenarNews.
"But in remote villages, insurgents keep operating freely mainly because villagers continue to support them. They take turns making food for insurgents and sometimes providing them with shelter if their unit has been moved from another area for whatever reason," he went to say.
Araya Poejar in Bangkok and Matahari Ismail in Narathiwat contributed to this report.


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Suspected insurgents detonated eight pipe bombs that injured at least nine people in Thailand's troubled Deep South on Sunday, including two police officers, investigators said.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the bombings that took place in six locations in Pattani province, but local officials said they believed that Malay-speaking separatist insurgents were behind the blasts.
"Today's attacks were carried out by the minority within an insurgent group who don't understand us," Olarn Bilson, the chief officer of Yarang district in Pattani, told reporters. Olarn did not explain the basis for his allegations.
Sunday's explosions occurred three weeks after suspected insurgents killed three civilians and injured 28 other people in a bomb attack at the busy Pimonchai market in Yala, a neighboring province in the Deep South province, about 1,072 km (670 miles) from the Thai capital Bangkok.
Officials said two bombs went off at dawn Sunday after a police investigator in Pattani's Sai Buri district said he had received reports that six bombs were found in separate locations, including at a Muslim cemetery.
"Officials found pipe bombs and managed to destroy four of them; two went off but caused no injuries or deaths," police Capt. Chavalit Artteng told BenarNews.
But six people, including two police officers, were wounded when three improvised explosive devices (IEDs) went off in three areas in Yaring district, Capt. Pawich Krachangsri told reporters.
The two officers suffered shrapnel wounds when one bomb exploded as they were investigating the scene of the first blast, he said.
Three people were also slightly injured when another IED exploded at a night market in Yarang, police Lt. Wicha Nupannoy told BenarNews. Two more bombs exploded separately in the district, but caused no injuries or deaths, he said.
Nearly 50 incidents in 2018
Since the start of the new year, including Sunday's blasts, 26 people have been killed in 49 shooting and bomb attacks in the Deep South, according to statistics that BenarNews compiled from military and police reports.
It's not clear if all the attacks were insurgency-related, because officials do not distinguish rebel-related violence from acts of personal vendettas in their reports.
Apart from the separatist insurgency that has dragged on for decades in the predominantly Muslim southern border region, the Deep South is notorious for criminal activity.
The region – composed of the provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat – has been plagued by a long-running separatist insurgency as ethnic Malay guerillas battle Thai troops for more autonomy from Buddhist-majority Thailand's rule.
Between October 2016 and September 2017, as many as 233 soldiers, policemen and defense volunteers were killed in roadside bombings and other types of ambuscades in the Deep South, according to Thailand's Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC). Officials blamed insurgents for most of the attacks.
Overall almost 7,000 people, including civilians, have been killed and 15,000 injured in violence associated with the insurgency since 2004.
During the past three years, the Thai junta has engaged various rebel groups in the south in peace talks brokered by neighboring Malaysia, but rebel attacks have persisted and the two sides have yet to agree to a limited ceasefire.


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Marking 200 years as an ally with Thailand, the United States returned with its largest contingent of troops since before a Thai military coup in 2014, as both countries kicked off the annual Cobra Gold Exercise 2018 in Rayong province on Tuesday.
Gen. Tanchaiyan Srisuwan, chief of the Royal Thai Armed Forces, called the 10-day joint military exercises being co-hosted by the two countries a "heavy year" for Cobra Gold. As many as 11,000 troops from Thailand, the U.S. and 27 other countries are taking part in the exercises at the U-Tapao Naval Air Base.
"The number of troops is up this cycle and has nothing to do with the politics at all. Some years, the U.S. had other operations to conduct such as in the Middle East, so participation in past years was reduced," Tanchaiyan told reporters at the ceremony. "The same as our side, it depends on budget and planning."
The 37th edition of Cobra Gold runs through Feb. 23 and involves troops from five fully participating countries – namely Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea and Japan – a Thai official said.
About 6,800 U.S. personnel will participate either ashore or at sea, according to the U.S. embassy. That represents nearly twice the number of troops involved in previous Cobra Gold exercises that followed the coup, which toppled the civilian-led government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra four years ago.
After the coup installed a junta that remains in power today, the Obama administration scaled down U.S. participation in the annual exercise. In 2016, American Ambassador to Thailand Glyn T. Davies spoke about the U.S. decision to send about 3,600 troops, a number similar to the previous year. The U.S. sent about 9,000 personnel to the annual event prior to the coup.
"As deep and broad as our partnership is today, it will grow stronger still when, as the prime minister has affirmed, Thailand returns to elected governance. With a strengthened, sustainable democratic system, Thailand's regional leadership role, and our alliance, can reach its full potential," Davies said in 2016, according to media reports.
He was referring to pledges by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, the general who led the coup, to steer Thailand back to a path of democracy and hold elections. The junta, however, has postponed the promise of nationwide polls on several occasions, but the Trump administration increased the U.S. contingent for this year's Cobra Gold.
Tanchaiyan and Davies, along with U.S. Marine Lt. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, oversaw Tuesday's opening ceremony.
"Our goal is to work with so many partners and nations here in Cobra Gold in Thailand. And you think about the humanitarian disaster operations that we have done. ... We are better when we come together," Nicholson told reporters.
Cobra Gold consists of a command post exercise, humanitarian projects and disaster relief and field training exercises. Highlights will include an amphibious landing on Saturday at Had Yao and a combined live-fire exercise on Feb. 23 at Baan Chantaklem in Chanthaburi province.
Among the other countries participating in or observing the warfare training and humanitarian exercises are the Philippines, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India and China.
Myanmar's invitation to observe the humanitarian and disaster relief training drew criticism from U.S. congressional leaders and others over a brutal crackdown by Myanmar's military in Rakhine state. The crackdown since August 2017 has brought about widespread accusations that Myanmar has targeted members of the Rohingya Muslim minority in an ethnic cleansing campaign.
China relationship
As its relationship with the U.S. cooled toward the end of the Obama administration, Thailand moved closer to China, which is participating in the humanitarian projects this year after observing the exercises for several years, and Russia.
Thailand recently signed a contract to purchase three submarines valued at 36 billion baht ($1.1 billion) from China, expecting the first delivery in the next five to six years.
Last month, the Royal Thai Army showcased the newly acquired Chinese-built VT-4 main battle tanks to the media to refute public doubts about the quality of Chinese-made weapons. Thailand plans to purchase at least 48 Chinese tanks to replace 1950s-era U.S. M-41 tanks.

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Thailand's Chinese-made VT-4 tanks fire smoke grenades to counter against laser target locks from other weapons during a demonstration in Saraburi province, Jan. 26, 2018. (Pimuk Rakkanam/BenarNews)

 
Ongoing protests
Cobra Gold opens at a time when Thailand has faced a series of protests tied to an announcement by the deputy prime minister on Jan. 25 that a general election would again delayed – this time from November 2018 to early 2019.
Two days later, pro-democracy activists identified as "Red Shirts," protested against the delay, leading to the arrests of 39 activists for violating Thailand's strict Public Gathering Act, which bans crowds of more than five people. On Jan. 30, seven of the protest leaders were charged with sedition and defying the gathering act and the other 32 were later charged with violating the gathering act.
Last week, 35 of the activists reported to police to face charges after they were allowed time to prepare for bail following their arrests. This past Saturday, 300 to 400 people gathered at the Democracy Monument in Bangkok to urge the junta to hold the election in November. The gathering was one of the largest by pro-democracy activists since the coup.
An academic at Ubon Ratchathani University told BenarNews that the demonstrators were making a case for their demand to return Thailand to a democratically elected government.
"The demonstrations reflect demands for basic human rights. But most of them are Red Shirts, so they are seen as dissidents," said Titipol Phakdeewanich, a political science lecturer. "At this moment I think the Red Shirt demonstrators are too few. The business sector is OK with the government and there is no sufficient pressure from the foreign community."


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Thailand announced Thursday that government negotiators and insurgent groups had finally chosen a district to launch a ceasefire in the Deep South, on a day when the latest bombing in the violence-wracked region injured 10 people including three schoolgirls.
Aksara Kerdpol, the army general who leads the Thai delegation in peace talks with the MARA Patani panel that represents separatist organizations, did not reveal the name of the district selected for the so-called safety zone – or limited ceasefire – but said it could take hold in another six months.
He said he had presented the plan to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha for his approval.
"In our most recent meetings in Malaysia, [we] agreed on naming a district for a pilot safety zone, which I have informed the prime minister about. The next step is to set up a safe house, a coordination center for all parties involved in brain-storming for safety measures, livelihood development and drugs elimination in the safety zone," Aksara said in a statement.
"It will take six months for the safety zone to materialize, and to assess the success of such a peaceful approach as all parties wish," he added. "There may be an expansion of the safety zone into other areas but it would depend on future talks."
Late Thursday, BenarNews could not reach Aksara or his staff for clarification of the district and other details.
Meanwhile, in an article published Thursday on the website of Deep South Watch, a think-tank that promotes peace in Thailand's southern border region and monitors efforts to settle the long-running insurgency, MARA Patani spokesman Abu Hafiz Al-Hakim hinted at recent progress in Malaysia-brokered talks that have gone on for three years.
"In an off-table encounter in January at Kuala Lumpur, both sides struck a deal, achieved a significant 'breakthrough' and agreed to resume the peace talk meetings. This was realized by [a] meeting on Feb. 7, 2018, whereby the teams wrapped up the remaining issues of the SZ (safety zone)," Abu Hafiz said. "It is just a matter of another two or three meetings ahead and both parties are ready to kick-start the SZ exercise in the agreed pilot district."
When BenarNews contacted him on Thursday night (local time) for clarification on whether he was referring to a bilateral agreement on the choice of a district for the ceasefire, Abu Hafiz, who is based in Malaysia, decline to comment. At the time, the list included two districts in Yala province, two in Narathiwat province and one in Pattani province.
The agreement, as announced by the Thai government, came nearly a year after both sides said they had agreed to a framework for a safety zone, and that they would work together to pick one district out of a list of five districts for implementing the geographically limited ceasefire.
Should it take hold one day, the truce would mark a significant step in efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict in the predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South, where nearly 7,000 people have been killed since 2004.
Some observers, however, have expressed skepticism that Thailand's military government is serious about striking a peace deal with the rebels, and have raised doubts over whether MARA Patani represents hardcore insurgents who have kept up attacks in the region, such as the one that took place Thursday in Yala.
Fourth attack on school this year
Officials in the Deep South said three school girls, three defense volunteers and four civilians were injured when a roadside bomb exploded in the morning near a small road leading to the Pracha-utit school in Muang district.
The attack by suspected insurgents was the fourth one targeting a school in the Deep South since the beginning of 2018.
"When defense volunteers rode a motorcycle to the site, the perpetrators triggered the improvised explosive device. Officials initially put the blame on insurgents," said police Capt. Pongsak Nuan-iedrong, the deputy investigator at the police station in Muang.
The children who complained about dizziness after the blast and two defense volunteers who suffered shrapnel wounds were sent for treatment at Yala central hospital.
"There were two seriously injured volunteers: Muhammad Roni Lahama who is in an ICU and Wanchuruwan Jehmig who is receiving surgery," Lt. Gen. Piyawat Makwanich, an army regional commander, told BenarNews.
Other recent attacks on local schools included a bombing that injured two children and two civilians on Feb. 6 in Yala, and another bomb that went off near a school in the province on Feb. 11.
A Deep South analyst said the school attacks seemed to be aimed at ruining the peace talks.
"The attacks are against the general principle of creation of safety zone. They seemed to be meant to destroy the atmosphere needed for creating peace, by selecting soft targets. The perpetrators do not respect peace and this may cause trouble in the future," assistant professor Srisompob Jitpiromsri, the director of Deep South Watch, which is based at the Pattani campus of Prince of Songkla University, told BenarNews.
Boonsom Thongsriplai, the president of a teachers' association in the Deep South, expressed grave concerns for schools and other public places.
"Certain special places like mosques, temples, schools and markets are to be specially treated as far as security goes," he told BenarNews. "These places are 'safety zones' and while the government has conducted peace talks and the situation is better than in 2004, these safety zones must be 100 percent safe."
At least 184 teachers were killed and at least 161 injured since 2004, Boonsom said. A spokesman for the military in the region said 951 children had either been killed or injured in the Deep South during the past 14 years.
Razlan Rashid in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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Thailand on Friday defended its decision to award the chief of Myanmar's armed forces a royal decoration, despite allegations that a military crackdown led to killings and abuses in Rakhine state that forced almost 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.
Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing received the "Knight Grand Cross (First Class) of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant" during a ceremony in Bangkok on Thursday, according to his verified Facebook page, which has more than 1.3 million followers.
A photo on Min Aung Hlaing's website showed him smiling while his Thai counterpart, Gen. Tarnchaiyan Srisuwan, pinned the medal to his chest.
The Royal Thai Armed Forces said the Myanmar general received the honor "to show the long and close relations" between Thailand and Myanmar, according to the Agence France-Presse news service.
Other reports said the officer was nominated for the honor by Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn on Aug. 21, 2017, four days before violence erupted in Rakhine state.
On Aug. 25, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents launched attacks against Myanmar government security outposts in Rakhine, which led to a military crackdown described by the U.N. as "ethnic cleansing."
Myanmar's government has consistently denied allegations that its military and security forces committed atrocities against Rohingya civilians. But it has banned independent news outlets from visiting areas where mass killings allegedly occurred.
"It's a tradition to give a royal decoration to supreme commanders of foreign countries," Thai Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Kongcheep Tantravanich told Reuters news agency on Friday, as he defended the presentation of the honor to Myanmar's military chief.
"This is a separate issue from human rights," he said.
The Burma Human Rights Network said Thailand had crossed a "red line" by granting the award to Hlaing because Thailand is seen as a place of refuge by many Rohingya and other minority groups fleeing persecution in Myanmar, also a Buddhist-majority country.

"This kind of person doesn't deserve to win this great award," Kway Win, the group's executive director, told Reuters.
Human rights advocates interviewed by BenarNews also criticized the decision to honor the head of the Myanmar military, but asked that they not be identified for fear of being accused of violating Lese-Majeste, Thailand's royal defamation law, which punishes anyone who "defames, insults or threatens" the king and his family with imprisonment of up to 15 years.
Playing down Myanmar's presence
Min Aung Hlaing has cultivated long-term friendships with Thai officials, including those no longer in power. On Sept. 17, 2013, he was photographed shaking hands with then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in Bangkok.
The criticism over Min Aung Hlaing's award came three days after the United States played down the presence of Myanmar's military attaché at the opening ceremony of Cobra Gold exercises in eastern Thailand.
Gen. Srisuwan, the Thai military chief who handed the award to Min Aung Hlaing, had acknowledged inviting the Myanmar diplomatic representative, whose presence at Cobra Gold angered human rights advocates.
The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok said earlier that Myanmar would not be participating in the largest joint military exercise in Southeast Asia, and it was not clear if Min Aung Hlaing would be attending the event, which runs through Feb. 23.
About 11,000 troops from Thailand, the U.S. and 27 other countries are taking part in the exercises at the U-Tapao Naval Air Base in Rayong province.


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Violence in Thailand's Deep South escalated in recent weeks as hardline insurgents tried to dissuade comrades from surrendering through the military's Bring People Home rehabilitation program, a leader of the region's biggest rebel group said Wednesday.
Hardliners launched the attacks this month to create fear among other insurgents, the political wing leader of Barisan Revolusi Nasional (the National Revolutionary Front, or BRN), who identified himself as Uzmai, said in a rare interview with BenarNews. Citing concerns for his own safety, he asked that his identity and location not be publicized.
"They claimed they conducted the attacks to challenge the program and to create fear among the insurgent members, giving them a message to not surrender. So the situation got more violent," Uzmai told BenarNews.
In early February, Lt. Gen. Piyawat Nakwanich, the army commander in Thailand's southern border region, presented nearly 300 enrollees identified as insurgents, including BRN members, as they surrendered symbolically as part of the newly revamped Bring People Home project.
In addition, more than 100 members of the Patani United Liberation Organization, another southern Thai rebel group, traveled from Malaysia where they had settled years ago to sign up for the program.
Bring People Home allows enrollees to live in their home villages while attending activities such as "attitude adjustment" indoctrination sessions and vocational training aimed at helping them get jobs and reintegrate back into civilian life after laying down their weapons.
Since the ceremony on Feb. 2, insurgents mounted several attacks across the Deep South that injured 22 security personnel, seven civilians and five students. Five other officials and eight civilians were shot and killed during the same period, but their deaths have not been linked to the insurgent attacks.
"The existing BRN members wreak havoc every time they can and with whatever they can. We saw a lot more officials targeted, be they vice village headman, village headman, soldiers or government contractors," Uzmai said.
Tensions exist among BRN militants who have stayed in the Deep South and others who moved abroad with their families to escape the violence, the political wing leader added.
"The rumor of rifts in the BRN is true," he said. "Over the past decades, militants who have conducted violent attacks can't stay at home. Their families have faced hardship while the leaders live a good life, better than a tycoon."
Uzmai said the government had offered good incentives for insurgents to join the rehabilitation program, and Malay-speaking residents of the predominantly Muslim Deep South did not object when hardcore insurgents were captured, unless they were tortured by the Thai military.
'Up to the people to help'
Piyawat, meanwhile, called the increase in violence normal.
"They continue attacks as they did. We use the lawful way to stop them," he said. "I want to stay in this region. I want to successfully create safety zones in the three provinces in the Deep South and the 14 provinces of the South.
"It is up to people to help. I want those people to come back and help develop the country," he said.
A Deep South analyst said the government must maintain a peaceful approach in the region.
"Lately, the perpetrators want to show off their strength and counter officials' implementation of the program," Deep South Watch director Srisompob Jitpiromsri told BenarNews.
"The government must keep a cool head," he said, adding that he expected the situation in the Deep South to improve soon.
Violence has killed close to 7,000 people in the Thai Deep South since the decades-old separatist insurgency re-ignited 14 years ago.


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Police filed sedition charges against executives of a private Islamic school in Thailand's Deep South after receiving a formal complaint from the military that the learning institution had links with rebels, officials said Thursday.
Security forces searched the Bakong Pittaya School in Pattani province's Nong Chik district on Jan. 27 and found anti-government and rebel paraphernalia, along with bomb-making materials and road-drilling equipment, Maj. Gen. Jatuporn Kalumpasutr, commander of the Pattani 46 Task Force, told reporters.
"There could be some teachers using this school to indoctrinate the ideology of fighting against the state, syphoning funds to finance violence activities. They sabotage the state education system, killing teachers from state-run schools to force students to attend this kind of school instead," Jatuporn said.
"Officials found key evidence leading to a belief they embezzled government subsidies and welfare for students and teachers as well as funds for student lunches and clothing to fund violence," Jatuporn said, without elaborating.
The school receives 33 million baht ($1.05 million) a year from the state's free-education-for-all program, he said.
Jatuporn said the school listed 121 teachers, of which 76 were bogus, who collected about 12 million baht ($381,000) in annual salaries. Those funds likely were syphoned to serve extremist purposes.
The Nong Chik district police said the school's executives were charged with sedition, embezzlement and criminal misconduct, but declined to disclose details or the names of those charged. Sedition carries a maximum sentence of five years.
'Nothing to do' with rebel networks
The owner of the school told BenarNews that he learned about the proceedings after a military briefing, but had not received any notification from the police.
"We did not know yet which executives were charged. We are ready to clarify the circumstances around the charges," said Uzman Abdulmanae, who owns the school's license.
"We have nothing to do with all those networks, which we were implicated of having connections," he said, vowing to keep the school open.
A recently arrested suspected insurgent implicated the school with the rebels, Jatuporn said, adding that ongoing investigation had produced witnesses whose statements led to last month's school raid.
Jatuporn said school executives and teachers were linked to prominent militant leaders and secretly supported violent activities, including a twin bomb attack that injured more than 80 people at the Big C department store in Pattani on May 9, 2017. Jatuporn did not provide evidence to support his allegations.
In late 2015, Thai authorities seized the Jihad Witaya School in Pattani's Yaring district. The school was closed down following a security raid in 2004, after which officials determined that the school had provided weapons training for young insurgents.
Doonloh Wae-mano, the school's former headmaster who lives in exile in Malaysia, was promoted top leader of Thailand's strongest insurgent group, Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), according to Thai officials.
Violence in the Deep South has killed about 7,000 people since the decades-old separatist insurgency re-ignited 14 years ago. The insurgents are seeking greater autonomy from Buddhist-ruled Thailand, which annexed the southern border region that was part of a Malay Muslim sultanate in 1909.


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A self-styled Belarusian sex coach who alleged she could provide damning evidence to support claims of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election in exchange for political asylum will remain under detention in Thailand as authorities compile evidence against her, immigration officials said Wednesday.
Anastasia Vashukevich, 21, was arrested with nine others last month on charges of offering sex lessons without a work permit in the city of Pattaya, about 100 km (62 miles) southeast of the capital Bangkok. Previously, officials said she could face criminal charges and deportation to Belarus.
"At present, police are gathering evidence to determine if they are to be prosecuted," Lt. Gen. Suthipong Wongpin, chief of Thailand's Immigration Bureau, told BenarNews. He did not elaborate.
Vashukevich, who uses the name Nastya Rybka on social media, claims to have had an affair with Oleg Deripaska, a 50-year-old Russian billionaire who has done business with Paul Manafort, U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign manager.
Behind bars at the Suan Plu detention center in Bangkok, Vashukevich told the New York Times on Monday that she would be willing to provide a detailed insider knowledge of Russian meddling in the U.S. election if Washington would grant her political asylum.
"If America gives me protection, I will tell everything I know," Vashukevich said. "I am afraid to go back to Russia. Some strange things can happen."
Thai officials on Monday said they were trying to determine their next step against Vashukevich and the other suspects from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
"Six of them, including Vashukevich, are detained at the Suan Plu detention center and four others are in the custody of Pattaya police," Suthipong said in a phone interview.
The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok responded to Vashukevich's statements that she would seek political asylum.
"We are aware of media reports of this individual's arrest. She is not a U.S. citizen, and we would refer you to Thai law enforcement for further questions," Jillian Bonnardeaux, the embassy's spokeswoman told BenarNews. "We refer all inquiries about asylum and asylum procedures to the Department of Homeland Security."
Vashukevich catapulted to fame in early February after Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posted a 25-minute investigative report on YouTube. It had almost 6.5 million views as of Tuesday.
The report, which relies heavily on photos and videos from Vashukevich's Instagram account, appears to include part of an audio recording of a conversation between Deripaska and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko, a longtime former senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin.
That conversation apparently took place on the business tycoon's yacht off the coast of Norway in 2016, according to Navalny.
The two men talked about U.S.-Russia relations, Navalny said, as he insisted that his investigative report implied Kremlin's link to Trump and Manafort.
But Navalny did not provide other evidence and, in that report, did not say whether Vashukevich had any information about the alleged Russian campaign to meddle in the U.S. presidential election.
Russia has denied the allegations and Trump has said his campaign had no collusion with Moscow.
Pleaded not guilty
Manafort, a longtime Washington lobbyist, established a joint telecommunications venture with Deripaska a decade before he joined the Trump campaign. That venture eventually collapsed and the Russian tycoon sued Manafort in a U.S. court.
Manafort served as Trump's campaign manager in 2016 until news about his lobbying work for the Russia-friendly Ukrainian ex-President Viktor Yanukovych emerged. He was indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in October 2017 on money-laundering charges related to that overseas consulting work. He has pleaded not guilty.
Vashukevich, who has more than 60,000 followers on Instagram, describes herself as a model. She also wrote a book on how to seduce billionaires. She has posted racy photos of herself, including a few showing her cuddling with the Russian tycoon.


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Labor abuse including unfair pay and deception still exist in Thailand's fishing industry, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Wednesday in a report that praised the government for implementing regulations to improve working conditions for migrants.
The report by the U.N. agency came almost three years after the European Union castigated Bangkok for "not taking sufficient measures" against illegal fishing and warned that it could face consequences, which could lead to a ban in its seafood imports.
The ILO report, "Ship to Shore Rights Project," pointed out positives and negatives in the fishing industry. 

"Since 2014, changes have been made to Thailand's legal and regulatory framework that have contributed to positive developments," the report said. "When the ILO compared responses to similar questions from the ILO 2013 survey on working conditions in Thai fishing ... we found indications of progress."
Thailand ranked fourth last year among global exporters of seafood, behind Vietnam, Norway and China. In 2017, the Thai fishing and seafood processing sectors employed more than 600,000 people, including 302,000 registered migrant workers, according to official statistics.
Reports in recent years of human and labor rights abuses committed in the Thai commercial fishing and seafood processing industries – particularly against migrant workers – triggered dramatic reactions, ILO said, apparently referring to Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting by the Associated Press (AP) in 2015.
The AP investigation turned the spotlight on the labor problem and uncovered severe rights abuses, including incidents of holding some workers in cages. The report contributed to the freeing of more than 2,000 men from Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos, leading to more than a dozen arrests and changes in U.S. laws.
The ILO report said its survey found fewer reports of physical violence. It also said less than 1 percent of workers were younger than 18 and 43 percent of the interviewed workers reported having written contracts while some reported increases in wages.
"We want competitiveness in the global seafood trade to mean more than low price and high quality," Graeme Buckley, ILO country director for Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, told reporters. "We want it to mean decent work for all the industry's workers – from the boat to the retailer."
The survey was based on interviews with 434 foreign workers in small- and large-scale businesses, on- and off-shore, in 11 Thai provinces from March to April 2017. It covered recruitment practices, wages, hours worked, safety and health, support services, complaint mechanisms, living conditions, forced labor indicators and legal-compliance levels.
Shortcomings noted, threats issued
AP's yearlong investigation led to the European Commission issuing a statement on April 21, 2015 that denounced Thailand's shortcomings and threatened to ban its imports to the EU.
"Failure to take strong action against illegal fishing will carry consequences," Karmenu Vella, EU commissioner for environment, maritime affairs and fisheries, said in the statement at that time.
The commercial fishing and seafood industries contributed 206.8 billion baht (U.S. $6.6 billion) to Thai exports in 2014. More than 57,000 migrant fishermen worked on about 6,700 Thai commercial fishing ships in 2017, according to official figures.
The ILO survey found that 34 percent of seafood industry workers receive less than the daily minimum wage of 300 baht (U.S. $9.50), while 24 percent of foreign fishermen said the ship owners sometimes held up their pay for 12 months or longer and 34 percent did not have access to their own identity documents.
The reactions and results of labor reform in Thailand are of interest to Cambodia and Myanmar – home to the vast majority of the foreign workers – and to buyers of Thai seafood, such as Wal-Mart, Costco, Tesco, Coles, Simplot, Migros, Mars and Nestlé, the ILO report said.
"Also watching closely are governments in the region as they attempt to take the measure of labor practices in their own fishing industries," the report added.
Jakrin Jakkaphak, permanent secretary for the Thai labor ministry, said the ILO research was a collaborative effort among partners aiming to meet international standards.
"I'm very confident that the living and working condition of migrant workers is getting better compared to decades ago," Jakrin told BenarNews. "The Thai government is working very hard to amend the laws to protect migrant worker rights in the same level with Thai labors."


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A long-running insurgency in Thailand's Deep South has inflicted a toll of immense suffering on women and fueled a cycle of domestic violence, according to local advocates for gender equality.
This week, the head of a leading NGO that promotes women's rights in the predominantly Muslim region called on the warring sides to find a non-violent resolution to the separatist conflict as a way to shield women from further pain and abuse.
"All sides, please seek peaceful solutions by political ways. Avoid using weapons that impact women," Patimoh Po-etae-daoh, president of the group that calls itself WE PEACE, told BenarNews in a phone interview from Bangkok, where she had traveled to collect a peace prize from the Thai government on the occasion of International Women's Day.
Women may account for only 16 percent of the around 20,000 people who have been killed or injured since the conflict re-ignited in the Deep South 14 years ago, but the war has deeply affected many women by making widows of 3,000 of them and orphans of 9,000 children, she said.
"These losses lead to social troubles such as domestic violence, sexual violence, economic hardship, drugs and mistrust among neighbors," Patimoh said.
Earlier in the week, Patimoh participated at a seminar organized by Oxfam International in Narathiwat – one of the provinces in the Deep South – to raise awareness about regionwide domestic violence.
"The public views widows, single moms as a burden of society. Sometimes we are looked down upon or harassed," a local woman, whose husband was killed in shooting 12 years ago, told BenarNews.
The woman, who requested anonymity, described how she had since been subjected to harassment and insults because of her widowhood, and had struggled to raise and feed her orphaned children.
Hundreds of cases
In 2017, women in Pattani – another province in the region – lodged 722 complaints about violence in the household or other alleged misbehavior by their husbands, out of which 270 cases were resolved, according to imams who sit on a provincial Islamic committee.
In the Deep South, provincial Islamic committees are allowed to use Sharia law to settle domestic disputes or divorce cases, a local expert said.
"Mostly the husbands do not pay a monthly allowance, or they commit physical assault. An Islamic committee tries to mediate [so] husbands can honor pre-wedding promises," Safie Jehloh, president of the Narathiwat Islamic Committee, told BenarNews.
In Songkhla province, which includes some districts that lie inside the boundaries of the Deep South, authorities last year launched an effort to reduce violence against women, according to a local official who took part in the seminar.
"We joined hands with the community and the Islamic committee to organize pre-marriage seminars for brides and grooms on domestic violence law. We are discussing with the Islamic Committee to allow police to step in during reconciliation, to make note so that police can enforce the law if the promise is broken," Napaporn Bilheem, the attorney general in Songkhla, told BenarNews.


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Wildlife authorities filed new charges Wednesday against one of Thailand's wealthiest men, accusing him of poaching a black panther and other endangered animals, in a case that has ignited controversy over privileges enjoyed by the rich and powerful.
Premchai Karnasuta, the president of Italian-Thai PLC, one of Thailand's biggest construction companies, was arrested in early February with three others at Thung Yai Naresuan National Park in western Thailand. Park rangers found the businessman with the skinned carcass of a panther, as well as a Kalij pheasant and a barking deer – three species protected under Thai law – in the wildlife sanctuary, authorities said.
Authorities then released photos of rangers measuring the big cat's pelt, and they seized three rifles and bullets from Premchai. Officials filed nine charges, including illegal hunting and illegal possession of carcasses of protected animals.
On Wednesday, police also brought charges of bribery and possession of guns and elephant tusks against the tycoon.
"No, I didn't kill the black panther. Today, I denied all three charges," Premchai told reporters in Bangkok on Wednesday. "I am feeling uneasy that everyone views me in negative way. ... But I think all truth will reveal [itself] in the court."
The additional charges stemmed from allegations that Premchai had offered to bribe his way out during his arrest at the wildlife sanctuary, a World Heritage site in Kanchanaburi province.
Premchai, 63, reported to the police's National Resources and Environmental Crime Division in the Thai capital on Wednesday to acknowledge the three new charges. These included illegal possession of four African elephant tusks, which police allegedly found when they recently searched Premchai's house in Bangkok.
He has been temporarily released after posting a bail of 300,000 baht (U.S. $9,677). He faces imprisonment of four years or more, if found guilty, a legal expert told BenarNews.

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Thai authorities place business tycoon Premchai Karnasuta (sitting) and three of his alleged associates under arrest at a hunting camp in Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in Kanchanaburi province, Feb. 4, 2018 (Courtesy of Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary)

 
In justice, 'no rich and poor'
The businessman's arrest unleashed a public debate over privileges enjoyed by the nation's richest citizens, despite Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha's green light for a thorough investigation.
Environmentalists and animal-rights groups questioned whether Thailand's military government could punish the nation's well-connected citizens.
Graffiti artists sprayed Bangkok's deserted walls with paintings of the black cat and the Thai catchphrase "The black cat will not die for free" has become a protest symbol on social media.
But despite the controversy, deputy national police chief Srivarah Rangsibharmanakul said his officers would perform their duties "in line with the framework of laws."
"In justice, there is no rich or poor. There are only wrongdoers or innocent. When we have solid evidence, we proceed with prosecution," Srivarah said. "Social media has no influence over us."
Premchai's company built Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport and the Bangkok Metro system. In May last year, Forbes magazine listed Premchai among Thailand's 50 Richest, with a net worth of at least U.S. $240 million.
The black panther is a subspecies of the Indochinese black leopard, according to environmentalists.
"The subspecies ... is rare, there is an estimation of about 900 to 2,500 still left in the wild, of which only 11 per cent are black," Edwin Wiek, founder of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, told reporters in Bangkok.


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Thai officials have been in contact with armed separatists in Thailand's Deep South in the past, but this approach only leads to more violence, the junta's chief peace negotiator said Thursday, in a rare defense of the much-criticized peace process.
In a long statement, Gen. Aksara Kerdpol appeared to hit back at those calling for engagement with fighters on the ground rather than its current negotiating partners, as well as skeptics of the peace process generally.
"In the past, some dissidents who 'want to talk' used violent attacks as a bargaining chip to pressure the government to support their terms and conditions, with the support of certain officials who secretly contacted the dissident sources," he said, using the Thai government's term for Muslim Malay insurgents in Thailand's southern border region.
He did not specify when such contact took place in the past.
"And the dissidents were supported by militants on the ground by instigating violence across Deep South provinces. If we talk to them, it means, in return, we support violence," he added.
Critics of the slow-moving peace process – which has identified a single district for a future ceasefire, after three years of talks – often point out that the most deadly insurgent group, Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), is not on board.
For its part, BRN representatives have announced their desire to talk directly with the government if the talks are conducted with international mediation, among other conditions.
But the government "does not give legitimacy to the extremists" and has embraced a non-violent approach, Aksara said Thursday.
"[T]he government has forced the dissidents to follow only one channel for them to achieve the goal," he said, an apparent reference to the MARA Patani panel representing Deep South rebel groups in the current Malaysia-brokered talks.
Government officials, academics, members of the media and citizens not trusting the peace process are part of the problem and ultimately support ongoing violence, Aksara claimed.
He singled out "columnists" who, he said, had been telling the public that Deep South Muslims "could accept losses – deaths and injuries – to pursue ideology and achieve the goal of the BRN."
"[H]ave you asked those people if they agree with you?" he asked, saying that such writers "inadvertently become supporters of the bandits."
Talks alone cannot achieve peace; only people who embrace non violence and dialogue can do so, Aksara said. He urged "civilian brothers in the area and academics" to join in setting up a so-called safety zone, or ceasefire zone limited to a geographic area in the Deep South.
Last month, in another statement, Aksara announced that Thai and MARA Patani negotiators had agreed in selecting one district where the ceasefire would be implemented. He did not reveal its name but said at the time that the ceasefire could take hold in another six months.
Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in violence in the predominantly Muslim Deep South since the decades-old insurgency re-ignited in 2004.


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A Thai court sentenced Xaysana Keopimpha, a Laotian dubbed as an "ASEAN Drug Lord," to life in prison on Tuesday and said it spared him the death penalty over narcotics-smuggling charges because he had confessed to police during their investigation.
Xaysana, 43, headed a transnational Southeast Asian network that supplied millions of caffeine-laced methamphetamine tablets known as "yaba," Thai authorities said after they arrested him in January 2017 at Bangkok's main airport. The tablets were produced in Myanmar and distributed throughout Golden Triangle, which straddles Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.
"The defendant violated Narcotics Drugs Act and Drugs Suppression Act, collaborating with others to sell and smuggle drugs on various counts, therefore he is sentenced to death. Due to his confession during the investigation process, the court decreases his sentence to life imprisonment," the court said in its verdict.
However, during his courtroom arraignment in April 2017, he recanted his confession to police and pleaded not guilty to charges of smuggling drugs and possessing them to sell.
At the time, Xaysana's lawyer, Vorakorn Pongthanakul, said his client had confessed to a police investigator but, because Thai and Lao were similar languages, Xaysana did not understand Thai words or Thailand's laws.
On Tuesday, Vorakorn said Xaysana would challenge the ruling.
"We'll appeal; we have 30 days from the day of the sentencing to file the appeal and can request for extensions; for each request we'll get an extension for another 30 days," Vorakorn told the Lao Service of Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews.
Luxurious lifestyle
Xaysana was arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport on Jan. 19, 2017, following a five-year investigation, according to Lt. Gen. Sommai Kongvisaisuk, who heads the Thai police's Narcotics Suppression Bureau. Investigators had received a tip from Lao officials.
Court documents indicated that several members of a drug gang were arrested on Sept. 30, 2016, on suspicion of hiding 1.2 million meth pills in an SUV that stopped while crossing the First Lao-Thai Mekong Friendship Bridge. Police investigated and interrogated the suspects who revealed they were working for Xaysana.
Police identified a Malaysian suspect, Kamarudin Bin Awang, who was arrested in February 2017 by police in his home country, as the defendant's trade partner.
Prior to his arrest, Xaysana led a flamboyant lifestyle, hanging out with Thai celebrities and a soap opera star, according to reports. Lao authorities seized his assets, which included nine luxury vehicles, five houses and a 475-acre rubber plantation.
Drug busts on rise
Meanwhile, drug-related arrests in Thailand are on the rise, according to statistics compiled by the Police Narcotics Suppression Bureau and released during a recent press briefing. In fiscal years 2016 and 2017, authorities made 456 and 453 arrests, respectively. During the first half of fiscal year 2018, at least 900 arrests have been made.
Last week, Thai officials announced the confiscation of drugs valued at 859 million baht ($27.5 million), from Mar. 8 to 12.
The seized drugs included 304 kilograms (670 pounds) of heroin believed to be destined for U.S. and European markets, Lt. Gen. Sommai said. Suspects who were arrested, according to Sommai, included three residents of Pattani, a province in Thailand's insurgency-stricken Deep South, who were caught carrying weapons for guarding the drugs.
But while Thai officials have made more arrests and confiscated more drugs, traffickers have kept rolling out more product to make up for the losses, he said.
"The more we arrest, the more supplies come out. They release more products and more smugglers come out on streets. ...  Heroin is more in demand," Sommai told reporters last week.
"These hauls are Malaysia-bound. The insurgents helped facilitated passage through Malaysia because it has many islands where drugs can be kept before being shipped to Europe and America."


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The United States on Friday recognized the fearlessness of a Thai attorney for drawing attention to human rights problems in her junta-ruled country.
Sirikan Charoensiri, co-founder of the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), and nine others from around the world received the 2018 International Women of Courage Award during a ceremony at the State Department attended by U.S. first lady Melania Trump.
"TLHR has represented hundreds of clients since the military coup, often as the only alternative for those facing politically-motivated charges," according to a statement from the State Department. "Because of the political sensitivity of the organization's work, TLHR lawyers and staffers ... have been subjected regularly to harassment, intimidation and criminal charges."
Before the ceremony, Sirikan, 31, spoke to BenarNews about her experience of co-founding TLHR in 2014, immediately after Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha led a coup that deposed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
"We were set up as an immediate response to the imposition of martial law because some of us had been working in the Deep South of Thailand and we know that human rights lawyers need to step out," she said, referring to her country's heavily militarized and insurgency-wracked southern border region.
"We knew that this was not going to be a temporary mission and we knew that providing legal aid is not enough," she said. "We needed to have strong documentation to use for advocacy for human rights and democracy in Thailand, so we set up a team to monitor and document human rights violations.
"We do not just defend civilians; we defend the whole system, we defend the rule-of-law system, so it will not be destroyed."
Sirikan said TLHR had handled about 140 cases – half of them in military courts and the other half in civilian courts – since its inception.
"Among those are cases of violating a ban of public gathering of five people that remains in effect. This ban is the real problem that curbs the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and the free movement of young people," she said, adding the ban must be revoked.
Sirikan said 2018, so far, had seen many instances where people were arrested because they were protesting for people to have the power to override the military government's sweeping power under the constitution.
"We have seen suppression earlier this year, which implies the movement is getting stronger," she said.

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Sirikan Charoensiri, co-founder of Thai Lawyers for Human Rights. [Uayporn Satitpanyapan/BenarNews]

Sirikan dismissed the notion that someone was paying the protesters.
"[T]hose who come out [to protest] have been labeled as anti-junta ... they only came out to demand democracy – to return to normalcy, return to protection of human rights, return to the rule of law," she said. "When you criticize for military government, you get in to trouble. Who would want to get into trouble, to be jailed, to be arrested – to risk your life for someone's money?"
During the interview, BenarNews asked her about what young Thais wanted for their country.
"There are principles that students have been advocating ... democracy, human rights, justice, equality and public participation. I think these are what young people in Thailand are demanding," she replied.
'Human rights hero'
Sirikan is the second Thai to be honored with the Women of Courage award, following Rodjaraeg Wattanapanit who received it 2016.
At that time, Rodjaraeg, the co-owner of the Book Re:public bookstore, which is seen as an oasis for the free exchange of ideas in Thailand, said she worried about censorship and diminishing freedoms since the junta led by Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha seized power in May 2014.
Shortly after receiving her award, Rodjaraeg was forced by the junta to cancel an event where people were going to discuss a new constitution being drafted then by a commission appointed by the National Council for Peace and Order, the junta's official name.
Rodjaraeg is the co-founder of Creating Awareness for Enhanced Democracy, or "Café Democracy," which is dedicated to increasing political awareness, empowering citizens and encouraging the free exchange of ideas.
Last year, global rights watchdog Amnesty International honored Sirikan with a Lifetime Achievement Award, calling her one of its four "human rights heroes."
Back home, Sirikan is facing sedition charges stemming from her work in defending student activists. Legal experts say she is probably the first attorney in Thai history to face a sedition charge, according to the Bangkok Post.
"I feel humbly honored to be selected to one of the 10 awardees this year," Sirikan told BenarNews about the award that the United States was about to bestow on her. "t is a recognition of our work but also for the U.S. and other countries to not forget about the situation in Thailand.
"We have not yet resumed democracy as it's supposed to be," she added. "So I think that message is very important."


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A military program that encourages insurgents in Thailand's Deep South to surrender has been a source of friction lately in negotiations between the Thai government and a panel representing rebel groups in three-year-old peace talks.
The MARA Patani panel issued a rare statement last week to clear up any "confusion or misunderstanding" that may have arisen in recent weeks. It pointed in particular to comments made by the Thai army's southern regional commander, who had touted the success of the so-called Bring People Home program and who claimed on Monday that it was causing rebel groups to "lose supporters."
"We have confidence in the Thai peace dialogue team mandated by the Prime Minister and we are convinced that it is a formal process that has been adopted as a national agenda," Sukree Haree, the head of the panel, said Friday in a statement.
MARA issued it after Sukree and other panel representatives gave an unusual press conference in Kelantan, a northern Malaysian state that borders the Thai Deep South.
"However, we are concerned over certain statements and actions by the Fourth Army Commander that contradict the peace dialogue process," he added, referring to Lt. Gen. Piyawat Nakwanich, the Thai army chief in the southern border region who had boasted in recent weeks about the success of Bring People Home.
In his statement, Sukree said MARA remained committed to solving the decades-old separatist conflict in the Deep South through the current peace dialogue.
Comments allegedly made by Piyawat about Bring People Home and "14 safety-zone districts" in the region were "not related to [the] peace dialogue process between MARA Patani and the Thai government," the chief negotiator on the rebel side insisted.
For many months, both sides have been negotiating in various rounds of Malaysia-brokered talks in Kuala Lumpur for an agreement on establishing a so-called "safety zone," or a limited ceasefire in one district of the Deep South – seen as a linchpin for taking the peace talks to the next stage. Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in violence in the predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking region since the separatist insurgency re-ignited in 2004.
Last month, Aksara Kerdpol, the army general who heads the Thai delegation in the peace talks, announced that technical teams from both sides had finally struck an agreement on the district where the geographically limited ceasefire would take effect, but he did not reveal the district's name or give more details.
In its statement on Friday, MARA said the ongoing talks were "still at the technical level" and that all agreements that had been reached by both sides were "not yet final" and had not been officially endorsed by a joint working group.
Abu Hafiz Al-Hakim, a spokesman for MARA who attended the press conference, told BenarNews afterwards that the things referred to in Piyawat's alleged comments were never part of MARA's negotiations with the Thai side.
"Supposedly everything that has been done should be in line with what it has been discussed at the negotiating table. Unfortunately, Piyawat issued a statement against what we discussed at the negotiating table," Abu Hafiz said.
"For example, he claimed that he had succeeded in bringing people home, thousands of people had surrendered, [and] saying he had opened 14 security zone areas, whereas the government of Thailand with us just wanted to start with one area," he added.
'There is no friction'
At a media event in Pattani province in early February, Lt. Gen. Piyawat, presented some 400 people who, he claimed, were members of two southern rebel groups, Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) and the Patani United Liberation Organization (PULO), as enrollees in the military's revamped Bring People Home project.
The program encourages insurgents in the predominantly Malay-speaking and Muslim region to lay down their weapons by offering them opportunities to transition back to civilian life peacefully, such as vocational training.
Later that month, a leader of BRN's political wing said violence in the Deep South had escalated because hardline insurgents were trying to intimidate comrades from signing up in the surrender and rehabilitation program.
"They claimed they conducted the attacks to challenge the program and to create fear among the insurgent members, giving them a message to not surrender. So the situation got more violent," the BRN official, who identified himself as Uzmai, told BenarNews.
On Monday, Piyawat Nakwanich responded to the statement from MARA Patani.
"The Bring People Home almost reaches the threshold of success. They lost supporters; their people came out to join the program," Piyawat told reporters.
Trying to clarify his remarks about safety zones, Piyawat said it was his duty as army commander in southern Thailand to create safe zones in all 14 provinces of the greater south, not just in 14 districts of the south.
"I affirm that there is no friction or [that] I am working against the government," the 4th Army Region commander said.
"I don't say that there is no need for peace talks. But it is a national level issue, while I am performing my job in the [region]."
Meanwhile, in Bangkok on Tuesday, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha told reporters that the government was waiting for the rebel side to follow through on the long awaited safety-zone issue.
"The peace talks, I think, have made gradual progress. It depends on both partners' terms and conditions. Asked when the Safety Zone could be had, it depends on them to endorse [it], not us. But the earlier the better," Prayuth said during a weekly media briefing following a meeting of his cabinet.
Nontarat Phaicharoen in Bangkok contributed to this report.


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At least 20 people died when a double-decker bus carrying dozens of migrant workers from Myanmar caught fire Friday in western Thailand, authorities said.
The bus was transporting 47 people in Tak province, along the border with Myanmar, when it caught fire while heading to a factory in an industrial zone near Bangkok, police said.
The incident occurred just eight days after 19 people were killed when a bus traveling in another part of the country veered off the road and smashed into a tree.
Late on Friday, investigators said they were trying to determine what caused the double-decker to erupt in flames.
"The bodies were sent to Taksin Hospital for identification, while officials need to interview all survivors," police Col. Krissanok Danudom told BenarNews. "Officials need time to gather all evidence before they can specify the cause of this tragic accident."
Bus driver Bantoon Vitoon, 48, told investigators the fire erupted in the lower deck, which was packed with luggage and passengers' belongings.
Upon seeing the fire, he said, he immediately stopped the bus and tried to wake his passengers.
Most of the victims were burned beyond recognition, making identification difficult, according to Col. Krissana Pattanacharoen, a spokesman for the Royal Thai Police.
Officials from Myawaddy town in southeastern Myanmar arrived in Tak province late Friday to meet the governor and police officials.
"Thai government agencies will help workers who still want to travel to their destinations in Bangkok, while officials need to do DNA tests on the bodies," Tak Governor Charoenrit Sa-nguansat told reporters.
Ye Min, a member of the Aid Alliance Committee for Myanmar Workers (ACC), a Bangkok-based group that advocates for the rights of migrant workers, confirmed that the bus was carrying 47 people.
"These workers were coming into Thailand through Mae Sot [district] with a chartered bus," Ye Min told the Myanmar Service of Radio Free Asia which is affiliated with BenarNews.
Thailand has the second highest road traffic fatality rate in the world after Libya, at 36 per 100,000 with an annual estimate of more than 24,000 or 66 deaths every day, according to the World Health Organization.
Thailand also is a popular destination for migrant workers from across the Greater Mekong Delta region, as well other parts of Asia. After its economy grew at an average annual rate of 7.5 percent in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the country created millions of jobs that helped pull people out of poverty, according to the World Bank.
Thailand has about 2.7 million registered migrant workers, mainly from Myanmar and Cambodia, according to the Thai Labor Ministry.


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Thai authorities seized about $68.6 million (2.14 billion baht) worth of meth in three caches in the past week and arrested 11 suspects, officials said Tuesday, underscoring a U.N. report describing Thailand as a major transit point for drug trafficking in Southeast Asia.
Police seized 788 kilograms (358 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine and more than nine million meth pills from an abandoned pick-up truck early Tuesday in the northern Chiang Rai province, near the Mekong River, police Lt. Gen. Sommai Kongvisaisuk, commander of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB), told reporters in Bangkok.
The river divides Thailand and Laos and is within the drug-producing region known as the Golden Triangle, which includes parts of northern Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.
The seizure came a day after police seized 651 kilograms (295 pounds) of crystal meth in Songkhla province, in the country's Deep South, officials said. On March 28, police also seized 703 kilograms (319 pounds) in the southern province of Chumphon.
The drugs were trafficked into northern Thailand by a syndicate that uses the Mekong River in order to smuggle meth into Malaysia, police Maj. Gen. Chayapoj Hasunha, chief of the NSB's intelligence division, told BenarNews.
"Malaysia has become a hub to distribute the drugs through Indian Ocean, Australia, United Kingdom, Europe and North America," he said.
Drug-related arrests in Thailand are on the rise, with at least 900 arrests so far this year, compared with 453 in 2017, NSB officials told a news conference last month.
The "steep increase" in seizures of meth in Southeast Asia denotes a growing demand of the drug in the region, where 287 million methamphetamine tablets were seized in 2015, according to the 2017 report of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Most of those seizures took place in Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, UNODC said.
Thai police said a meth pill worth 200 baht (U.S. $6) in Thailand could be sold up to 500 baht (U.S. $16) in Malaysia and even more in Australia, one of the world's largest consumer of crystal meth.
On March 20, a Thai court sentenced Xaysana Keopimpha, a Laotian dubbed as an "ASEAN Drug Lord," to life in prison over narcotics-smuggling charges.
The 43-year-old headed a transnational Southeast Asian network that supplied millions of caffeine-laced methamphetamine tablets known as "yaba," Thai authorities said after they arrested him in January 2017 at Bangkok's main airport.
The market for crystal meth, a potent central nervous system stimulant, has grown rapidly in recent years in the country, which has about 2.89 million drug users in 2014, the latest year for which figures are available, according to the UNODC report.
"Transnational criminal groups continue to target Thailand as a major transit location for the trafficking of illicit drugs and precursor chemicals to international markets, and also as a destination country for illicit drugs," the report said.


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As political parties begin to stir to life in junta-controlled Thailand, young politicians are appealing to Thais of all political beliefs to have faith in democracy as a form of government to keep the military from repeatedly seizing power.
Thailand has faced more than 20 military coups since the kingdom became a constitutional monarchy in 1932, including two since 2006 in which the generals forcibly ended the respective terms of Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister, Yingluck, as prime minister.
But in Bangkok last week, some rising young Thai politicians presented their visions of hope for the future of politics and governance in their country. They appeared as Thailand faces the prospect early next year of the first elections since the military ousted Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014, although the reigning junta has previously delayed long-promised polls multiple times.
"People want to see an alternative, people want to see the parliament working again," Thanatorn Juangroongruangkit, a 40-year-old political rookie, said during the event at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT).
"It is proven that military governments with unelected power cannot solve the problems. It's time for us to say ... enough. Once this military government goes back to their barracks, we need to make sure they will not, ever again, seize the power of the elected government in the future," Thanatorn said.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, a former army general who led the coup that toppled Yingluck four years ago following tumultuous anti-government street demonstrations, has scheduled new elections tentatively for February 2019.
Another of the young politicians who showed up at the FCCT, Parit Wacharasindhu of the Democrat Party, said Thailand could prevent more coups by embracing "liberal democracy."
"Liberal democracy is just more than fair and free elections. [A] free and fair election is only one leg of a chair. The other three legs are respect of human rights, decentralization of power and a system of check and balances," Parit, an Oxford University graduate and a nephew of former Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, told BenarNews.
Elections: 'A fight between the junta and civilians'
The registration of new political parties and a review of existing parties began in March, even while the regime headed by Prayuth has barred full campaigning and strictly regulated when political parties can meet with members.
In June, the junta is expected to lift a four-year ban on political activity including gatherings of five or more people, according to media reports. A political gathering law enforced by the military government had been used to charge seven pro-democracy activists with sedition for leading a demonstration that drew about 100 people in January.
As of April 3, meanwhile, 69 existing parties and 98 new parties had submitted documents for Election Commission's review including at least one new party that favors Prayuth retaining power.
Upon registering his People Reform Party, Conservative figure Paiboon Nititawan announced that he would form an alliance after elections to bring Prayuth back to power.
Responding to reporters' questions on Monday, Prayuth said he was open to the possibility of remaining prime minister if his coalition retained power through next year's elections.
"Thank you. I don't know yet if I will accept or not. We need to jointly consider it," Prayuth said.
However, an expert at Ubon Ratchathani University said the junta likely would not give up power completely if voters sought to oust Thailand's military rulers via the ballot box.
"If there are elections, I see them as a fight between the junta and civilians. Gen. Prayuth said he would not hold on to power but there have been attempts to keep Prayuth in power," Titipol Phakdeewanich, a political science lecturer, told BenarNews.

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Thanatorn Juangroongruangkit (right), greets fellow politicians appearing before the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, in Bangkok, April 4, 2018. [Pimuk Rakkanam/BenarNews]

 
Political pledge sought
Thanatorn, a former executive of Thailand's leading auto industrial conglomerate, registered his Future Forward Party with the Election Commission in March. He said he entered politics to offer an alternative to the two major opposition parties, the Democrat Party and Pheu Thai Party.
Thanatorn said his goal to restore democratic politics could be achieved if political parties pledged their commitment to four goals: free and fair elections in February 2019; political parties' collective opposition to an outsider prime minister; collective support for a people's assembly to draft a new constitution with a referendum; and a collective drive to get rid of military rule.
The constitution allows leeway for an outsider to become prime minister if the 500 members of lower house and 250 senators hand-picked by the junta fail to agree to pick a prime minister from a list that political parties proposed before the elections.
Thanatorn said some people have lost faith in the current government.
On the other hand, he said, the People's Democratic Reform Committee that rallied to oust Yingluck Shinawatra before the 2014 coup fear the possible comeback of her older brother, Thaksin, through parties connected to him.
Both Shinawatras fled the country and are living in exile.
Thanatorn said he used to join pro-Yingluck demonstrations, but he realized lately that her Pheu Thai Party did not represent his views.
Barriers on democracy allow a takeover of government, according to Parit, a 25-year-old politician.
"We can tear apart these barriers and push through the idea of liberal democracy. Therefore we can prevent the country from collapsing into military rule," Parit said.
"I would pledge right now that I would not put my hand up for an outsider PM and I would fight my hardest to make sure all Democrats would not do that," he added.




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Suspected insurgents shot and killed two men during a roadside ambush Monday in the Thai Deep South province of Pattani, but a defense volunteer survived after he fired back at the attackers, police said.
The ambush occurred at 2 a.m. in Khok Pho district after defense volunteer Ahmad Rori Jehdeng left his security post at a fair at the Ban Klong Chang School, police Capt. Sukwat Chaimanee said
During the ambush, Ahmad Rori's car collided with a pickup truck that was on its way to the school and its driver was also gunned down, investigators said. A male passenger in Ahmad Rori's car was also killed.
Ahmad Rori told BenarNews that he returned fire at his assailants, emptying his semi-automatic pistol by unloading 10 shots. He suffered minor injuries, police said, and it was not clear if Ahmad Rori hit any of his assailants.
Before the ambush, Ahmad Rohi said his car was parked outside the school when he noticed a note written in Malay, the language commonly spoken in the Deep South.
The note, according to Ahmad Rohi, said "The pain is from performing your duty."
"I was not aware that it was a warning," he told BenarNews as he recalled how he crawled out of his car during the early morning ambush and hid in a dark plantation after firing back at his attackers. He said he yelled at nearby villagers to seek help and police came after 30 minutes.
"I was so sad seeing my dead friend when I returned to the car," he said. "I know who the assailants are; they are insurgents in the area."
Hours later, investigators recovered spent shotgun shells and rifle casings from the scene.
Pattani Police bureau chief Maj. Gen. Piyawat Chalermsri said suspected insurgents were behind the ambush. The village headman also blamed insurgents.
"I'm confident that there were at least six insurgents; some from the area, some from other areas who ambushed the defense volunteer. Some stalked him," Tambon Chief Gunheng Sa-I, told BenarNews.
52 killed, 116 injured this year
Monday's roadside ambush in Pattani province brought to 52 the number of people killed in at least 98 shootings and bomb attacks in the Deep South since January this year, according to figures compiled by BenarNews from police and military reports. At least 116 people have been injured in those incidents, which were not categorized to specify insurgent-related attacks.
Last week, police killed two suspected insurgents in a shootout that also wounded three officers in Mayo district, Pattani province, according to a village leader and the Internal Security Operations Command Region 4, which oversees the Deep South.
The shootout occurred after three motorcycle-riding suspects opened fire at members of a police patrol, authorities said.
A day earlier, 14 people were injured after small bombs exploded in four locations in Narathiwat province and Pattani, police said.
Close to 7,000 people have died in violence in Thailand's predominantly Muslim southern border region since an insurgency waged by Malay separatists reignited 14 years ago.
For the past three years, Thailand's military government has been in Malaysia-brokered peace talks with MARA Patani, an umbrella group that represents various southern rebel groups, but the negotiations have not yet yielded a long-awaited limited ceasefire.


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A self-described Belarusian sex coach who was entangled in a Russian political scandal has been cleared of charges she performed illegal work in Thailand, but will remain behind bars to face other charges that could put her in prison for up to 17 years, officials said Tuesday.
Anastasia Vashukevich, who says she had a brief affair with Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska, grabbed widespread media attention in February when she was arrested with nine other foreigners after Thai police raided their sex training course in Pattaya, south of Bangkok.
Police initially charged her and the nine others with working without a permit, but authorities early this month said all 10 had been charged with soliciting prostitution and conspiracy to form a crime syndicate. The two charges carry a combined maximum prison term of 17 years, legal experts said.
Three of the 10 foreigners were found guilty of working illegally and were each fined $100, police said. Two of the defendants have been deported, according to immigration officials, who declined to elaborate.
"I confirm that we have accused the remaining eight suspects with soliciting prostitution and conspiracy to form a crime syndicate," Col. Apichai Krobpetch, chief of the Pattaya police station, told BenarNews by phone on Tuesday.
"Investigating officers have sought court permission for their remand and I hope we can file the case to the prosecutor within this week," he said.
The 21-year-old Vashukevich, who has written a book about seducing billionaires, catapulted to fame in early February after Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posted a 25-minute " investigative report" on YouTube.
The video, which relies heavily on material from Vashukevich's Instagram account, purportedly includes footage of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko, a longtime adviser to President Vladimir Putin, receiving lavish treatment on Deripaska's yacht. Vashukevich and fellow detainee Aleksandr Kirillov are reportedly facing a lawsuit in Russia over the video.
Vashukevich, whose social media name is Nastya Rybka, describes herself as a model and sex coach. She has posted racy photos of herself online, including a few showing her cuddling with Deripaska.
Vashukevich and Kirillov appeared during the court hearing on Tuesday after being held incommunicado in an immigration jail in Pattaya.
The closed-door hearing was for the charge of working without a permit, which can carry fines and imprisonment of up to five years, legal experts said.
Apparently referring to the latest charges, Vashukevich yelled to reporters outside the court: "Because they close first case and open new one. For nothing. No evidence. Nothing."


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Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha on Tuesday identified the Deep South district where the government and Malay-speaking separatist insurgents are preparing to create a safety zone or limited ceasefire that would propel the three-year-old peace talks.
Prayuth told reporters in Bangkok that the safety zone would be established in Cho I-rong, a district in Narathiwat province, where the latest round of violence began in January 2004 after insurgents looted a military camp and stole more than 400 assault rifles.
"Asked if I have hope in the (upcoming) announcement of a safety zone, like all citizens, I do. No one wants to see the peace talks fail. I expect the safety zone to be the process that creates mutual trust," Prayuth told reporters after a cabinet meeting. "As far as I know, they would set it up in Cho I-rong district in Narathiwat province first."
The prime minister did not establish a time frame for the project, but said he was hopeful both sides would cooperate.
"If the dissidents are sincere and stop attacking, the officials need no use of force, no clashes, then violence subsides," he said.
About 7,000 people have been killed since separatist insurgents reignited violence 14 years ago in the predominantly Muslim southern region.
During the past three years, Thailand's military government has participated in Malaysia-brokered peace talks with MARA Patani, an umbrella organization of six rebel groups in three southernmost border provinces, in an effort to establish a long-awaited limited ceasefire.
In January, government chief negotiator Gen. Aksara Kerdpol announced that Thai and MARA Patani negotiators had agreed to select one district where the ceasefire would be implemented. He did not reveal its location, saying he feared such an announcement would attract more attacks from hardcore insurgent groups that are against the peace process.
Aksara, who could not be reached for comment after Prayuth's announcement, previously said it could take six months to establish the safety zone.
In mid-March, Waedueramae Mamingji, chairman of Pattani Islamic Committee, told BenarNews he was altering parts of the committee's office to be a coordination center for technical teams. The office was being tailored into a "safe house" where three insurgent inmates, who were expected to be paroled, would take part in creating the safety zone.
"We set up a committee to implement the two issues in hope of making the government's project for eternal peace successful," Waedueramae told BenarNews.
Negotiators said the center, about 100 km (62 miles) from Cho I-rong district, will host a technical staff representing the government, dissidents and civilians. The staff would survey people to determine what they expect in the first safety zone.
Last month, Deep South analyst Don Pathan said insurgents threatened to not go through with the safety zone initiative unless the government paroled the three inmates.
Surprise announcement
Rukchart Suwan, chairman of Buddhists for Peace, told BenarNews that the prime minister's announcement took him by surprise and he fears it could jeopardize efforts.
"People there could feel uneasy. It could be prone to heavy attacking because groups who disagree with the process may step up efforts," he said.


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A Thai national wanted by Malaysian authorities was released by military officials in the country's Deep South after they determined he had no ties to militants including the Islamic State (IS), an army spokesman said Wednesday.
Awae Wae-Eya, the Thai national named by Malaysian authorities as a suspected militant, was questioned about his alleged ties, Col. Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for Thailand's Internal Security Operations Command Fourth Army Region (ISOC 4), told reporters.
"Awae has nothing to do with domestic violence or IS. ... He is just an armchair commando," Pramote said, using a slang term for a person who is enthusiastic about military operations but has never been in gun battles.
Awae, 37, might have posted comments on pro-IS websites, but authorities decided to release him because he had no criminal record, Pramote said.
Investigators visited Awae at his residence in Narathiwat's Cho I-rong district, not far from the border, and invited him for questioning at a military camp after Kuala Lumpur issued a statement saying he was among four suspected militants who had managed to escape recent police raids in the southern Malaysian state of Johor.
Malaysia's Police Inspector-General Mohamad Fuzi Harun on Monday said Awae was among four suspected IS cell members, including three Malaysians, who planned bomb attacks at non-Muslim worship sites.
Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters in Bangkok on Wednesday that IS might have tried to reach out to prospective sympathizers in Thailand.
"[IS] has possibly tried to reach out to Thailand but ... it would not go as far as to set up a branch here," Prawit said. "They have a tendency to attack any country though."
"We are closely monitoring any movements and are watchful of IS or terrorists, especially if the Deep South is to be targeted," he said.
On Monday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told a defense forum that 389 people had been arrested in Malaysia since 2013 on suspicion of IS-linked activities. He said 34 of the 95 Malaysians known to have joined IS groups in Syria and Iraq had been killed in conflict zones.


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Thailand's prison authorities have pledged to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of an inmate after being disciplined by guards for allegedly smuggling drugs, in a case which a human rights group said underscored a "culture of impunity in prisons" in the country.
Pattanachirapong Boonyasema was pronounced dead at Bang Bor Hospital on April 18 after he was brought in with bruises on his body from Samut Prakarn prison, where he had served a two-year sentence on drug-related offenses.
The initial autopsy result by the institute of Forensic Medicine at the police general hospital showed he died from choking and from wounds.
"This is unnatural death," Narat Sawettanan, the Justice Ministry's Corrections Department chief, told reporters.
The chief of Sumut Prakan Prison and four other guards have been transferred to inactive positions to facilitate investigations into the death, according to the authorities.
"Anyone found guilty in the case would face discipline and legal action," Narat said.
According to the Corrections Department, Pattanachirapong was injured when he was put through what the guards at Sumut Prakarn Prison described as "disciplinary punishment" together with other 18 inmates allegedly for smuggling drugs into the prison. He then collapsed.
Pattanachirapong's family has filed a formal complaint with police, saying his death was a result of excessive corporal punishment by prison guards.
"Although the prison chief and guards were transferred to pave the way for the investigation, the family is still not satisfied because they believe there are many people involved," Chutipong Boonkerd, the family's lawyer, told BenarNews over the phone.
Wanicha Ouyub, Pattanachirapong's widow, posted pictures on her Facebook page showing severe bruises on her husband's body. She also wrote that she visited her husband on April 17 and that everything was normal and he looked happy as he was about to be released soon.
But, the next day, she was informed that her husband had died of unknown causes.
"I was shocked when I saw his body. My question is how could prison guards do this to prisoners?" Wanicha said on Facebook.
"I will call for justice for my husband till the end," she said, vowing to delay his funeral until the case was investigated.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) slammed the government, particularly the Corrections Department, over the death, saying authorities should "urgently act to end these barbaric practices and the culture of impunity that has meant no punishment for abusive officials."
"Another prisoner died from a brutal beating yet Thai authorities still fail to address this problem," said Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director.
HRW said that while the Correction Department chief Narat had emphasized that corporal punishment and torture – as well as inhumane and degrading treatment – were strictly forbidden in all prison facilities, he failed to explain why the department still faces a "chronic inability" to end these abuses.
The Corrections Department is responsible for more than 280,000 inmates across Thailand, but seems unable to implement effective safeguards against torture and other human rights violations committed by prison officials and guards, HRW said.
It also said that Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha's repeated pledges to make torture a criminal offense under Thai law "remain unfulfilled."
Last year, the National Legislative Assembly suspended its consideration of the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Bill, and the government still has not clarified whether the bill will be reintroduced, HRW said.
"The Thai government needs to take action now to show that there will be no place for those who believe they have unchecked powers to abuse prisoners and get away with the crimes," Adams said. "The government should ensure that Pattanachirapong's death will be the last case of prison brutality in Thailand."


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A court in Thailand's Deep South has sentenced six men to death for their roles in an October 2016 bombing that killed a woman and injured 21 other people at a local night market, a legal aid group said Tuesday.
The bomb exploded near a noodle stall at the market in Muang, a district of insurgency-hit Pattani province, killing the 60-year-old woman. Children were among the injured.
A court in Pattani convicted and handed death sentences on Monday to six of 10 suspected insurgents in custody over the bombing, according to the Muslim Attorney Center Foundation, which provided the defendants with legal representation.
Sentenced to death were Ibroheng Yuso, Amree Lueyo, Santi Chantarakul, Ayub Polee, Isma-ae Tuyong, and Nironing Niday, the foundation said.
Three others – Abdulloh Haye-uma, Ruslan Waehayee and Masan Salae – saw their death sentences commuted to life in prison because they had provided information to investigators that led to the prosecutions. Another suspect, Hamit Jehma, was sentenced to 40 year.
The authorities did not say whether these men belonged to any particular insurgent group but security officials had said previously that the violence in the south was being driven by Barisan Revolusi Nasional, or groups such as BRN.
"The bomber hid a ... bomb at the noodle stall earlier and detonated it later," Col. Pramote Prom-in, a spokesman for the regional branch of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), told reporters at the time of the blast.
"There were two suspects on a motorcycle parked in front of the noodle stall, pretending they were customers."
Police said the suspects left a 44-pound (20-kg) bomb in the eating area near the stall before fleeing the scene. It was detonated remotely using a mobile phone.
The bombing occurred on the 12th anniversary of the Oct. 25, 2004, Tak Bai incident where 85 detainees suffocated to death in a police truck after they were reportedly stacked inside like logs. The detainees were arrested while protesting outside a police station in Tak Bai, a district in neighboring Narathiwat province.
On Tuesday, the chairman of the Muslim Attorney Center Foundation in Pattani said the foundation helped defend the 10 suspects, adding the verdicts read on Monday were based on the confession of one of the suspects who was sentenced to life in prison. Relatives could decide to appeal the convictions.
Close to 7,000 people have been killed since a separatist insurgency reignited 14 years ago in the predominantly Malay and Muslim Thai Deep South.


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Hundreds of villagers in Thailand's Deep South region on Tuesday protested a plan by military officials to resettle former insurgents who recently returned from Malaysia and enrolled in the army's Bring People Home Project rehabilitation program.
About 500 protesters from Tambon Sukirin in insurgency-wracked Narathiwat province said they were worried about their safety and environmental issues.
Maj. Gen. Wichan Suksong, the deputy commander of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) in Thailand's southern border region, said the military planned to resettle 105 people, representing 23 families, in a 276-acre area in Tambon.
The protesters expressed their concerns during their meeting with Wichan and other officials.
"The villagers studied the project and found that the resettlement would affect the wilderness, environment, tourism and create fear of safety," said a leader of Ban Leelanond Village who asked not to be named for fear of possible reprisal.
"All the people in the three villages would like to beg the commander of the Fourth Army Region to rethink the project. We would submit the names of all the people who disagree with the move," he said, adding there was land more suited for the project between Sukirin and Ja-nae districts in Narathiwat.
Wichan tried to quell protesters' safety fears, saying those in the program are not involved in violent attacks.
"I guarantee that the 105 people we are going to move to Chulabhorn Pattana XII are not bad guys and are not trouble-makers," Wichan said.
"But some 30 years ago, they were involved in situations in their areas. They were afraid of authorities and fled to Malaysia," he said. "Now they are 70-year-olds and they are not attackers."
In early February, Lt. Gen. Piyawat Nakwanich, the army's commander in the region, announced a revamp of the Bring People Home Project, which aims to rehabilitate former insurgents and reintegrate them into society. He also announced that 288 people were enrolled in the project.
Those involved in the resettlement project belonged to rebel group Patani United Liberation Organization. They went through the repatriation process in mid-February.
A 65-year-old man, who identified himself as Lo, told BenarNews in mid-February that he fled Thailand to Malaysia 30 years ago. He returned home with his five children and many grandchildren.
"I am very glad. Thank you for the project. The next thing I want is a job," Lo said.
Wichan said the military had allotted 6 million baht (U.S. $189,000) for supplies for 30 houses to be built by the enrollees along with land to farm.
"They are Thais and the commander brought them out, so we need to take care of them. We used to help the (Malaysian) members of the Malayan Communist Party, so there is no reason to not help Thais," he said, referring to the Chinese-Malaysian communists who fought Malaysian authorities during the 1970s through the 1990s.


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A provincial court charged one of Thailand's wealthiest men Wednesday with possessing carcasses of a black panther and other endangered species as well as hunting in a forest reserve, in a case that has shaken Thai perceptions about whether rich people are immune from the law.
Tycoon Premchai Karnasuta and three co-defendants pleaded not guilty and were released on bail after being indicted on six charges stemming from the alleged poaching of a black panther and other animals at a wildlife sanctuary in Kanchanaburi province.
Premchai, the president of Italian-Thai PLC, one of Thailand's biggest construction companies, was arrested with the three other men at Thung Yai Naresuan National Park in early February.
Park rangers alleged that the four had the skinned carcass of a panther, as well as a Kalij pheasant and a barking deer – three species protected under Thai law. Authorities released photos of rangers measuring the panther's pelt, and announced they had seized three rifles and bullets from Premchai.
"Today the court indicted me. The process will go forward," Premchai told reporters calmly following the four-hour hearing at a provincial court in Thong Pha Phum district.
Asked if he maintained his innocence, he replied, "Yes, as I used to say."
The businessman and the others were indicted on six counts: poaching in a wildlife sanctuary; hunting endangered species; possessing carcasses of endangered species; attempting to hide those carcasses; hunting in a forest reserve without a permit; and illegal possession of firearms.
The permit and firearms violations each carry maximum sentences of 10 years while poaching carries a maximum sentence of five years.
A prosecutor told reporters that he expected justice to prevail.
"When prosecutors decided to push forward with the proceedings, [which] means we are confident in existing evidence that can prove they are guilty. Today, they all pleaded innocent," prosecutor Krisada Chuto said.
He said the court hearing would resume May 21 because all of the defendants were not represented by legal counsel.
Besides the six charges in the indictment, Premchai and one of his alleged accomplices were charged with offering a bribe to rangers to not file charges after they were held at the national park.
In addition, Premchai faces charges in a Bangkok criminal court of possessing illegal firearms and illegally possessing four African elephant tusks. His wife is his co-defendant in the latter case, which stems from a search of their home.
The black panther is a subspecies of the Indochinese black leopard, according to environmentalists who said about 900 to 2,500 remain in the wild, of which only 11 percent are the subspecies.
Since the story about the alleged poaching of a panther by one of Thailand's richest men broke three months ago, environmental activists have called for justice for the slain endangered animals, but many Thais believe that rich and powerful people behave as though they can flout the nation's laws.
"I agreed with the court, but I am still afraid because in the past, many well-to-do or big-name people got away with their crimes. But the media could play a key role in ensuring a favorable outcome," Yupathep, a Khon Khaen-based business man, told BenarNews.
Premchai's company built Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport and the Bangkok Metro system. In May 2017, Forbes magazine listed him among Thailand's 50 Richest, with a net worth of at least U.S. $240 million (7.6 billion baht).


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Southeast Asia's transnational organized criminal economy is booming alongside increasing flows in legitimate regional trade, with underworld syndicates raking in more than U.S. $100 billion in annual revenue from narcotics smuggling and other illicit enterprises, the United Nations said Thursday.
The U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed this staggering figure in a statement it issued as some 200 diplomats and officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathered in Bangkok for a high-level conference to discuss ways to improve border management and counter organized crime.
Trade flows within Southeast Asia have quadrupled over the past decade and are estimated to reach U.S. $375 billion per year by 2025, UNODC said.
"In parallel to these positive achievements, the criminal economy of East and Southeast Asia is growing, with conservative estimates of the value of transnational organized crime revenues exceeding U.S. $100 billion annually – more than the gross domestic product of several ASEAN-member states," the U.N. agency said.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister Prajin Juntong, who addressed the conference, warned that criminal syndicates and other nefarious groups could try to take advantage of the growing volume of legitimate commerce across the 10-member regional bloc.

"ASEAN economic and trade flows will continue to increase. While this is positive, it also provides increased opportunities for transnational crime groups who do not respect our borders," he said. 

"Illegal activities like trafficking often mirror legal flows and movements of goods and services, and as the economy expands criminal and even terrorist networks will look for ways to benefit," added Prajin, who is also the justice minister.
During the conference, Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, Thailand's minister of transport, underscored the relevance of border management, as he highlighted major investments in infrastructure across the region.
Arkhom was apparently referring to a massive project to build roads and bridges in the region as part of Chinese leader Xi Jinping's landmark geopolitical strategy known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a modern-day Silk Road that aims to connect China to the rest of Asia and beyond.
"What we see as opportunities for economic and social development are seen by others as openings to expand cross-border criminal activity," he said.
A significant increase in synthetic drug production and trafficking, growing timber and wildlife trafficking, as well as indications of new human trafficking and migrant smuggling patterns have been recorded in Southeast Asia, UNODC said.
China's foreign direct investment (FDI) into ASEAN-member countries remains relatively small at 6.8 percent of the total net inflows in 2015, but Chinese corporations were currently involved in major infrastructure projects across the region, Singapore-based economist Weiwen Ng told Bloomberg News.
China accounted for 14 percent of net FDI inflows into Thailand last year, 8 percent in Vietnam and Indonesia, and 6 percent in Malaysia, Ng said. The Philippines received a marginal share of 0.14 percent, he said.


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Thai officials agreed to the parole of three Deep South insurgents at the request of MARA Patani as part of talks to end a decades-long separatist rebellion, the head of a government delegation told BenarNews on Thursday.
The announcement came on the same day that an army official said it would not go forward with a plan to move former insurgents and their families to Narathiwat – one of the provinces in the Deep South – as part of a military-backed rehabilitation program.
Earlier this year, MARA Patani, the umbrella group representing rebel groups in peace talks, demanded that three insurgents jailed in two Thai prisons be released to participate in an initiative to set up a so-called safety zone, or geographically limited ceasefire, in one of the Deep South districts as a first step toward peace in the region.
"The ministry of justice has processed the parole of the three inmates. They are qualified for parole ... we have been looking to make it happen," Gen. Aksara Kerdpol, who leads the Thai delegation in peace talks, told BenarNews by phone.
Malaysia-brokered talks between Thailand's military government and MARA Patani have been ongoing since 2015.
For months, both sides have been negotiating for an agreement to establish a safety zone seen as a linchpin for taking the peace talks to the next stage.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha recently revealed that the safety zone would be in Cho I-rong, a district of Narathiwat province.
Maj. Gen. Sithi Trakulwong, secretary of the Thai peace talk delegation, confirmed that technical teams from both sides had chosen that district, but the full delegations had not approved the location.
Sithi said plans were for a full delegation meeting during Ramadan, which begins next week, to reach a final agreement on the safety zone location by the end of the holy month as an Eid al-Fitr gift to the predominantly Muslim Deep South.
"We confirm that the peace talk process is still on. Both sides' technical teams have agreed in naming Cho I-rong district in Narathiwat province as a safety zone," Sithi told BenarNews by phone Thursday.
Meanwhile on April 24, the president of Pattani Islamic Committee disclosed that facilities in Pattani would be set up as a coordination center and safe house to accommodate the three parolees and others from remote areas who will have roles in establishing the safety zone about 100 km (62 miles) away.
Bring People Home
On Thursday, the officer in charge of the 4th Army Region overseeing the region responded to villagers' concerns about its plans to resettle former insurgents and their families enrolled in the Bring People Home Project rehabilitation program.
Last week, about 500 villagers from Tambon Sukirin in Narathiwat province protested the military's plan to resettle 105 people representing 23 insurgent families who had recently returned from Malaysia. The protesters said they were worried about their safety and environmental issues.
"All officials with the military, police and civil servants included are responsible in taking care of people. When we talked to villagers and they did not want the 4th Army to continue the project, we are willing to stop," said Lt. Gen. Piyawat Nakwanich, the commander of the Fourth Army region.
"The army is going to look elsewhere as our discussions with the villagers has come to a conclusion today. We will not be bringing those people to resettle here."
Villagers welcomed the news.
"After talking with the 4th commander, everyone is happy. He promised if the villagers did not want that, they would not proceed," Phandinsayam Suansuwan, a leader from Ban Leenanond village in Narathiwat, told BenarNews.
The Deep South, where nearly 7,000 people have been killed in the Malay-speaking region since the separatist insurgency re-ignited in 2004, is plagued by violence. Five police officers were injured Thursday in Narathiwat when a roadside bomb exploded near their light-armored police vehicle.


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Thailand's leading English daily, the Bangkok Post, assured readers Wednesday that its "editorial independence is intact" after the paper's editor said he had been removed because the military government reportedly was not happy with his performance and after he refused to tone down his "hard hitting" stories.

Editor Umesh Pandey said he was transferred on Monday to an "insignificant position" after a 22-month stint at the top editorial post of the daily, which warned in an article last week that the upset opposition election victory in neighboring Malaysia should serve as "both a lesson and a warning" for the Thai junta which seized power in 2014.

"I was told that the people in the government were not happy with my work and that was shown through the board's decision to put me on an inactive position," Pandey told BenarNews in a telephone interview.

"I am not the first and I believe I am not the least one," said Pandey. "But I hope I am the last one."

Pandey said press freedom had suffered not only under current military rule but also even under the elected government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra during the 2001-2006 period.

"The hard-hitting news that we have produced in the 22-months of my leadership is a testament to what we as a team ... have managed to achieve," he said.

The Bangkok Post said in a statement that it was committed to editorial autonomy, rejecting any notion that there was government interference in editorial issues.

"Following the transfer of former editor Umesh Pandey, the Bangkok Post would like to assure readers and the public of our editorial independence and reaffirm that our content, whether published in the newspaper or on other platforms, has never been interfered with by either the government or company executives," it said.

"Despite the tough current climate in the media industry, the Bangkok Post remains committed to transparent journalism for the greater benefit of Thai society," the statement said. "The paper confirms that everything produced under our name is congruent with our values of independence, integrity and impartiality."

The paper also said that Umesh's transfer was "the result of several factors and bears no relation to our journalistic autonomy or the content which we have produced proudly for almost 72 years."

"At all times we have strived to maintain our integrity, even now in what is a challenging period for Thailand, but this newspaper has never compromised its editorial independence and this is something that will never change."

Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-o-cha, when asked to comment on the issue after a routine cabinet meeting said he appreciated "constructive" criticism but the removal of Umesh was an "ethical" issue that should be resolved by the media itself.

"What do I have to do with this? I don't even know him. Who is Umesh Pandey? This is the issue of a private company, a matter of a news organization," he said.

"I appreciate and don't mind constructive criticism," he said.

But U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said press freedom in Thailand was under threat "in a way that it has not been since the military government of the late 1970s.

It accused the military junta of dragging Thailand "backwards" in politics and reversing progress on human rights.

"One of the easiest ways to figure out who is violating press freedom in Thailand is the speed with which those responsible try to deny it -- which puts the denials from both the Bangkok Post and Prime Minister Prayut in perspective," Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, told BenarNews.     

He said the Bangkok Post's majority owner was a huge business family that has "a very long track record of getting cozy with whoever is in power, and moderating the Post's editorial policy to fit with that objective."

"Just like the Bangkok Post sacked a senior journalist who exposed corruption at the Suvarnaphumi airport in an expose that infuriated then PM Thaksin Shinawatra, now the owners stepped in to remove an editor who they obviously thought was too tough in holding the NCPO military government to their various public pledges to restore democracy."

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Thai junta leaders are tightening relationships with supporters of the Shinawatra family in a bid to retain power through elections expected next year, analysts and rights activists said as Thailand approaches a fifth year under military rule with no firm date for polls in sight.
On May 22, 2014, then-Army Chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha overthrew the government of Yingluck Shinawatra. He dissolved parliament, detained political leaders and imposed a curfew while promising to bring Thailand back to democracy within 18 months.
But four years later, Prayuth has yet to provide a concrete timeframe for a general election, although the 64-year-old leader has announced plans for a vote in February 2019.
"We see the attempts to form connections with local influential people in some constituencies with cozy welcoming," said Titipol Phakdeewanich, a political science lecturer at Ubon Ratchathani University. "It is an old trick to make sure that the military's status quo remains intact after we have a civilian government following the planned elections."
Titipol was referring to Prayuth's recent trips to rural northeastern provinces, including Buriram, a known electoral bailiwick of the Shinawatras.
But Prayuth, at a news briefing Tuesday after his provincial visit, rejected insinuations that he was courting support from voters.
"What is wrong with visiting constituencies? I have never recruited anyone," he said.
During the trip that took him about 372 km (232 miles) away from the capital Bangkok, Prayuth was welcomed by supporters of Newin Chidchob, a former aide of ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was also deposed in a military coup.
Prayuth recently approved a budget allocation of 20 billion baht (about U.S. $635 million) for five development projects in the Buriram area, raising questions about what deal he had forged with Newin, a politician and soccer club owner who has been labeled as a "kingmaker" because of his ability to influence voters.
"I won't say which party I am with. This [allocation] is a national project," Prayuth told reporters. "I don't waste time thinking who supports me or not."
Newin was a member of several political parties until he and his allies eventually joined Thai Rak Thai, the party of Thaksin, Yingluck's older brother who served as prime minister from 2001 until he was overthrown in a coup on Sept. 19, 2006.
Dominating politics in northern Thailand
Yingluck fled Thailand in August 2017 before she was to appear in court to hear the verdict over charges of gross negligence in a failed rice subsidy scheme during her tenure. A month later, she was sentenced in absentia to five years. Government officials said they were unsure of her whereabouts, but she had been seen in February with Thaksin in Singapore.
The Shinawatra family have dominated politics for almost two decades in the poorer, more rural areas of northern and northeastern Thailand, where many have benefited from populist policies launched by Thaksin and his supporters, analysts said.
But the military traditionally holds considerable power in Thai politics. Since Thailand's constitutional monarchy was created in 1932, the kingdom has experienced 18 military coups, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
Yet in the midst of major political upheavals, the Thai public would often look to the king to provide assurances and possibly offer a solution. That pillar of stability ended when the nation's beloved King Bhumibol Adulyadej died on Oct. 13, 2016, CRS said.
Bhumibol's son, Maha Vajiralongkorn ascended to the throne in December 2016, toward the start of a year of national mourning for the late king, who had reigned for 70 years.
King Bhumibol's intense popularity could be gleaned in 1992, analysts said, when at least 48 people died after Gen. Suchinda Kraprayoon unleashed a military crackdown on hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators in Bangkok. The bloodshed ended soon after Bhumibol intervened.
Suchinda toppled the elected government of Chatichai Choonhavan in 1991, citing widespread corruption as a reason for the coup. After the general election in 1992, Suchinda became prime minister on April 7, 1992, despite his public statements that he would not become a politician.
Suchinda's appointment resulted in massive protests the following month, leading to the crackdown. Officially, fewer than 50 people died in the 1992 mayhem. Unofficially the number may have reached 300, according to Asiaweek magazine.
Prayuth's ambiguous political ambition
Like Suchinda, Prayuth has been ambiguous when asked about his political ambition, analysts said.
But Sunai Phasuk, Thailand director for New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), told BenarNews that "it now seems clear that Thailand's junta leader Gen. Prayuth will use an election as a steppingstone to prolong his rule."
"The general has been campaigning across the country, using taxpayers money, to boost his popularity and solicit support from political clans," he said. "But nothing indicates that the race will be contested on an even playing field."
Student activist Rangsiman Rome, a leader of the Democratic Restoration Group, said Prayuth was seeking support from former politicians because that would help secure seats for regular and party-list representatives who are pro-military in the next elections.
Thailand's military-backed constitution, which was adopted through a national referendum in August 2016, allows members of the Lower and Upper House to select a new prime minister from non-elected candidates if the elected nominee fails to win the vote.
The military controls 143 out of 250 parliamentary seats, according to Reuters news agency. Under the previous junta after the 2006 coup, the military held 67 of 242 seats.
"The candidates from Prayuth's allied parties are not popular," Rome said. "Prayuth believes he should add popular local candidates to ensure the vote, that way he could become prime minister again."
'Checking the readiness step by step'
Last week, Prayuth said he could not set a specific date for the polls, insisting that the elections would not be in the nation's security interests if they led to a return of street violence that periodically took place during the past dozen years.
"I am prime minister right now, I don't know about my future. I don't know the election date, but we are checking the readiness step by step, until it is sure the nation would not face troubles," he said.
Pro-democracy activists plan to pressure Prayuth to hold an election this year, vowing to mark the coup's anniversary with protest rallies. The two main political factions, including the Pheu Thai Party and its rival Democrat Party, also demanded the junta move ahead with its election plans.
"The election date has been postponed more than 10 times. We try to believe their pledges but they did not feel responsible," said Rangsiman, referring to the junta.
"We demand that elections be held in November this year," he said. "There is no guarantee about the election in February 2019."
Once Prayuth becomes a candidate and promptly lifts all restrictions on other parties and political activities, pro-democracy movements would be expected to cease their protest activities, Rome said.
Entrenching abusive military power
A recent HRW report stated that the junta, during its rule since May 2014, repeatedly failed to fulfill pledges made to the U.N. General Assembly to respect human rights and democratic rule.
Instead, it said, Prayuth curtailed people's rights to free speech and peaceful assembly and orchestrated the 2017 Constitution, "which will entrench unaccountable and abusive military power."
The charter contains provisions that allow the military to add 100 seats to the Senate and appoint all its members, HRW said. Six of those seats will be reserved for chiefs of the armed forces. All 250 senators also have the power to help members of the 500-seat National Legislative Assembly appoint a new prime minister.
The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), as the junta is formally known, has pushed back dates for prospective elections at least four times. It has arrested pro-democracy activists and critics, as well as banned large political gatherings and demonstrations. However, activists lately have defied the ban and such gatherings have taken place more frequently in the months leading up to the fourth anniversary of the coup.
The junta-backed parliament passed an array of laws aimed at gagging dissent, rights activists said, in a country that already had Lese-Majeste, a strict anti-royal defamation law that forbids insults to members of the Thai monarchy.
As of March, the NCPO has prosecuted at least 94 people since taking power on charges of violating Lese-Majeste, under which offenders can be sentenced to as many as 15 years in prison for sharing a story on Facebook, according to iLaw, an advocacy group for online law education.
In addition, at least 75 people have been charged with sedition, iLaw said.
"The U.N. and the international community should not put up with this," said Sunai, the HRW's director in Thailand. "Instead, they should firmly and vocally stress it with the junta that the legitimacy of Thailand's election will be based on its quality as a genuine democratic and inclusive process. To have a free and fair election, it needs to start with lifting all restrictions on fundamental freedoms immediately."
In June 2017, a Bangkok military court handed the longest prison sentence to a person convicted royal defamation, ordering a man named Wichai to serve 35 years for posting content on Facebook deemed as insulting to the monarchy, a lawyer said.
Earlier this year, government spokesman Lt. Gen. Sansern Kaewkamnerd told reporters that Prayuth had said more demonstrations against the junta were likely and could derail the election timeline. 

"If the unrest continues to rage, is it likely an election can proceed smoothly?" Sansern quoted Prayuth as saying.
Updated to add comments from Sunai Phasuk, Thailand director for New York-based Human Rights Watch.


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Thai officials named one suspect but made no arrests Monday after BRN rebels, they said, set off 16 pipe bombs across the Deep South during a coordinated attack aimed at undermining regional peace talks and disrupting Ramadan observances.
Two thirds of the 24 small improvised explosive devices (IED) that were planted at ATM booths and high-voltage electric poles in four provinces exploded within a 50-minute window on Sunday evening while the rest were diffused or found to be fake, said Col. Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for the southern region's Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC-4).
He linked the bombers to a militant squad known in Malay as Runda Kampalan Kecil (RKK), which is under the control of Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), southern Thailand's most powerful separatist insurgent group.
Three civilians suffered non-life threatening shrapnel injuries when the steel tube IEDs exploded in different areas of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla provinces between 6:40 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., officials said.
"Officials found security camera footage of a suspect identified as an RKK member. He planted a bomb alone at the Government Savings Bank in Saba Yoi in Songkhla," Pramote said, adding that "some others were dressed in military-style uniforms and some wore scarves."
He identified the suspect as Waegoyi Tale, 28. Police said they had made no arrests, but were searching for him and others suspected of planting the bombs.
"The assailants wanted to directly disrupt people's lives, especially where they aimed at public places," Pramote told reporters. "Secondly, they breached Islamic teaching, especially with such attacks during the holy month of Ramadan. They did not listen to the caution of the 11 Muslim organizations to refrain from violence."
Thai officials have blamed insurgents in the predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South of indoctrinating students to violence as well as distorting Islamic teaching that performing jihad during Ramadan allows them access to heaven. ISOC-4 recently accused some Islamic elementary and high schools in the region of supporting violent insurgent acts.
The last region-wide coordinated attack took place in April 2017, when 13 bombs exploded simultaneously in Narathiwat, along with three in Pattani and three in Songkhla. But those were aimed at security officials, authorities said. Two suspected insurgents were killed when their bomb exploded prematurely.
No comment from BRN
The BRN has not claimed responsibility for the bombings and, over several decades, has rarely declared having a role in fighting for independence of the 2 million people in the Deep South from Buddhist-majority Thailand.
Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in violence in Thailand's southern border region since the decades-old insurgency re-ignited in 2004.
According to professor Srisompob Jitpiromsri of Deep South Watch, a local think-tank, BRN was responsible for Sunday's bombings.
"The BRN restarted violence at the beginning of the month. The number of attacks shot up because a variety of reasons, including this month is Ramadan and the uncertainty of peace talks," Srisompob told BenarNews by phone.
"The insurgent group might want to the disrupt the safety zone attempt because they feel they don't need to care about it," Srisompob said.
Since 2015, Thailand's military government has held various rounds of peace talks with MARA Patani, a panel representing various southern insurgent groups and factions. But so far, the Malaysia-brokered negotiations have failed to produce a so-called Safety Zone, or geographically limited ceasefire, which is seen as a linchpin to prospects of future peace.
On Monday, the southern army commander played down Sunday's attacks.
"There was no significant gesture but they wanted to make known that they are still there. So we will fight them. We know some of them and their faces," Lt. Gen. Piyawat Nakwanich told reporters, as he discussed a long-term plan to not allow suspects to conceal their faces under helmets when stopped by police.


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On the fourth anniversary of the military coup that brought him to power, Thailand's prime minister reiterated Tuesday that elections would take place early next year even as security forces arrested pro-democracy demonstrators who tried to march to his office.
About 300 demonstrators belonging to the "We Want Voting Movement" gathered in Bangkok's Thammasat University on Monday night and started to march the next morning toward Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha's office, where they planned to read a statement calling for elections to be held this year.
But police blocked them from reaching their destination and, by Tuesday afternoon, 15 protest leaders and others had been arrested or turned themselves in to the authorities.
"I have already said that (the elections) are following the proper steps, which is early 2019, no sooner," Prayuth told reporters as protesters marched toward his office.
On May 22, 2014, then-Army Chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha plunged the nation into military rule by overthrowing the government of Yingluck Shinawatra. He dissolved parliament, detained political leaders and imposed a curfew while promising to bring Thailand back to democracy within 18 months.
Since then, Prayuth has postponed several times what he has referred to as his "road map" to an election, infuriating pro-democracy groups by pushing the date back to February 2019 at the earliest.
The protestors who demonstrated on Tuesday – some holding effigies of a Pinocchio-nosed Prayuth and placards denouncing the junta – were met by a police security blockade before getting close to the Government House, the seat of Thailand's executive power.
 
Earlier, the Supreme Administrative Court had rejected their request for the 4.3-km (2.7-mile) march from the university, according to police.
A few leaders and about 100 demonstrators passed through the blockade after minor scuffles with about 3,000 baton-wielding riot police and managed to move to the United Nations building, a block away from Prayuth's office. They were rounded up after the police allowed them to use a megaphone to make a statement.
"Elections must take place in November of this year, as the NCPO promised," activist Cholthicha Jaengraew said before the demonstrators were detained and hauled off in a police truck to Phya Thai police station, ending the protests after 3 p.m.
"Over the past night and day we have shown that to speak about elections is a basic right all citizens can have but is hampered in Thailand. It's ridiculous," protest leader Rangsiman Rome told supporters at Thammasat before going to the police station.
Prayuth said he respected people's rights, but he had to stop the demonstration because it was unlawful. Under security provisions imposed by the junta, it is illegal for more than five people to stage political gatherings.
"The We Want Voting Movement can make demands. They cited constitutional rights to do so, but there are laws on public gatherings to follow. They must think this through thoroughly," Prayuth said.
A local NGO and legal aid group, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, said the 15 rally participants were detained at two police stations in Bangkok and faced charges of sedition, defying the junta's ban on political gatherings of five or more people, and harming the nation. Sedition carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison, according to a legal expert.
The U.N.'s Human Rights Office issued a statement calling for the immediate release of the activists.
"We have consistently urged the Royal Thai Government, as a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to fully respect the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly," it said.
Prayuth: Keeping the peace
Speaking to reporters, Prayuth said he could not allow the country to face instability caused by this and other protests.
"The government must enforce the laws for peace," Prayuth said. "Mark my word, the prosecution will be intense, otherwise the national interest is compromised. I can't let that happen."
Not all groups oppose the junta, an academic at Ubon Ratchathani University said, adding that many wanted the military leaders to remain in office.
"When we look at what happened today, there are two shades – dissenters and supporters of the protests," Titipol Phakdeewanich, a political science lecturer at Ubon Ratchathani University, told BenarNews by phone.
The lecturer questioned Prayuth's sincerity to holding an election early next year.
"I don't believe there will be elections as the premiere promised. It depends on whether he and the military feel comfortable they have built enough support," Titipol said.
He also said junta leaders were working to improve relations with supporters of the Shinawatra family in a bid to retain power through elections. Yingluck and her older brother, Thaksin, both were removed from the prime minister's office by military coups.
Some Thais have mixed feelings about Prayuth's government.
A farmer leader in Yala province, in Thailand's troubled southern border region, gave the junta positive marks for security during the past four years, but downgraded the leadership over pocketbook issues.
"We need to look at different aspects. The violence in Deep South has decreased, but the economy has suffered," Songwut Damringkul told BenarNews. "We are under democratic rule and yet we are longing for elections."


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When Chinese tycoon and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma launched a marketing campaign for Thailand's durians on his company's massive online retailing website, the e-commerce billionaire and Thai retailers were impressed by the instant success – 80,000 of the large thorny fruits were snapped up within a minute.
But there were concerns too.
The Thai retailers were worried they would eventually be overwhelmed by the marketing blitz of Tmall.com, China's largest online retailing website, which has access to more than 1.4 billion Chinese consumers hungry for farm products such as fragrant rice, durians and other tropical fruits.
Ma, on the other hand, was concerned over the Thai uneasiness at a time when his giant e-commerce group was moving to pump in more than U.S. $330 million worth of investments into Thailand in a bid to tap Chinese consumer demands for the Southeast nation's agricultural goods and tourism market.
"We don't have the capability to monopolize trade, and it is impossible to monopolize a digital market," Ma said in assuring Thais present at a business reception in Bangkok last month
"People worry about Alibaba (as it) comes to Thailand: Are we going to occupy Thailand? Are we going to take out the jobs?," Jack Ma told the gathering after inking four MOUs with the Thai government covering trade, investment, support for e-commerce and tourism. "We are not interested in that.
"We are interested in and focusing on enabling entrepreneurs and partners in Thailand (to handle digital trade), making sure they are successful because we believe only (if) they are successful, we will be successful."
Aside from Thai investments already in the pipeline, Alibaba announced a couple of months ago that it would double its investment to $4 billion in its subsidiary Lazada, a leading online shopping firm in Southeast Asia, demonstrating its desire to beef up its 560 million regional consumer base.
Some Thais are concerned that Alibaba's aggressive investment stance would not only affect the local retail market but also cause reverberations in key local sectors such as banking and transportation.
"We are concerned that the existing Thai e-commerce, retailers and department stores will be impacted" by Alibaba's expansion in Thailand, Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, president of the Thai E-commerce Association, told BenarNews.
"The market could be monopolized by Alibaba because they are a big player," he said. "And the banking, transportation sector as well as many other industries would surely [have a] domino-like effect.
Pachiraya Vorapongpichet, a Thai online trader of garments and wood products, said while Thailand's strong agricultural sector may have an edge over China, the Southeast Asian nation may lose out on other products in which China is more competitive.
A growing number of Thai businesses are becoming proxies of Chinese companies in the tourism and property markets, such as in the Phuket resort south of Thailand.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak defended the Alibaba investments, saying the Chinese company would be a vital marketing platform for the local agricultural sector.
"The government wants this (investment) because the majority of Thais are famers. Every year, we have product oversupplies and this investment could help them a lot. We believe these people want changes," Somkid said following a meeting with Jack Ma last month.
"To be a middle-income country, we need to improve the livelihood of farmers and younger generations to be able to live in digital era," he said.
A pick up in exports and tourism backed by rebounding farm output pushed Thailand's economic growth to a five-year high in the first quarter of 2018.
Gross domestic product rose 4.8 percent during the January-March period from a year ago, the National Economic and Social Development Board said this week.
Tourists from China are the top visitors to Thailand, accounting for nearly one-third of arrivals.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is also moving to expand cooperation with Fliggy, Alibaba's online travel business and China's leading online travel service provider, to boost tourism, reports have said.
"In any case, like it or not, we cannot bar Alibaba from entering Thailand. So the best approach is to ensure local tour operators are well prepared for increased competition," said former TAT governor Pradech Phayakvichien, a local newspaper The Nation reported.
"They should adjust their approach and work out how they could get the most benefits out of the collaboration," he said. "In the digital era, we need technology to help connect us to the world and potential customers."
China is the fourth largest investor after Japan, Singapore and the European Union.

[https://www]

Thailand's Chinese-made VT-4 battle tank fires a round during a demonstration at Adisorn Cavalry Center in Saraburi province, Jan. 26, 2018. [Pimuk Rakkanam/BenarNews]

 
Growing military ties
Thailand's military is also increasing its partnership with China.
Thailand recently signed a contract to purchase three submarines valued at $1.1 billion (36 billion baht) from China, expecting the first delivery in the next five to six years. China also assisted in developing a multiple rocket launcher system DTI-1.
The Royal Thai Army recently showcased its new Chinese-built VT-4 main battle tanks to refute public doubts about the quality of Chinese-made weapons. Thailand plans to purchase at least 48 Chinese tanks to replace 1950s-era U.S. M-41 tanks.
As the number of Chinese-made weapons in its arsenal increases, the Defense Ministry has been working on joint ventures to establish repair center and spare part warehouse in Thailand, according to spokesman Lt. Gen. Kongcheep Tantrawanich, who did not estimate the value of the projects.
China has been getting closer since the Thai military seized power four years ago, but ties with the United States, Thailand's traditional ally, are not affected, one analyst said.
"Since the junta took power, Thailand's armed forces received more and more assistance from the Chinese People's Liberation Army... [but] that doesn't mean the U.S. influence is reduced because Thailand and the U.S. are long-standing allies," said Dulyapak Preecharush, an assistant professor of Southeast Asian Studies program at Thammasat University.


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Thai authorities on Thursday released on bail 15 pro-democracy demonstrators who led a march in Bangkok this week to protest the fourth anniversary of a coup that brought the military to power.
Authorities charged protest leader Rangsiman Rome and the others with five charges including sedition for leading a rally of about 300 protesters, who began at Thammasat University but were blocked by police from reaching the prime minister's office.
"We rallied in line with our constitutional rights. We did not do anything wrong," Rangsiman told BenarNews after being released on bail following his appearance in a Bangkok court. "Until the election is set, we will continue to protest."
The activists were each released on a bail of 100,000 baht (U.S. $3,175), but on condition that they not repeat the crimes, according to lawyer Krisadang Nuchajarat. Along with sedition, which carries a maximum seven-year prison sentence, they were charged with violating the junta's ban on political gatherings of more than five people, and three other charges.
A Thai deputy prime minister defended the prosecution even though it was condemned by international organizations, including the U.N. Human Rights Office, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
"Did they break the laws? Yes, they did. We allowed them to gather, but they marched so they got arrested. The officials and the court just performed their duty," Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters.
Delays on road back to democracy
On May 22, 2014, then-Army Chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha led a coup that toppled the government of Yingluck Shinawatra. He dissolved parliament, detained political leaders and imposed a curfew while promising to bring Thailand back to democracy within 18 months.
Since then, Prime Minister Prayuth has repeatedly postponed what he has referred to as his "road map" to an election, infuriating pro-democracy groups by pushing the date back to February 2019 at the earliest.
In October 2016, Prayuth announced that the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej would not affect the junta's plans for elections in September or October 2017, with the elected government assuming power by December of that year.
"Nothing has changed," Prayuth said at the time. "The policies of this government, the laws – including elections – will be according to the roadmap. Don't ask me when or how it will occur, the roadmap is the roadmap."
A year later, in October 2017, Prayuth announced a timeframe for elections in 2018. "Around June 2018, we will announce an election date. And around November, we will hold the elections ... this is very clear," Prayuth told reporters then.
Without waiting for a June announcement, Prayuth pushed elections back to early 2019.
The demonstrators on Tuesday – some holding signs of a Pinocchio-nosed Prayuth and others denouncing the junta – were met by a police security blockade before getting close to the Government House, the seat of Thailand's executive power.
The members of the "We Want Voting Movement" called on Prayuth to hold an election in November and to keep the military out of politics.
"I have already said that (the elections) are following the proper steps, which is early 2019, no sooner," Prayuth told reporters as protesters marched toward his office Tuesday.


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Raids involving up to 200 police commandos led to the arrests at Buddhist temples in Bangkok of five senior monks suspected of being part of a money laundering scheme, Thai government officials said Thursday.
Armed with warrants, police searched for seven monks in three different temples – Wat Sa Ket, Wat Sam Phraya, and Wat Samphanthawong – who were believed to be linked to a scam where millions of baht were illegally transferred from temple funds to outsiders.
Of the five arrested, three were members of the Sangha Supreme Council, the organization that governs Buddhist monks in the country, officials said.
In Theravada (conservative) Buddhism, monks are not supposed to touch money. Despite this ban, police said they froze 132 million baht ($4.13 million) in the personal bank account of an abbot at Sa Ket Temple who was not among the five taken into custody.
"We found the abbot was involved with embezzling money from two temple-related projects worth 69 million baht. Money was transferred to lay people outside," police Maj. Gen. Maitree Chimcherd told reporters.
In addition, Buddha Isara, a well-known activist monk, was arrested for allegedly stealing weapons during street protests in 2013 and 2014 and for violating the country's strict royal defamation law through the alleged unlicensed use of the royal emblem on a Buddhist image.
The suspects who were arrested did not respond to questions from reporters as they were led into criminal court. The court stripped them of their positions as monks so they could be sent to jail and then denied bail.
Suwapan Tanyuwattana, a minister in the Prime Minister's Office who oversees the National Office of Buddhism (NOB), told reporters that police were only doing their jobs in arresting and processing the monks.
"In order to take legal action, we have to be concerned about Sangha law and Sangha discipline," he said. "Everything has regulations and procedures."
Thursday's raids were the latest launched by the military-led government in its efforts to clean up corruption among the clergy of Thailand's dominant religion. In Thailand, about 95 percent of its 69 million people practice Buddhism led by nearly 300,000 monks in 41,000 temples nationwide.
In March 2017, authorities ended a 23-day siege at the nation's largest temple, Wat Dhammakaya, after they were unable to capture its founding monk on money-laundering and other charges despite deploying hundreds of police and soldiers to hunt him down.
Reformer speaks
A former official of a Buddhism reform panel group said the arrests were a good start to ridding Buddhism of criminal elements.
"Senior monks involved with temple-fund fraud will surely impact people's faith toward Buddhism. This is going to bring a huge change to Thailand's religious composition," said Paiboon Nititawan, a former member of National Reform Council's panel on Buddhism reform.
"We should amend Sangha law to prevent monks from being involved with money and temple finances. An accountant should be able to examine temple accounts," he said.


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Religious minorities are under pressure in South and Southeast Asia, the United States government said in a report Tuesday, stressing that religious freedom was critical to reducing terrorism and boosting economic growth.

U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback said the key objectives of President Donald Trump's administration were reduction of terrorism and economic growth, adding that "with religious freedom, you get both of them."

"It is also a fundamental human right under assault in much of the world," Brownback said at the launch of the annual U.S. religious freedom report, which highlighted concerns about issues affecting minority groups in about 200 countries, including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in launching the report, said the United States wanted to work with other governments and its partners in the religious community and civil society to advance religious freedom.

He said Washington would host a high-level international meeting on religious freedom in July "to reaffirm our commitment to religious freedom as a universal human right."

Pompeo expected the July 25-26 ministerial to "break new ground."

"It will not just be a discussion group.  It will be about action.  We look forward to identifying concrete ways to push back against persecution and ensure greater respect for religious freedom for all," he said.

The report covering 2017 highlighted concerns over religious freedom in the region.

Thailand

In its country report on Buddhist-majority Thailand, the state department pointed to how some members of the clergy who define themselves as Buddhist nationalists had "used social media to call for violence against Muslims. They also criticized what they said was the state's accommodation of Islam."

The Muslim community represents less than 5 percent of Thailand's population but is largely concentrated in the far southern region known as the Deep South, where a Malay separatist insurgency has simmered for decades.

In September 2017, the state department reported, the Thai military arrested Buddhist monk Apichat Punnajanatho in the Deep South because he was suspected of promoting violent, anti-Muslim hate speech.

The military flew him to Bangkok, where the nation's leading Buddhist clerical body, the Supreme Sangha Council, disrobed and expelled him from the monkhood, the report said. It noted that Apichat was turned over to police but they did not charge him and later released him.

The state department said there were no reports last year of calls by Muslims advocating violence targeting Buddhists in Thailand.

Malaysia

In neighboring Malaysia, the state department highlighted a lack of progress by police in investigating the February 2017 abduction of a Christian pastor, Raymond Koh, whose daylight kidnapping on a busy street in Kuala Lumpur was caught on CCTV, and who remains missing.

The chapter on Malaysia noted the arrests of hundreds of people practicing non-Sunni forms of Islam, which are outlawed in the country. It also noted efforts by Malaysian authorities to prohibit and fine Muslims for trying to convert to another religion.

In 2017, U.S. embassy officials "engaged with a wide variety of federal and state government officials" to discuss religious freedom issues in Malaysia throughout the year, the state department said.

"The ambassador raised concerns about the disappearance of Pastor Raymond Koh and three other individuals and urged government officials to speak out against religious intolerance, particularly in the wake of high profile incidents such as the 'Muslim-only' launderettes in two states," the report said.

Indonesia

In its section on Indonesia, the report highlighted how some conservative religious groups in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation had put pressure on local governments and police in 2017 to close minority groups' houses of worship over permit violations.

The report took note of the first-ever public canings in Aceh province of people who were convicted under its strict Sharia code for committing homosexual acts. And it prominently mentioned last year's conviction of Basuki Tjahaja "Ahok" Purnama, a member of the Christian minority and former governor of Jakarta, on a blasphemy charge for public comments that were deemed as anti-Muslim.

"The U.S. government advocated for religious freedom at the highest levels, with both government and civil society leaders, and spoke out publicly against discrimination and religious violence," the state department reported, noting that Vice President Mike Pence had discussed such issues with Indonesian officials during a visit to Jakarta in April 2017.

Bangladesh

In Muslim-majority Bangladesh, there were attacks last year on members of the Hindu and Buddhist minorities and Hindus and Christians also reported that "the government failed to effectively prevent forced evictions and land seizures stemming from land disputes," according to the State Department.

In meetings with Bangladeshi officials and in statements last year, "the U.S. ambassador and other embassy representatives continued to speak out against acts of violence in the name of religion and encouraged the government to uphold the rights of minority religious groups and to foster a climate of tolerance," the report said.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who are sheltering in Bangladeshi after fleeing military crackdowns in Myanmar were also mentioned in the Bangladesh chapter.

Sam Brownback touched on the plight of the stateless Rohingya as he helped Pompeo release the report.

"The situation is dire. We must do more to help them as they continue to be targeted for their faith," Brownback told reporters at the state department.

He described his recent visit to Rohingya refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh.

"[T]here was about 20 young children that had gathered around me, and I asked randomly five of them what they had seen. Of the five, four had seen a direct close family member killed, and the fifth had seen a brother wounded. This is in a random grouping," Brownback recalled.

"It's a terrible situation that requires the world's attention. There is a lot of world attention on it, but I think there needs to be more action from the world."

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Thai authorities said Thursday they planned to seek maximum prison sentences against waste processing companies that have imported tons of hazardous electronic waste (e-waste) to remove gold and other valuable elements and then dump the rest, including toxic materials.
Police, army, industrial and customs officials raided several companies in industrial parks in Thailand's eastern provinces last week and displayed more than 150 tons of confiscated electronic gear at a port in Chonburi province, south of Bangkok, on Tuesday.
In addition, hundreds of migrant workers from Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia were brought to Thailand to melt lead and extract gold from electronics circuitry, which also contain mercury, cadmium and other toxic substances. Many of the companies operating without proper licenses are owned by Chinese and other foreigners, officials said.
"We will take a legal action against company owners who imported illegal electronic waste to Thailand calling for a maximum 10-year sentence, 500,000 baht (U.S. $15,600) fine or both," Deputy Police Chief Wirachai Songmetta told reporters in Bangkok.
"We plan to inspect more electronic waste companies," he said. "We will also file criminal charges against government officials who are involved with these as well."
 
Seven shipping containers targeted in the raid were from Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, and linked to companies in Chachoengsao province, officials said. Police said they filed charges against three firms, according to Reuters.
After China banned the import of e-waste last year, investors relocated their processing operations to Thailand, according to Customs Deputy Director General Sorasak Meenatoree.
"They started illegally importing high-tech trash, categorized useful parts to export to China and let the unrecycled waste to be trashed in Thailand," he said.
Neighbors had complained about the effects of water and air pollution from the companies and worried that toxic leaks would harm the environment, officials said. Water samples were being collected around the companies to determine if they were polluted.
"If the result shows toxics from the companies affect the community, we will estimate the damage and consider filing for compensation," said Sunee Piyapanpong, Thailand's director of pollution control.
Thailand ratified the Basel Convention in 1997 to control the international flow and disposal of hazardous waste, in an effort to curb much of the exports from more developed to less developed countries.
"Only seven registered companies are allowed to import a total of 117,000 tons of electronic waste per year," said Banjong Sukreeta, deputy director-general of the Department of Industrial Works.


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Thai police filed criminal charges Friday against a Cambodian man who allegedly posted a false report about the Thai prime minister on his website, officials said.
Ratanak Heng, 21, was arrested on Thursday in Phnom Penh by Cambodian police at the request of the Thai government, Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakpal of Thailand's Tourist Police told reporters.
Surachate said he took Ratanak under his custody before flying him to Thailand the same day.
The Royal Thai Police's Technology Crime Suppression Division charged Ratanak with violating the country's strict computer crime law after he allegedly uploaded on May 23 while in Cambodia a Thai-language post saying that Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha had lambasted Thais who complained about a recent hike in fuel prices.
Prayuth told Thai motorists to refuel their cars with water instead, according to the blog post. 

Prayuth made no such comment, a Thai government spokesman said, and authorities ordered a quick investigation. Thai police said the false information might undermine the country's national security.
"I apologize for causing this," Ratanak told reporters as he arrived at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport on Thursday. He acknowledged that the blog was his but said another person who had used it "caused this damage."
If convicted, Ratanak will face imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of 100,000 baht (U.S. $3,175) or both.
He was released on bail after a Cambodian diplomat issued a verbal guarantee that he would show up during the police probe, authorities said.
"Ratanak denied that he posted the fake story about Thai premier because he can't read and speak Thai," Col. Siriwat Deepor, a police inspector, told BenarNews. Instead, the Cambodian blamed his business partner for the erroneous report, Siriwat said.
Six Thais have also been charged with knowingly propagating false and harmful digital information. They confessed to sharing the story but claimed they had no ill intent, police said.
"We will seriously enforce the rule of law," Surachate said. "This action shouldn't happen ever again because this confused people and affected national security."
Prayuth took power on May 22, 2014 after leading a coup that toppled the government of Yingluck Shinawatra. Since then, the military junta has detained political leaders and imposed an array of laws aimed at gagging dissent, rights activists said.
Concerns about how Thai and Cambodian leaders treat those who disagree with them "are far from new and are far more complex than often presented," according to a recent article in The Diplomat, a Washington-based magazine on international affairs.
"But those concerns have intensified over the past few years, with fears about an authoritarian alliance of sorts emerging between the ruling junta in Thailand led by Prayuth Chan-o-cha and the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) led by Hun Sen as they seek to suppress dissent and consolidate their authority at home," the magazine said.
As of March, the Thai junta had prosecuted at least 94 people on charges of violating strict laws against Lese-Majeste, under which offenders can be sentenced to up to 15 years for sharing a story on Facebook and other offenses, according to iLaw, a legal education advocacy group.
In addition, iLaw said, at least 75 people have been charged with sedition.


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Unidentified gunmen killed five people and seriously wounded an Islamic leader in a trio of shootings within a 24-hour period in Thailand's insurgency-wracked Deep South, officials said Friday.

Amid a heavy downpour after dusk on Thursday, assailants armed with rifles killed four people –a 49-year-old man, his two sons and his son-in-law – as they were panning for gold at a river bank in Namtok village in Narathiwat province, officials told BenarNews.
"We found 14 spent shells of 5.56 mm rifle rounds left at the scene," Col. Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for the regional branch of the military's Internal Security Operations Command, said.
The victims, who had Muslim names, were shot in the head and body, Pramote said.
He said investigators had determined the victims were not involved in criminal activities or linked to insurgents operating in the area.
Pongthorn Yako, a friend of victims, told BenarNews he discovered their bullet-riddled bodies.
"I found them dead, so I informed the rangers at their outpost," said Pongthorn, who also filed a police report.
Investigators were trying to determine whether insurgents operating in the mountainous area were involved in the killings, Police Col. Chaiwat Panbutthong told BenarNews. The shootings could have stemmed from a conflict with others involved in gold panning.
"We are checking ballistic tests to see if the guns used this time match any records," he said.
People who pan for gold along the banks of the Saiburi River could earn 1,000 baht (U.S. $30) a day, a villager told BenarNews.

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Medics treat local Islamic leader Aduldej Jenae after he was wounded by an unidentified gunman. June 8, 2018. [Mariyam Ahmad/Benarnews]

 
Pattani Islamic leader injured in shooting
On Friday, an Islamic leader in neighboring Pattani province was shot by an unknown gunman in Pattani's Saiburi district, police Capt. Sithichai Poonsawat said, without providing details.
Aduldej Jenae, deputy chairman of Pattani's Islamic Committee, was severely wounded but was reported in stable condition at a nearby hospital, officials said. He was shot after he left a mosque following Friday prayers.
Elsewhere in Pattani, construction material shop owner Ismail Doloh was shot dead while riding his motorcycle in Nong Chik district on Thursday night, police Capt. Ekkawat Jiancharoen said.
Investigators said they could not rule out the involvement of insurgents in the two shootings in Pattani.
Thailand's provincial Islamic committee members serve as government advisers on the issuance of certificates on products that are considered "halal," denoting that a meat product was prepared as prescribed by Muslim law. They are also involved in the issuance of local certificates and act as mediators on local religious issues.
Aduldej sits on the Islamic Committee of Pattani, which was to provide "safe-house" facilities for three insurgents whose parole was a condition set by separatist rebels for ongoing peace talks.
Since 2015, Thailand's military government has held rounds of peace talks with MARA Patani, a panel representing various southern insurgent groups and factions. But so far, the Malaysia-brokered negotiations have failed to produce a so-called Safety Zone, or geographically limited ceasefire, which is seen as a linchpin to prospects of future peace in the Thai Deep South.
Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in violence in Thailand's southern border region since the decades-old insurgency re-ignited in 2004.


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Masked gunmen shot and killed five men in a cockfighting pen in Thailand's Deep South province of Yala on Monday, while another was shot dead in another part of the insurgency-wracked region, officials said.
Also on Monday, police announced that an Islamic leader who was shot three days ago was pronounced dead and officers filed arrest warrants for eight suspects in the killing of four members of a family who were gunned down while panning for gold in another Muslim-majority province.
"According to initial investigation, four unknown assailants wearing black balaclavas sprayed bullets at the victims while they were talking at the premises where there was a cockfighting pen," police Capt. Sulklifeh Rasoh told reporters.
He said the gunmen fled on two motorcycles.
The dead were identified as Ibraheng Museh, 32, who owned the property, Aranchai Doheh, 26, Uzman Yusof, 39, Furgon Raso, 25, and Ahama Museh, 33.
Meanwhile, in Yala's Yaha district, gunmen shot Adul Maneeyoh, 40, at his home, First Lt. Pongpisut Kongreaunrong told reporters.
Violent attacks during Ramadan have surpassed those of last year – 25 dead and 15 injured so far, compared to 15 dead and 16 injured in 2017 – according to information compiled from police and military reports.
The separate killings occurred just days after a man, his two sons and a son-in-law were shot dead Thursday as they were panning for gold at a river bank in Namtok village in Narathiwat province.
Police found spent shells from M16 rifles and authorities said results from a ballistics test confirmed that the shells matched three rifles used by insurgents in four other deadly attacks since April 2015.
"We confirm that the killings were conducted by insurgents in the areas. At this stage, we are able to issue arrest warrants against eight suspects," Col. Thawatchai Duksukkaew, who oversees Narathiwat Police Bureau, told reporters Monday.
Thawatchai did not identify the suspects.
An Islamic leader dead
In a separate development, an Islamic leader in neighboring Pattani province who was shot in Saiburi district Friday afternoon was pronounced dead early Sunday, police said.
Aduldej Jenae, deputy chairman of Pattani's Islamic Committee, was shot after he left a mosque following Friday prayers.
"We do not rule out any possible causes. ... The deceased is a VIP and this is an important case so we must find the truth," Maj. Piyawat Chalermsri, the commander of police in the Deep South, told reporters on Monday.
Thailand's provincial Islamic committee members serve as government advisers on issuing certificates on meat products that are considered "halal," denoting the products were prepared as prescribed by Muslim law. They also are involved in issuing local certificates and act as mediators on religious issues.
Aduldej was a member of the Islamic Committee of Pattani, which was to provide a "safe-house" location for three insurgents whose parole was a condition set by separatist rebels for ongoing peace talks.
Authorities have not made any arrests.
Since 2015, Thailand's military government has held rounds of peace talks with MARA Patani, a panel representing various southern insurgent groups and factions. But so far, the Malaysia-brokered negotiations have failed to produce a Safety Zone, or geographically limited ceasefire, which is seen as a linchpin to prospects of future peace in the Deep South.
Almost 7,000 people have been killed in violence in the region since the decades-old insurgency reignited in 2004.


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Thai officials said Wednesday they obtained an arrest warrant for a London-based Thai woman who allegedly used Facebook to spread false information about the junta, as rights activists raised concern over what they described as "criminalization of freedom of expression" in Southeast Asia.
Watana Ebbage, 56, who administers the Facebook page "KonthaiUK" from England, is to be arrested for allegedly posting graphic images that affected national security, Deputy Prime Minister Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters in Bangkok.
"We issued a red warrant," Prawit told reporters at the Defense Ministry in Bangkok, using another term for an Interpol "red notice" or an international arrest warrant issued against people wanted for extradition.
Prawit described Watana as "the one with penchant of distorting news about the prime minister."
Watana's post included images of airships, satellites and photos of Prawit and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, the junta leader. The posting implied that the government's recent plan to buy satellites and its U.S. $10 million (321 million baht) purchase of a faulty blimp, which was dumped last year, were part of a corrupt scheme.
The Facebook post read: "The balloon was a dud, but you want to buy 91.2 billion baht ($2.84 billion) satellite for kickback. Do we let them do it?"
"Such modifications may cause panic among people who may believe the information is real," Thai tourist police chief Surachate Hakparn told reporters, referring to Watana's post.
The blimp was plagued by a series of malfunctions before it was decommissioned in 2017. Meanwhile, the Thai defense ministry announced last week that it was studying the feasibility of building or acquiring its own satellites.
The court approved the warrant for Watana's arrest on the charge of importing information into a computer system that compromises national security after authorities determined that she was the registrant of the Facebook page.
She was charged with violating the Computer Crime Act, which is punishable by up to five years in prison, a senior police official told BenarNews.
Watana's post went viral with more than 10,000 Facebook shares. In addition, charges have been filed against 29 others for sharing the false information, Surachate told reporters after meeting with Prawit on Wednesday.
On June 1, police filed criminal charges against a Cambodian man who allegedly posted a false report about the Thai prime minister on his website.  Authorities said the information might undermine the country's national security.
Ratanak Heng, 21, was arrested in Phnom Penh by Cambodian police at the request of the Thai government. He was turned over to Thai police and flown the same day to Thailand, where he told reporters he was sorry. If convicted, Ratanak will face imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of 100,000 baht ($3,175) or both, authorities said.
Prayuth took power on May 22, 2014, after leading a coup that toppled the government of Yingluck Shinawatra. Since then, the military junta has detained political leaders and imposed laws aimed at gagging dissent, rights activists said.
The nation's defense budget has almost tripled over the last decade as the nation experienced two military takeovers.
Fake news proliferate online
During the past few months, rights groups have raised alarms over a series of legal moves across Southeast Asia where legislators are expanding existing regulations by invoking the proliferation of fake news online to introduce stricter laws.
On Wednesday, journalists and rights advocates gathered at a forum organized by the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in Bangkok to discuss what they described as the "criminalization of freedom of expression" as a disturbing regional trend.
In April, Cambodia's last independent newspaper, the Phnom Penh Post, was sold to a Malaysian investor with links to Prime Minister Hun Sen. In late May, the Cambodian authorities announced restrictions on reporters covering next month's elections.
Two former employees of Radio Free Asia's Cambodia bureau, which closed under government pressure last September, were detained in November on espionage charges and remain in custody.
In the Philippines, the government in January ordered the closure of online news service Rappler, which had been critical of President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.
In Thailand, nearly 100 people have been charged with sedition for expressing opinions or holding peaceful protests since the May 2014 coup.
Matthew Bugher, who heads the Asia Program for Article 19, an international human rights organization that promotes the right to freedom of expression and information, told the forum that the list keeps growing longer in the region specifically targeting free speech.
"Social media can be used as an outlet for discussing things which you can't discuss elsewhere, but the governments are not taking it lying down," he said.


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Thai education officials have ruled that Muslim students attending a Buddhist-run school in the mainly Muslim Deep South region are required to wear uniforms and cannot dress according to Islamic customs.

Buddhists and Muslim students alike must wear uniforms and abide by the dress-code of the school, which sits on the property of a Buddhist temple, Wat Noppawongsaram, the Ministry of Education ruled. Girls and boys at Anuban Pattani School are required to wear knee-length skirts and shorts, respectively, and girls may not wear hijab.

Pattani is one of the provinces in Thailand's troubled southern border region, where a separatist insurgency has gone on for decades. 

A ruling published in Thailand's Royal Gazette on Wednesday said Muslim students at non-Islamic schools could "opt" to wear uniforms or follow the dress code – except at schools located on temple properties, where it would be mandatory.

"With the exception of schools that share temple property, the dress code should comply with the agreement between the temple and the school," the notice said.

As many as 1,838 students are enrolled at the school in Muang Pattani district, and 40 percent are Muslims, according to demographic information posted on the school's website.  

The dress code decision went all the way to Bangkok after parent protests at the school.

On May 18, some 50 Muslims parents staged a protest after the school barred hijabs on campus. Two days later, the Education Ministry ordered the school to drop the ban.

That led to a protest on May 23 by some 300 local Buddhists, who demanded that all students be required to wear the same uniform.

Reacting to the latest decision by the Ministry of Education, a parent of a Muslim student at Anuban said he would move the child to another school. 

"I will discuss this with other parents and we may jointly leave, but we have to discuss this with many parties," the parent told BenarNews.

Meanwhile, some observers criticized the decision by the ministry, saying it could inflame tensions between ethnic Malay Muslims, who form a majority here, and Thai Buddhists.

"What looks like a tiny matter may be interpreted as religious deprival of a minority that would fan the flames in the troubled Deep South. We heard about concerns of the Buddhists in the area who fear the violence may increase," Rungrawee Chalermsripinyorat, an expert on regional security, told BenarNews.

Areepen Uttarasin, a former deputy minister of education, said the move could create a feeling of injustice leading to "disharmony" among the communities of the Deep South.

Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in violence in the Deep South since Malay Muslim insurgents re-ignited their armed separatist movement 14 years ago.

Since 2015, Thailand's military government has held peace talks with a panel representing various southern rebel groups and factions. But violence has persisted and the two sides have yet to set up a long awaited limited ceasefire or "safety zone."

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A Canadian suspected of mentoring and advising the founder of the black market website Silk Road was extradited from Thailand to the United States on Friday, where he faces charges of online drug dealing and money laundering, among other offenses, U.S. authorities said.
Roger Thomas Clark, 56, arrived in New York after being turned over by Thai authorities, who held him in custody after arresting him in December 2015 at the request of American law enforcement officials, according to reports.
U.S. authorities shut down Silk Road, a so-called dark website, in October 2013. Its owner and operator, Ross William Ulbricht, was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison on a raft of criminal charges.
But while it was up and running, the site "was used by thousands of drug dealers and other unlawful vendors to distribute illegal drugs and other illicit goods and services to over a hundred thousand buyers, and to launder hundreds of millions of dollars derived from those unlawful transactions," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said in a statement Friday.
"Silk Road was a secret online marketplace for illegal drugs, hacking services, and a whole host of other criminal activity," said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman, who thanked the Royal Thai Police for its support and assistance in the case.
"Roger Thomas Clark allegedly served as a trusted confidante to Silk Road founder and operator Ross Ulbricht, advising him on all aspects of this illegal business, including how to maximize profits and use threats of violence to thwart law enforcement."
Clark also hired and managed computer programmers for Silk Road who helped develop the website's technical infrastructure, the U.S. Attorney's Office alleged, adding that Clark had also gathered information on law enforcement efforts to investigate the site.
Silk Road enabled its users to purchase and sell drugs and other illegal goods and services anonymously and outside the reach of law enforcement, the office said.
"Silk Road emerged as the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet at the time, serving as a sprawling black-market bazaar where unlawful goods and services, including illegal drugs of virtually all varieties, were bought and sold regularly by the site's users," the statement said.
Clark went by the online nicknames "Variety Jones," "VJ," "Cimon," and "Plural of Mongoose," and served as a "real mentor" and "right-hand man" to Ulbricht, U.S. officials alleged.
"Today's extradition of Roger Clark shows that despite alleged attempts to operate under the radar, he was never out of our reach," said FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr.
The dark web is a term for content that exists on darknets, computer networks built on top of other networks that can be accessed only with specific software. Connections are re-routed through layers of servers, allowing users to remain anonymous. Sites on the dark web are not indexed, meaning online surfers will not see them by doing a Google search.
In Thailand last August, Thai authorities announced they had seized millions of dollars in assets belonging to the late founder of AlphaBay, which had replaced the shutdown Silk Road as the world's most profitable dark web marketplace.
Thai officials said they had frozen 726 million baht (U.S. $21.73 million) in assets – from luxury vehicles to crypto-currency – owned by Alexander Joseph Cazes, a Canadian. He allegedly committed suicide on July 12, 2017 while in Thai custody before he was to be extradited to the United States.
According to an indictment unsealed on Friday in a Manhattan federal court, the charges against Clark include distributing narcotics via the internet, conspiracy in computer hacking and conspiracy in money-laundering, the statement said. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison, among other punishments.
Clark was taken to a Manhattan courtroom on Friday but did not seek bail, the Reuters news service reported.


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Thailand has proposed starting a new Southeast Asian fund to boost sources of financing for transportation infrastructure and other projects in five Mekong River basin countries.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha made the proposal Saturday during a speech in Bangkok at the eighth Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) summit, which was attended by leaders of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
"Thailand has attached great importance to the issue of sustainability of the source of financing and, therefore, has proposed to related financial agencies to consider possible models for an ACMECS Fund for financing projects," Prayuth said.
Because Bangkok is spearheading the fund, it will contribute seed money, Prayuth said, without elaborating.
The prime minister made the proposal about the fund on the same day that leaders of the five-member economic bloc adopted a five-year master plan, which Prayuth had described as the first of its kind in the sub-region. The master plan aims at propelling the economy in the basin by harmonizing trade and investment rules, he said.
Prayuth said senior financial officials from the five nations would meet in Thailand later this year to discuss details for establishing the fund.
He did not provide more information, but Reuters quoted Thai foreign ministry official Arthayud Srisamoot as saying that the fund would raise money through the sale of stocks and bonds by issuing debts for projects.
"There is a sense among these countries to try to engage more within this region before going out to China, to South Korea, Japan and India," Arthayud told the news agency.
ACMECS, whose acronym represents the three major rivers in the sub-region, including the Mekong, was established in 2003 to strengthen bilateral economic collaboration and narrow development gaps within the five ACMECS countries, which are also members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Thai officials believe the nation's infrastructural development could connect with the other countries through the ACMECS master plan, potentially increasing trade values and investment along the border, Prayuth told a news conference.
"That creates jobs, incomes, narrowing development gaps and boosting economic growth in our region," Prayuth said.
It was not immediately clear how the proposed fund would affect China's investments in the region, where Beijing has allocated billions of dollars through its Belt and Road initiative, Chinese President Xi Jingping's economic crown jewel that was launched in 2013.
Beijing has backed infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia, including a $5.5 billion railway plan to link Thailand's eastern seaboard with southern China, as part of the geopolitical strategy aimed at reviving the ancient Silk Road trading routes with a global network of roads, ports and railways.
The proposed ACMECS fund will belong to the five ACMECS members, Nikorndesh Palangura, director-general of the Thai Department of International Affairs, told a news briefing.
"The reason why Thailand initiated the idea of establishing the fund was that we saw a real need that we, at least partially, can become self-sufficient, in a way," he said.


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Highway police in Thailand's Deep South on Thursday arrested a suspected insurgent who was attempting to smuggle dozens of homemade bombs from a town along the Malaysian border to inner areas of Narathiwat province, officials said.
Zanuzi Yatae was driving a bomb-laden pickup truck from Sungai Kolok town to Yi-ngor, a district in Narathiwat, before encountering a police checkpoint and getting arrested, according to the provincial police chief. An alleged accomplice escaped.
"These improvised explosive devices were trucked from a neighboring country by the insurgents for attacks on targets in the Deep South," said Maj. Manas Sikasamat, who oversees the Narathiwat provincial police bureau.
On Thursday afternoon, Zanuzi and the suspected accomplice were speeding along Takbai Sungai Kolok route when they saw a checkpoint in Saring village. They stopped the truck and ran from the scene, according to highway police.
Police found 41 explosive devices made from metal tubes and timing devices, along with walkie-talkies and other devices.
Manas said Zanuzi identified the other suspect as Abdulaziz Samoe.
"Zanuzi admitted that he is responsible for transporting the bombs from Sungai Kolok for delivery to another group in the Yi-ngor district of Narathiwat," Manas said while observing the check point.
Following the arrest and while preparing for possible attacks, Lt. Gen. Keukul Innachak, deputy commander for Thailand's southern region, ordered increased security measures.
Nine Ramadan attack suspects arrested
On May 20, 16 bombs exploded within 50 minutes in four provinces in the insurgent-wracked Deep South. Officials said those responsible aimed at disrupting peace talks and the Ramadan observance.
Two days later, a Deep South military spokesman said a suspected bomber, Waegoyi Taleh, 28, was arrested. Waegoyi has been identified as a leader of a field militant cell locally known as RKK (Runda Kumpulan Kecil), a tactical arm of the rebel group Barisan Revolusi Nasional.
Senior military official said following Waegoyi's capture, authorities were able to identify 13 suspects, arresting eight who were linked with attacks in Pattani province.
Pattani is one of the provinces in the Deep South, where nearly 7,000 people have died in violence since a separatist insurgency re-ignited in the predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking region 14 years ago.
Maj. Gen. Jatuporn Kalumpasut, the commander of Pattani Task Force, said four of the eight suspects confessed to having a hand in the May 20 attacks. Four others said they were involved in previous attacks in Pattani but not those that day.
Meanwhile on Thursday, police, the provincial governor and Jatuporn brought alleged bomb trainer Suhaimi Masae and alleged trainee Mayusof Masae to reenact a blast, a formality after suspects admit wrong-doing.
"He asked me to press this switch and the light will be on ... he taught me to make trigger circuitry, he trained us one by one," Mayusof Masae told police, referring to Suhaimi Masae, as he reenacted the crime at a residence in Pattani's Yarang district where they were trained.
Police did not say if the suspects were related.
Mayusof Masae's mother said she did not know her son was linked with insurgents until he was arrested and she visited him at a military inquiry center in Pattani.
"He went to a Pondok school, I never knew he did this. Had I known, I would not let him do this," she told BenarNews.


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The U.S. State Department on Thursday boosted Thailand in an annual assessment of how countries worldwide perform in stopping human trafficking, but bumped Malaysia down a notch from its rank in 2017.
The neighboring Southeast Asian nations were at the center of a scandal three years ago when scores of unmarked graves of trafficked Rohingya and Bangladeshi people were uncovered at jungle camps on both sides of their shared border.
In its 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) released Thursday, the department upgraded Thailand from the Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 2, saying that while Thailand did not fully meet minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking in 2017, it had demonstrated increasing efforts toward doing so by prosecuting and convicting more people smugglers and by decreasing prosecution time in such cases.
The State Department dropped Malaysia to the watch list from Tier 2, only a year after promoting it to that rank.
The Malaysian government demonstrated significant efforts in combating human trafficking by convicting more traffickers, among other measures, but "the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous year," the report said.
Malaysia's victim protection efforts "remained largely inadequate and the government identified fewer victims" than in 2016, it added.
Complicity among law enforcement officials hampered some anti-trafficking efforts and culpable officials typically avoided prosecution and punishment, the report said.
It also pointed to the past scandal along the Thai-Malaysia border.
"No Malaysian officials, including suspected complicit officials, have been prosecuted for the possible trafficking crimes that were uncovered on the border of Thailand in 2015," the report said.
Across the border in Thailand, however, 62 people including a former three-star army general were convicted last year as part of a criminal case stemming from the discovery in May 2015 of the graves and abandoned trafficking camps in the jungle along the southern border with Malaysia.
Countries relegated to the Tier 2 Watch List are making significant efforts to meet standards but failing to provide evidence of increasing efforts, according to the department's explanation of the four tiers in its ranking system. The TIP report assesses countries' individual performances in fighting human trafficking during the previous calendar year.
Tier 1 countries fully comply with minimum standards of protecting trafficking victims. Tier 2 countries are making significant efforts to meet those standards and countries categorized under Tier 3 are performing the worst in combating the problem.
In its report Thursday, the State Department kept Bangladesh on the Tier 2 Watch List. It said official complicity in trafficking crimes "remained a serious problem," and noted that only one trafficker was convicted in the country last year.
Elsewhere, the two most populous countries in South and Southeast Asia, India and Indonesia, held steady at Tier 2, while the Philippines received a Tier 1 rank for the third year running.
But in its chapter on the Philippines, the TIP Report criticized the government for not improving "the availability and quality of protection and assistance services for trafficking victims," such as mental health services and programs for job training and placement.


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British cave divers backed by a U.S. search team joined the Thai Navy in efforts to rescue a dozen children and their soccer coach inside a flooded six-mile (10-km) cave more than five days after they went missing, officials said Thursday.
Rescuers worked above ground searching for different entry points that could lead them to the missing soccer team Thursday, as rain fell and flood waters rose inside the Tham Luang cave in the northern province of Chiang Rai.
"Rescuers will resume their attempt to move through the cave when the water level recedes and they are sure there will be no flash flooding. Otherwise, it is too risky for the divers who could get stuck in the cave," the Navy said is a news release, after it halted the operations in the afternoon.
The Wild Boar Academy Mae Sai Football Club and their coach vanished after entering the cave following a practice session mid-Saturday, prompting a mother to file a police report, officials said.
The government dispatched a Navy SEAL team late Sunday evening after a preliminary search by local authorities failed on the first day, officials said.
Traces of finger prints were found Monday on a sand dune about two miles (three km) from the cave's entrance. Since then, rescue efforts have been hampered by rising floodwaters inside the cave, rescuers said.
"We are pumping water, so the SEALs can work. A part of the U.S. team went to the top of the cave and their divers will join our divers when the water level allows," Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda told reporters near the cave entrance on Thursday.
Since the children went missing, rain – sometimes heavy – has fallen, creating hazards for divers trying to get through the many chambers and submerged passages, and for several hundred others who are trying to find alternative access routes from outside into the cave.
 
On Wednesday, rescuers found a 90-foot deep shaft and dropped food and water in hopes the supplies would reach the missing children and their coach.
A physician at the scene expressed confidence that the soccer team could be rescued.
"They have oxygen to breathe because there are some shafts, water to drink, they could still be alive," Dr. Thanasarn Preutisataporn told reporters at the scene.
"In the cave, there are no disease carriers, the bats have no germs," he said. "They are strong kids. They could survive a considerably long period."
A spokesman for Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha said he planned to visit the cave Friday, according to Agence France-Presse.
"He wants to offer moral support to parents of the missing boys and the coach and all the officials working there," Sunsern Kaewkumnerd said.
King Maha Vajiralongkorn, whose youngest son, 13-year-old Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, was following developments closely, expressed concern through his secretary about traffic congestion and disorder at the scene, according to the New York Times. The king's sister, Princess Chulabhorn, donated $15,000 to the effort, according to Thai media.
The U.S. government praised the Thai rescuers for their tremendous efforts. "We hope the players and their coach will be brought home quickly and safely," it said in a news release.

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A map from Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency shows sections of the Tham Luang cave in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand. (GISTDA)



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Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha traveled to the northern province of Chiang Rai on Friday to support the families of a dozen boys and their soccer coach who have been missing for nearly a week and are believed to be inside a flooded cave.
Prayuth offered words of encouragement to the players' parents after traveling to the Tham Luang cave, about 867 km (542 miles) north of Bangkok. He also told them they had the support of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, whose youngest son, Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, 13, was following developments closely.
"The power of faith can make all things successful – have faith in the rescuers. Have faith in the strength of your children that they will come back to us," Prayuth said.
Members of the Wild Boar Academy Mae Sai Football Club and their coach vanished after entering the cave following a practice session on June 23, prompting a mother to file a police report.
By Sunday, a Thai Navy SEAL team was dispatched to the scene to establish a rescue operation. British cave divers and a U.S. search team have joined the efforts.
More than 1,000 rescuers including divers, police, soldiers and border guards along with more than 100 journalists have gathered at the scene as each day passes without any new information about the team.
Since the 13 went missing, heavy rain has led to rising floodwaters inside the cave. Traces of fingerprints were found Monday on a sand dune about two miles (three km) from the six-mile (10-km) cave's entrance.
New shaft found
Chiang Rai Gov. Narongsak Osottanakorn, who is overseeing rescue efforts, told reporters on Friday afternoon that a team found a shaft in a sub-cave about 500 yards from the entrance of Tham Luang, allowing rescuers to climb down to the cave's floor.
Narongsak said the new shaft could serve as an alternative to the main entrance, but it was too early to tell if it would lead to the missing boys.
 
Narongsak said flooding had wiped out chemical light markings installed by Thai SEALs as they ventured into the cave, slowing their progress.
"The SEALs only want the water level to recede enough so they can see ahead and wade through to the next chamber," he said, adding that ongoing storms had kept the floodwaters from receding while volunteers pumped water out of the cave using huge hoses.
On Friday, rescuers flew small drones equipped with thermal imaging devices to search for a site to bore a potential rescue hole.
As dusk set in, the boys' families and others joined Pra Boomchum, a senior Buddhist monk from Myanmar, as he held a rite to apologize to the cave spirits and beg for the children's release.
A day earlier, a doctor expressed confidence that the soccer team could be rescued – pointing out they are strong athletes.
Meanwhile, the founder of a rock-climbing business told Agence France-Presse that the boys knew the cave well and had previously visited it, buoying hopes for their survival.
"It's not ideal, but maybe not totally tragic yet," said Josh Morris, founder of Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures. "Boys in a cave who have their wits about them and know the area – I think there's a good chance they have significant time."

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Family members of the missing players participate in a Buddhist ceremony near the Tham Luang cave, June 29, 2018. [Nontarat Phaicharoen/BenarNews]





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Officials working to rescue a teen soccer team missing in a cave in northern Thailand for a week struck a hopeful tone Saturday, as a let-up in torrential rains enabled rescuers to regain territory inside the 10-kilo (6-mile) labyrinth close to where they say the children may be.
Search personnel set up a makeshift base about 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) inside the Tham Luang cave in northern Chiang Rai province, near where sandals, a cell phone and fingerprints of the children were found on Monday, before flooding forced rescuers to retreat.
"Today, we have been to a chamber at the T-section, not far away from Pattaya Beach, where we believe the children are," a Thai Navy official who asked not to be named told BenarNews.
Pattaya Beach is the name of an area on relatively high ground inside the cave containing a sand dune, named after the world-famous resort town of Pattaya south of Bangkok.
"Three Navy SEAL teams were dispatched to survey the cave and set up more pumps and telephone networks," said a Royal Thai Navy statement, delivered from an operations center at the cave.
Rain which has continued since the thirteen members of Wild Boar Academy Mae Sai soccer team entered the cave on the afternoon of June 23 simmered down Saturday morning, easing pumping efforts, officials said.
"The SEAL teams continued diving to find passages. They are at a chamber, laying guide rods and emergency air tanks," Narongsak Osottanakorn, the governor of Chiang Rai, told reporters at the end of the day.
Divers have been essential to the search in the notorious cave, which tends to flood during the rainy season, and have been helping navigate submerged caverns and cramped passageways in a feverish six-nation rescue effort led by more than 1,000 Thai soldiers, police, government personnel and volunteers.
A rescue team from China was the latest to join survival experts from Britain, the United States, Laos, and Myanmar already at the scene on Saturday.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha traveled to the cave Friday to support the families of the boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach. The families have been camped at the scene for a week alongside monks chanting prayers for the boys to emerge alive.
"The power of faith can make all things successful – have faith in the rescuers. Have faith in the strength of your children that they will come back to us," Prayuth said.
Medivac rehearsal
Among those waiting at the cave entrance was Aektrakoon Suwanmard, a team member who did not participate in the cave trek a week ago.
"That day I went for practice with them, but I did not come to the cave because I have to go home early," he told reporters at the scene, according to Reuters.
"The reason to visit the cave is for fun. They have planned to come here because everybody prepared flashlight as coach told them to."
On Saturday morning, medical teams rehearsed for a smooth evacuation of survivors from the cave to a helipad three kilometer away.
The Chiang Rai governor said a physician team with diving abilities was also on standby.
"We have a medical team who can dive and will dive into the cave just in case we need to treat them and revitalize them to get stronger before we can take them out," Narongsak told reporters.
Thanasarn Preuktisataporn, a local doctor currently stationed at the cave, told reporters the children had a high chance of survival, despite being in the cave for a week.
"They have oxygen to breathe because there are some shafts, water to drink, they should still be alive," he said. "In the cave, there are no disease carriers, the bats have no germs... They are strong kids, they could survive a considerably long period."
Rescue teams have also searched for alternative entrances to the cave and dropped packages of food and water down air shafts, without knowing if they would reach the cave floor or member of the team, whose whereabouts remain unknown.
One rescue team drilled from the surface through a 40-metre (130-foot) chimney and sent teams into a muddy chamber below, in what was initially described as a promising development.  Narongsak, the Chiang Rai governor, said there were no further developments in this effort Saturday.
Pimuk Rakkanam in Bangkok contributed to this report.


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Twelve teenage boys and their soccer coach were found alive Monday, nine days after they were reported missing and trapped by rising floodwaters in a sprawling cave in northern Thailand, a provincial governor said.
The boys – ranging between 11 and 16 years in age – and their 25-year-old coach disappeared on June 23 while exploring the Tham Luang cave complex in Chiang Rai province.
A feverish rescue effort, involving hundreds of Thai personnel and volunteers, as well as dive teams from eight nations, gripped the people of Thailand as the rescuers worked around the clock in muddy waters to find the "Wild Boar" team members.
"Confirm that we found [them]," Narongsak Osottanakorn, governor of Chiang Rai province, told reporters, who broke into cheers and applause. "We evaluate how their health is and we will take care of them to see how they can potentially move first. Then we will plan the next move after that."
"We are planning a team of doctors and nurses ... who can dive into the cave," he added.
Narongsak cautioned reporters that the rescue was "not done yet."
"We will drain all water out from the cave then we will take all 13 people out of the cave," he said, explaining it would take medical teams and rescuers up to four hours to determine how to extract the boys. "We will work all night."
Two British divers (see video below) found the boys and their coach at 9:38 p.m. Monday (local time), according to a video posted online by Thai Navy SEALs.
"You are very strong," one of the rescuers could be heard as saying in the video that appears to have been taken the very first moment when the trapped boys were discovered. The boys were huddled in a deep chamber, which was partly flooded.
"How many are you?" the rescuer said. "Thirteen," one of the boys replied.
"Thirteen? Brilliant! We are coming, many people are coming. Many people, we are the first," the rescuer said.
Some of the boys could be heard asking what day it was.
"Monday, you have been here 10 days," the rescuer said. "You are very strong, very strong."
 
Over the weekend, foreign rescuers and scores of divers carried oxygen tanks and set up a makeshift base camp about 3 km (1.86 miles) inside the cave before flooding caused by heavy rain forced them to retreat.
Military divers have been essential to the rescue effort in the cave, which tends to flood during the rainy season.
A rescue team from China was the latest to join survival experts from Britain, the United States, Laos, and Myanmar already at the scene on Saturday. More than 1,000 Thai soldiers, police, government personnel and volunteers were involved in the search, officials said.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha traveled to the cave on Friday to support the families of the boys. For more than a week, family members have been camped at the scene alongside monks chanting prayers for the boys to emerge alive.
"The power of faith can make all things successful – have faith in the rescuers. Have faith in the strength of your children that they will come back to us," Prayuth said during his visit.
CORRECTION: The photo caption in an earlier version wrongly reported that rescue divers had photographed the missing boys after finding them in the cave. AFP, the news agency that published the photo, later corrected the error.


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A day after a teen soccer team was found alive after going missing for nine days inside a flooded cave complex in northern Thailand, officials said they were taking care of the trapped boys but had no fixed timetable for evacuating them.
Efforts to rescue the 12 boys and their coach from a cavern in the Tham Luang cave were focused on their safety and getting them back up to strength before attempting to bring them out, Thai Rear Adm. Apakorn Yukongkaew told reporters on Tuesday night.
"The 13 are doing OK as we have seven SEALs with them including a doctor and a nurse taking care of them," Apakorn said.
"For the time-being we are feeding them soft foods, energy gel and minerals," Apakorn said.
The boys, who range in age from 11 to 16, and their coach were found nearly 5 km (3.1 miles) inside the cave by British rescue divers on Monday night.
"The time to move is not known yet. But don't worry, we will take them all out safely. We are rehabilitating, making them strong," the admiral added.
The soccer team disappeared on June 23 while exploring the cave in Chiang Rai province. When they failed to return home, a parent reported them missing, setting off an international rescue effort drawing divers from Great Britain, the United States, Laos, Myanmar and China in addition to Thai Navy SEALs and hundreds of volunteers.
Flooding slowed efforts to find the missing boys. More rain is forecast, which could create worse conditions inside the cave, officials said.
Apakorn said volunteers were continuing to drain water from the cave as rescuers worked to establish a plan to remove the boys through the main entrance.
"Water should not rise to previous levels because we are draining it before we take them out," Apakorn said. "The boys will be back to the embrace of their parents."
He told reporters that rescuers were also weighing options, including training the boys to use scuba masks if they had to dive and swim out to safety.
Earlier on Tuesday, Chiang Rai provincial Gov.  Narongsak Osottanakorn confirmed that the boys were in good health.
"We have to thank rescue teams, both Thais and foreigners as well as public, who have been supporting us," he said.
Previously, Narongsak said rescuers were searching for an alternative exit from a different shaft in the cave.
There could be complications and risks with attempting to evacuate the soccer team following the same challenging route through which the divers found them, Thai Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda said.
"Diving is not easy. For people who have never done it, it will be difficult, unlike diving in a swimming pool, because the cave's features have small channels," he said, according to the Associated Press. "If something happens midway, it could be life-threatening."
'I would like to see my boy'
Meanwhile, parents of the trapped teens were anxious to be reunited with their boys.
Kham Promthep, whose son, Duangpetch Promthem, is a member of the soccer team, told BenarNews he was full of joy after learning that his son was alive.
"I heard from the news the governor who said the boys are found after 9 p.m., so I rode a bike here. I'm so overwhelmingly happy. I don't need to sleep. I would like to see my boy," Kham said Monday evening.
On Tuesday, media reported that the SEALs were working on getting a phone line to allow the boys to speak to their families who had gathered at a nearby shelter.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha thanked other nations for their assistance in the search efforts, AP reported.
"I have to thank the international community in assisting us. This would not have been possible if we didn't help each other. Everybody did their part," he said.
The U.S. ambassador to Thailand praised the efforts to locate the boys as well. The U.S. sent a military team to assist.
"The American people join Thais in celebrating the discovery of the football team and their coach in Tham Luang cave. We will continue to support Thai authorities in their efforts to safely bring home the players and their coach," Ambassador Glyn Davies said Tuesday, according to AP.


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A rubber plantation worker in Thailand's Deep South was seriously injured in a landmine explosion Thursday – the fifth such attack in a week in the insurgency-stricken region, according to officials – bringing local and international condemnation.
Rubber farmer Jarin Junluek, 47, suffered shrapnel wounds in the pre-dawn blast in the Muang district of Yala province, police said.
"The explosion and shrapnel caused a lot of wounds to his body, hands, arms and eyes. He was in serious condition and was transferred to Yala Hospital," Capt. Pattana Kaenkaew told reporters at Muang Yala police station.
The improvised landmine was triggered when the worker snapped a nylon cord attached to the device, Yala Police Bureau commander Krisda Kaewchandee said.
Thursday's explosion was the fifth landmine attack at rubber plantations in several districts of Yala since June 28. Those attacks seriously injured five people, all Buddhists, according to official reports, while police said officers successfully defused one landmine.
The rubber industry is one of the main sectors of the economy in the impoverished and predominantly Muslim Thai Deep South, where a separatist insurgency has raged for decades.
First attack
The attacks began last week when a local woman, Wipawan Plodkaenthong, 34, lost her leg and was blinded by a landmine explosion as she was working in a plantation in Yala's Yaha district.
"She had two children and from now on her husband needs to shoulder all the burden. And now how can we go out to work when nowhere is safe?" a neighbor who declined to disclose her name told BenarNews.
New York-based Human Rights Watch, a co-founder of an international campaign to ban landmines that led to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, claimed that Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), the most powerful insurgent group in the Deep South, was responsible for these attacks.
"Separatist insurgents have used landmines to maim rubber plantation workers and seriously disrupt the daily life of people in Thailand's southern border provinces," Human Rights Watch said in a statement Wednesday, calling on ethnic Malay Muslim BRN-affiliated rebels to cease using landmines to attack civilians.
"Laying landmines on rubber plantations and in paths used by villagers is cruel beyond words," HRW Asia Director Brad Adams said. "Insurgent groups should stop using these unlawful weapons and clear the landmines they have already laid."
On Thursday, a Buddhist network in Yala condemned the attackers, saying the blasts were aimed solely at Buddhist Thais and fueled hatred between the faiths.
"All the injured are innocent Buddhist people. The attacks did not only cause hardship among the Buddhists, the real minority in the area, but they cause disunity and hatred between identities," the Buddhist Network for Peace said in a statement.
The network also called on the government and insurgents to speed up a regional peace process and bring the attackers to justice.
"The insurgents used landmines in rubber plantations to injure or amputate the innocent is something deserving of condemnation. The government must seriously scan the areas to save lives and ensure safety of the innocents," Angkhana Neelapaijit, a member of the national human rights commission, told BenarNews.
Since 2015, Thailand's military government has held several rounds of negotiations with a panel representing various insurgent groups in the Deep South, but both sides so far have not agreed to a geographically limited ceasefire, which is seen as a linchpin to future prospects of peace in the Deep South.
Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in the Malay-speaking Deep South region since a separatist insurgency re-ignited in 2004.


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An ex-Thai Navy SEAL died Friday while helping in efforts aimed at rescuing a youth soccer team trapped inside a flooded cave in northern Thailand, officials said of the first casualty in a crisis lasting nearly two weeks with no clear resolution in sight.
Retired Petty Officer First Class Saman Kunan, 38, fell unconscious as he participated with other rescuers in a mission to lay oxygen tanks along flooded passageways of the Tham Luang cave complex, authorities said. A comrade tried to resuscitate him on the spot, but Saman had be evacuated and rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
"Last night, we planned to bring oxygen tanks from Chamber 3 to where the children are. It took five to six hours for each leg, a total of 12 hours in the cave they needed to be," Rear Adm. Apakorn Yukongkaew, commander of the Thai Naval Special Warfare Command, told reporters outside the cave in Chiang Rai province, located some 900 km (559 miles) north of Bangkok.
"For Saman, he laid the tanks and came back but he passed out. His buddy tried CPR but he did not recover, so he brought him back to the operations base in Chamber 3, then a hospital," Apakorn said.
"We are trained to risk sickness and life. We still have good morale. The loss will not be in vain – we will soldier on," the commander added.
The volunteer's death cast a pall over efforts that have dragged on for 13 days to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach who went missing inside the cave on June 23, when it became flooded by monsoonal rains. Those picked up in intensity on Friday, hampering rescue efforts.
Boat tragedy
Meanwhile in southern Thailand, at least 33 people were confirmed dead Friday and 23 others, mostly Chinese tourists, remained missing after a boat they were traveling in capsized in high seas off Phuket Island late Thursday afternoon, a Thai official said.
On Friday, rescuers plucked 48 survivors from water after saving only one person the day before. The dive boat Phoenix carried 105 passengers including 12 Thai crew members. A second dive boat, Seranata, and a jet ski also capsized but all onboard were rescued.
Rescue efforts were suspended Friday night because of darkness.
In Chiang Rai, the missing boys and coach were found alive Monday, but the euphoria that gripped the nation has given way to some anxious moments as hundreds of rescuers from Thailand and multiple other countries have been trying to figure out how to evacuate them safely from the flooded cave.
On Friday, they scrambled to clear brush in the jungle above the cave in an effort to create an alternate escape route for the boys, reports said.
The players of the Wild Boars team – ranging in age from 11 to 16 years old – and their coach are stranded on higher ground more than 4 km (2.48 miles) from the main entrance to the cave, but are being cared for by a medical team and supplied with food, officials said.
Apakorn said the evacuation efforts were still focusing on taking them out via the same route in which they traveled through the cave before getting stuck, but those passageways are narrow and submerged in water, making such an evacuation risky, authorities said.
Meanwhile, they said rescue teams were working to drill holes to access a shaft closest to where the boys have been sheltering.
The boys may need to stay in the cave for months in order to regain strength, learn to swim and scuba dive, the Navy said in a statement on July 2, the day the children and their coach were found alive.
The rescuers have set up an operations base in the cave's Chamber 3, which is nearly 3 km (1.86 miles) from the main entrance.
"The distance from Chamber 3 to where they are at Noen Nom Sao is about 1,700 meters [5,577 feet]. This part is totally submerged and dark. There are too many wiggling passageways, up and down. This mission is sheerly tough," Apakorn said.
However on Friday, Apakorn indicated that the threat of the water level rising inside the cave due to more heavy rainfall, combined with decreasing oxygen levels, might force rescuers to evacuate the youths much earlier than they thought possible.
"We can no longer wait for all conditions (to be ready) because circumstances are pressuring us," he said, according to the Associated Press. "We originally thought the boys can stay safe inside the cave for quite some time, but circumstances have changed. We have [a] limited amount of time."
Soon before midnight on Friday, the governor of Chiang Rai province, confirmed that rescuers might have to try to evacuate the boys if heavy rains threatened their well-being.
"But if it is all stable, we can keep the boys where they are ....  We cannot bring the boys out today, they are not ready," Gov. Narongsak Osottanakorn told a news conference outside the entrance to the cave.
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Nontarat Phaicharoen in Bangkok and Mariyam Ahmad in Pattani, Thailand contributed to this report.


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The first four of 12 boys on a youth soccer team were evacuated safely Sunday in a dramatic rescue after being trapped inside the flooded Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand for more than two weeks, the disaster management director confirmed.
Earlier, the Thai Navy SEALs reported on their Facebook page that four of the boys had been freed in a daring operation launched on Sunday morning (local time). Five divers from the elite SEALs were involved in the rescue.
"The 4th Wild Boar exited the cave at 19:47 (7:47 p.m.)," the SEALs posted on Facebook. The boys are members of the Wild Boar Academy Mae Sai soccer team.
During a press conference near the cave late Sunday night, Narongsak Osottanakorn, the former governor of Chiang Rai province who is in charge of disaster management during the crisis, confirmed the first four had been rescued. But he also announced that efforts to rescue the remaining eight boys and their coach would take place within the next day after a pause.
"We safely transferred four to Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital," he told reporters Sunday night. "They left our area under the care of us for the hospital before 8 p.m."
Rain soaked the region on Sunday and additional monsoonal storms were expected, leading officials to launch the rescue effort. Rain returned Sunday night after the first four boys were brought out of the cave.
Previously, officials had weighed an option to keep the 12 boys and their soccer coach inside the cave for months with food and medical supplies until water levels receded and it was safe for them to walk out of the cave.
But because of the intensifying monsoonal rains, the authorities moved to undertake the dangerous mission of evacuating the team through flooded and narrow passages leading out of the cave, officials said.
The young soccer players were trained in recent days to wear and breathe through scuba gear, but expert divers warned that it could be perilous for the boys to try to dive and swim out because they were inexperienced.
"We assessed the situation with all parties involved including the meteorological department and all believed we could do it," Narongsak said.
"Today, we were successful. We will do the next operation when we are ready," he said. "I can't tell when it will be exactly, but it will be in the next 10 to 25 hours," Narongsak added.
The dozen boys – ranging in age between 11 and 16 – and their 25-year-old coach disappeared on June 23 while exploring the cave. Divers found them nearly 5 km (3.1) miles inside the cave on July 2, more than a week after they went missing.
Since then, around-the clock rescue efforts involving hundreds of Thai personnel and volunteers, as well as divers and engineers from multiple countries, have gripped Thailand and the rest of the world.
On Sunday morning, the five Thai Navy SEALs described as the country's best, 10 foreign divers and three technicians entered the cave to begin rescue efforts that officials said would take at least 11 hours amid dangerous conditions. Since the boys went missing, 90 divers including 50 foreigners participated in rescue efforts, Narongsak said.
The rescue teams had rehearsed the plan for several days and volunteers had drained the water level considerably inside the cave, Narongsak told Reuters news service. An Australian doctor who is part of the rescue mission checked the boys on Saturday night and signed off on the rescue mission.


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Elite divers brought out four more boys Monday, rescuers said, as officials suspended overnight the daring international effort to extricate members of a football team and their coach from a partially flooded cave in northern Thailand.
The four boys were taken to a local hospital for further medical examination after they were carried out of the Tham Luang cave in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Narongsak Osotthanakorn, head of the search operations, told reporters.
"Today we are happy we successfully helped four more boys," he said. "Currently, they are safe and soundly conscious."
Monday's rescue took nine hours, about two hours faster than the time it took divers to extricate the first four boys on Sunday, Narongsak said.
The rescue effort, fueled by an emotional global response, aimed to pull out 12 members of the "Wild Boars" soccer team and their coach who were trapped when they explored the vast and winding cave complex after soccer practice on June 23. Heavy rainfall flooded the underground tunnels, forcing them to huddle on a muddy bank almost 5 km (3.1 miles) from the cave's entrance.
A British diving team located the boys, aged 11 to 16, and their coach on July 2 after they've been reported missing for almost 10 days, setting off a tough challenge for rescuers that include 90 divers who navigated pitch-black terrain and negotiated strong currents. More than half of the divers were from the United States, U.K. and other nations, officials said.
With the latest rescues, divers would set their sights on four remaining members of the soccer team and their coach during the third phase of rescue operations within the next three days, Narongsak said. The operation was suspended overnight to allow oxygen tanks to be refilled, he said.
"Within these two to three days, we will take all of them out," he said. "If the weather is this good, we will have good news."
"Now we are preparing for a new operation. It will take about 20 hours, depending on Mother Nature," he said.
Maj. Gen. Churat Panhao, chief of the Police Region 5 bureau, told BenarNews the first four children rescued on Sunday have been under quarantine and were kept away from their parents to prevent possible transmission of germs.
"They asked for their favorite food, but we kept them away to prevent possibility of micro-organism transmission," Churat said. "We will consider allowing them to meet their parents with a cubicle separating them or allow them to meet but with distance from each other."
Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda told reporters the four boys were in good condition.
Rain soaked the region on Sunday and additional monsoonal storms were expected, leading officials to launch the rescue effort. Rain returned Sunday night after the first four boys were brought out of the cave.
 
Intensifying monsoonal rains
Previously, officials had weighed an option to keep the boys and their soccer coach inside the cave for months with food and medical supplies until water levels receded and it was safe for them to walk out of the cave.
But because of the intensifying monsoonal rains, the authorities moved to undertake the dangerous mission of evacuating the team through flooded and narrow passages leading out of the cave, officials said.
The young soccer players were trained in recent days to wear and breathe through scuba gear, but expert divers warned that it could be perilous for the boys, none of whom have dived before.
"We assessed the situation with all parties involved including the meteorological department and all believed we could do it," Narongsak said.
The rescue teams had rehearsed the plan for several days and volunteers had drained the water level considerably inside the cave, officials said.
Local media have identified four of the boys rescued Sunday, but authorities have not publicly named them.
A former Thai navy SEAL, Saman Kunan, died after running out of air Friday while placing air tanks farther inside the cave.
He was the only person thus far to die in the effort to find and rescue the boys, but his death underscored the dangers faced by the underground divers who had to negotiate winding, submerged and tight passages while guiding out the boys.
CORRECTION: An earlier version misidentified the navy SEAL who died in rescue efforts as Samarn Poonan.


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Wild cheers resonated across Thailand on Tuesday after news broke that Navy divers had pulled out the last four of 12 boys as well as their soccer coach from the labyrinth of a flooded cave, ending a high-risk rescue that gripped the world for more than two weeks.
The beginning of the end of a final push to bring home the boys - ages 11 to 16 - and their 25-year-old coach happened in quick succession after the ninth boy was taken out of the cave, blinking into daylight for the first time in 18 days.
"We got all five back safely," Narongsak Osotthanakorn, head of the search and rescue operations, told reporters. "We did something nobody thought possible. ... We are successful."
"Hooyah!" reporters chanted after Narongsak's briefing, using a slogan adopted by Thai Navy SEALs from their U.S. counterparts. 

The last phase of the rescue mission took place after four boys were extracted on Sunday and four more on Monday.
Floodwaters spawned by monsoon rains trapped the group on June 23 when they ventured into the massive Tham Luang cave, a popular tourist attraction in the country's mountainous northern province of Chiang Rai.
 
British divers found them huddling in a dark, flooded chamber nine days later, almost 5 km (3.1 miles) from the cave's entrance.
"Eat, eat, eat," one of the surprised boys told the two divers who used flashlights while taking the first video since they were reported missing.
Officials said that although British divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen were credited in the U.K. media for discovering the group in the dark maze of claustrophobic caverns, Thailand's Navy SEALs were central to the rescue effort.
The SEALs posted a message and a picture of men linking arms on their Facebook page on Sunday, vowing to bring the group back safely.
"We, the Thai team and the international team, will bring the Wild Boars home," read the message, referring to the boys' Moo Pa Academy soccer team.
By early Tuesday evening, the SEALs page said: "We are not sure if this is a miracle, a science or what. All the 13 Wild Boars are now out of the cave."
Dozens of government workers shook hands with soldiers and volunteers, journalists cheered and people on the street clapped their hands as helicopters roared overhead and ambulances transporting the boys arrived at a hospital in Chiang Rai, near the border of Laos and Myanmar.
A few hours after the last four boys and their coach were guided out, four SEALs who had stayed with the boys left the muddy cave as well, officials said. The four divers included a medic who monitored the boys' health and gave them high-protein, ready-to-eat meals.

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An ambulance heads to the hospital in Chiang Rai as divers evacuated the remaining boys and their coach trapped at Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand, July 10, 2018. (AP)

 
One casualty
But one of the hundreds of volunteers died during preparations for the daring rescue.
While officials worked out the group's extraction plan last Friday morning, retired Thai Navy SEAL Saman Kunan, 38, died as he placed compressed-air tanks along an exit route. Officials said he ran out of oxygen himself.
Saman's body, found about half a mile from where the boys were trapped, was brought to the surface by another diver, officials said.
"His job was to deliver oxygen, but he did not have enough on his way back," Pasakorn Boonyalak, Chiang Rai's deputy governor, told reporters.
The rescue's final phase involved 19 divers, backed by more than 100 men, Narongsak told reporters Tuesday morning.
The complicated attempt to free the Wild Boars set off a challenge for rescuers that included 90 divers, among them 50 foreigners, who had to navigate pitch-black terrain and negotiate strong currents. More than half of the divers were from the United States, Britain and other nations, officials said.
The rescue plan, in which each boy was to be tethered to one of the two divers who guided him out, riveted the nation but raised questions from a cave-diving expert.
Certified cave diver Kera "Puff" Rolsen, in her Twitter feed, said three of her friends had died while swimming through dark, muddy tunnels.
"Have you seen someone panic? Genuine, gut-shaking ... panic? I have and it's uncontrollable," she said. "Now you are asking terrified, starving young men to enter the scariest environment imaginable."
"Every young man that emerges from that cave alive will be a testament to the indomitable human spirit: The ability to overcome the more extreme of circumstances, the will to survive," she said.
Narongsak, the chief of the rescue mission, told reporters last Friday that divers did not immediately attempt an evacuation because the boys, most of whom did not know how to swim, had not learned adequate diving skills
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha told reporters that the boys were "medically sedated" to reduce the chance that they would suffer an anxiety attack on their way out of the dark cave, The Guardian newspaper reported.
When asked about the drugs, Prayuth insisted the boys were not given an anesthetic, just anti-anxiety medication, without specifying which kind, the Australian newspaper said.
"Who the hell would give that to a kid?" Prayuth told reporters, referring to an anesthetic drug. The boys were instead given the same type of drugs he uses when he is at the shooting range with his guns, he said, without elaborating.
The boys were given "something to make them not too nervous and panic," he said.


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Thai authorities released a video Wednesday of 12 boys and their soccer coach recuperating at a hospital after being pulled out of a flooded cave in northern Thailand, as details began to emerge of what transpired during the riveting rescue. 

Separately, the Thai Navy SEALs posted footage on their Facebook page indicating that the rescue mission was accomplished by sedating the boys, but the video was taken down later in the day.
"We confirm that the 13, including the coach, are doing well," said Dr. Chaiwetch Thanapaisal, director of the Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital, where all 12 boys and their 25-year-old coach were recovering after their nightmare that lasted longer than two weeks.
Three of the boys were being treated for "minor pneumonia," he said, adding that the boys would be required to remain in the hospital for 7 to 10 more days.
"We would make periodic assessments and they would have rehabilitation at home for at least a month," Chaiwetch said.
The hospital video showed the boys waving, smiling, talking to a nurse and flashing the "V" sign from their hospital beds. They were wearing face masks but appeared to be in good health. The video also briefly showed their coach in the same hospital.
Parents of some of the boys have been able to visit their children in the hospital, although some were required to wear masks and stand several feet away, according to Thai media. Because of the risk of bacterial infection, the boys were quarantined and some parents were allowed to see them only through a glass window, reports said.
In one of the first detailed accounts of the mission to extricate the last four of the 12 boys as well as their coach on Tuesday, divers revealed that the final stage of the three-day rescue could have been a disaster. Water pumps draining the area malfunctioned just hours after the last member of the youth soccer team was evacuated, they said, according to The Guardian.
Three Australian divers involved in the rescue operation told the British newspaper that they were still more than 1.5 km (less than a mile) inside the cave clearing up equipment when the main pump failed, causing water levels to increase rapidly.
"The screams started coming because the main pumps failed and the water started rising," said one of the divers, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to comment. "All these headlights start coming over the hill and the water was coming ... It was noticeably rising."
The remaining 100 workers inside the cave rushed frantically to the exit and were out less than an hour later, including the last three Thai Navy SEALs and a medic who had spent much of the past week keeping vigil with the trapped boys, the report said.
The grueling rescue mission to save the "Wild Boars," a soccer team composed of boys 11 to 16 years old, and its assistant coach started on Sunday morning. It ended with the last batch being taken out on Tuesday soon before monsoon rains started coming down.
Eighteen days earlier, on June 23, floodwaters from heavy rain had trapped the group when they ventured into the massive Tham Luang cave, a popular tourist attraction in the mountainous province of Chiang Rai, near the border with Laos and Myanmar.
Blanket news coverage of the rescue that captivated the world led with cheerful headlines. Argentina's La Nacion newspaper described it as "An Epic Rescue," while the Khaleej Times in Dubai used the headline "Hurrah!" in what appeared to be a play of the word "Hooyah!" used by The Nation in Bangkok.

Despite the jubilation that followed the boys' nightmare ordeal, authorities also announced Wednesday that Richard Harris, a medic and diver who joined other international divers in the rescue effort, learned that "hours after his rescue mission had been completed," his father had died in Australia, the Thai Navy SEALs said on their Facebook page.
"We wish you the best for this very tough time," the Thai SEALs said. "We never thanked you enough for what you've done for the kids, their families and Thailand."
More than 1,000 Thai soldiers, police, government personnel and volunteers were involved in the search, officials said. Thailand's Navy SEALs were central to the rescue effort, but divers from the United States, Britain, Australia and other nations also took part.
 
Boys sedated to prevent panic: Prime minister
On Tuesday following the rescue, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha told reporters that the boys had been "medically sedated" to reduce the chance that they would suffer an anxiety attack on their way out of the dark cave.
Authorities decided to pull the boys out despite their weak condition and lack of diving experience, after meteorologists warned that air pockets crucial to the survival of the boys could be inundated by coming monsoon rains. Volunteers and soldiers had pumped out the water to create crucial areas inside the cave that allowed a possible rescue.
The boys were given "something to make them not too nervous and panic," Prayuth said.
Thai officials have not provided details on how the boys, most of whom could not swim, could have navigated the narrow and submerged passageways at the cave. But after days of speculation in the Thai media, the Thai Navy SEALs broke its silence and posted the video, but it was taken down later on Wednesday.
The footage shows a complex operation with numerous divers using pulleys and rubber piping to carry the boys who appeared to be sleeping or semi-conscious when they were being carried away through the cave on stretchers.
Children not at fault, rescue chief says 

Narongsak Osottanakorn, the outgoing governor of Chiang Rai province who oversaw the rescue mission, told a news conference on Wednesday night that the safe recovery of the "Wild Boars" had unified Thailand and the international community.  

"It is more than rescue but it is the harmony of all nations and races," he told reporters. "We broke the barriers of language and human races for a common goal."
He urged the world not to blame the boys, saying they were just being children when they ventured inside the cave and got lost. 

"Don't scold the kids. They acted as young kids do," he said. "We don't see the children as at fault or as heroes. They are children being children, it was an accident."
He paused to pay tribute to retired Thai Navy SEAL Saman Kunan, who was the lone casualty in the efforts to rescue the boys.
Saman, 38, died last Friday while helping place compressed-air tanks along an exit route during preparations for the operation to extract the soccer team. Officials said he ran out of oxygen.
"All of us were saddened," Narongsak said, "but we took the sadness from the death of Sgt. Saman out on being more energetic and dedicated to accomplish the mission."
According to Rear Adm. Apakorn Yukongkaew, the commander of the Thai Navy SEALs, the boys were given wetsuits and full face masks and remained conscious throughout the mission.
"Those children did not need to do anything but breathe and stay put and they were carried away," he said in reply to a question. He declined to identify the pill that was reportedly given to the boys.
CORRECTION: An earlier version wrongly attributed the final quote in this report and a description of how the boys were given wetsuits and full face masks to Narongsak Osottanakorn.


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Twelve Thai boys and their soccer coach said they survived 10 days trapped inside a flooded cave without food by drinking rainwater dripping from rocks, as they offered details about their harrowing ordeal for the first time Wednesday during a news conference broadcast worldwide.
The members of the Wild Boars team, who range in age from 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach spoke to reporters after they were discharged from a hospital where they spent more than a week recuperating for minor ailments since their underground rescue that riveted the world.
"We tried to dig out," coach Ekkapol Chanthavong said, as he described how they used a piece of rock in an attempt to tunnel their way out before they were found by British divers who navigated through tight, flooded passages to reach them on July 2.
One of the boys said they drank water that "fell from the rocks" during the 10 days they were perched on a muddy strip about two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the entrance of the massive Tham Luang cave in Thailand's northern Chiang Rai province.
Ekkapol said they had ventured into the cave after soccer practice and initially intended to stay no more than an hour underground, so they did not bring any food with them. As they started to leave, they found their exit path flooded.
"We realized we were trapped on our way back," he said.
As the floodwater rose, he said, they all decided to go deeper into the cave, believing they could find another way out. But they were confronted by sections of water that they went up to his shoulder, forcing them to swim through.
"I was really afraid at that moment," one of the boys said.
As the hours passed, the coach told his players to stay calm, urging them to "fight and not be defeated."
"Yes, we all can swim," the coach said.
They found a muddy area on top of a rock where they decided to spend the night, the boys said, explaining they prayed before going to sleep.
The next day, they proceeded to hunt for fresh water and found it trickling down a wall in the cave.
"It tasted like normal water," the coach said.
But as the hours of waiting for a rescue turned into days, the boys started getting hungry.
"I tried not to think about food because it would make me hungrier," one of the boys said. "I tried not to think about fried chicken or some chili dip."
The boys then decided dig through the cave's walls, believing they could bore through the labyrinth of tunnels. But then the coach told them to stop digging.
"The coach told us to be quiet after he heard someone coming," 14-year-old Adul Sam-on said. "I originally thought they were Thai officials."
The coach said he told one of the boys who had a torch to investigate. The boy found the British divers who had been preparing a safety line to serve as a guide for others involved in the international rescue effort.
"It was a miracle," Adul said, describing his shock when he saw the British divers.
Adul became famous on social media when a video released by the Thai Navy showed him speaking to the divers in English. "We are hungry," he said then. "We have to eat, eat, eat."
"When they emerged from the water, I was startled," Adul said through a translator. "I did not think they were British."
Adul was referring to divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, who were credited by British media with discovering the group in the dark maze of claustrophobic caverns.

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Coach Ekkapol Janthawong (left) and members of the Wild Boars team pay respect as they hold a portrait of Saman Kunan, the retired Thai SEAL who died in the Tham Luang cave prior to their rescue, during a press conference in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand, July 18, 2018. (AP)

 
Sporting new haircuts
The boys and their coach, wearing matching T-shirts with a graphic of a wild boar, sported new haircuts and looked healthy. They greeted friends, relatives and reporters as they arrived for the much-awaited media event.
The Thai Navy SEALs who stayed with the boys after they were found also sat beside them, together with doctors and nurses who looked after them following their rescue.
Authorities had required journalists to submit their questions in advance, warning that reporters asking "risky questions" could break the law. A psychologist pre-screened the questions before the hour-long conference.
"We don't know what wounds the kids are carrying in their hearts," justice ministry official Tawatchai Thaikaew told reporters, as he cautioned that the overwhelming media attention and "hard questions" could affect the boys' mental health.
Before entering the conference hall in Chiang Rai, the boys were each given a soccer ball that they kicked around in front of a stage to prove they were healthy.
The dramatic three-day rescue, which ended on July 10, involved more than 1,000 volunteers, including dozens of divers from Australia, Britain, the United States and other countries.
The coach, also known as Ake, said all were saddened by the death of Thai Navy SEAL Saman Kunan, who was the lone casualty in the efforts to rescue the boys.
During the news conference, they showed a framed drawing of Saman. All signed the drawing, which will be sent to Saman's family, and they confirmed they would become novice monks in his honor.
"Thank you very much for your sacrifice," 11-year-old Chanin Wiboonrungrueng, the youngest member of the group, wrote on the drawing. "Hope you rest in peace."
Saman, 38, died while helping place compressed-air tanks along an exit route during preparations for the operation to rescue the soccer team. Officials said he ran out of oxygen.
"I feel sorry. I am impressed by Sgt. Sam, who gave up his life trying to save 13 Wild Boars, so that we can survive to live a normal life," said Ekkapol, the coach. "Everyone feels sorry that we were the cause for his family to grieve."


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About 5,000 Thais working in Saudi Arabia are asking for help to come home after Riyadh raised visa fees for foreign migrants, officials said Friday, as authorities prepared to repatriate 629 residents of the Deep South, one of Thailand's poorest regions.
The Southern Border Province Administration Center (SBPAC) was negotiating with the Thai Foreign Ministry, Thai Airways and Riyadh for permission for airliners to pick up Thai workers from Medina airport in Saudi Arabia and fly them home, agency director Teeruth Supawiboonpol said.
SBPAC is the government office that oversees issues related to the predominantly Muslim population of Thailand's troubled and impoverished southern border region.
"These people want to go home because Saudi Arabia has raised fees on expats every year," Teeruth told BenarNews.
It was not immediately clear if the issues faced by Thai workers in the Arab kingdom were related to a $20-million gem heist in Saudi Arabia back in the 1980s that soured bilateral relations.
Thai workers currently pay about 1,800 baht (U.S. $54) each month for the privilege to work in Saudi, he said.
Teeruth said a letter presented to Thai consular officials who visited Jeddah in March included 629 signatures of Deep South residents who had expressed interest to come back home.
He said SBPAC was planning to charter airliners that would soon start flying from the Deep South to transport Muslims participating in the Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to the Saudi city of Mecca.
"There are 629, mostly working in the garments sector and housemaids, who have signed up to fly back to the Deep South, using airliners that are scheduled to fly Hajj pilgrims to Medina next week," Teeruth said.
While the government could handle the charter arrangements, the Deep South workers must pay for visas and airfare, he said.
Many residents from the insurgency-wracked Deep South eventually ended up marrying Saudi men and having children born in Saudi Arabia but without proper birth certificates, complicating their immigration status in Thailand, Teeruth said.
Among them was 56-year-old Rokaya Samoh, who told BenarNews that the higher monthly visa fees, among other issues, spurred her decision to return to Pattani province with her Saudi Arabian husband two years ago – after 40 years living in Saudi.
But, she said, she left behind their five children because they did not have Thai immigration documents.
"Previously, the fees were only a few hundred baht. But they raised the fees every year and I heard it is now almost 2,000 baht (U.S. $60) each month," she said.
"They don't want Yawi to stay there but we like to because the country is Halal-oriented and has some jobs," Rokaya said, using another name for Malay Pattani or Muslim Thai.
She declined to disclose her income while she was there, but said most Thais from the Deep South were working in Saudi Arabia as housemaids.
"We kept a low-profile, but we felt free during Hajj time," she said. "We, Yawi, concentrated there in close-knit groups. It is easy to find our compatriots, very much like our home here."
Blue diamond affair
In June 1990, Saudi Arabia downgraded its diplomatic relations with Thailand, stopped renewing the visas of more than 250,000 Thai workers and declined to give out new ones – effectively cutting off billions of dollars of remittances – after a sensational case known in Thailand as the "blue diamond affair."
Riyadh also barred its citizens from traveling to Thailand as tourists, but a Saudi can travel to the Buddhist-majority nation upon submitting papers proving marriage to a Thai national.
In 1989, a Thai national who worked as a gardener for a Saudi prince was accused of stealing about 100 kilos (about 45 pounds) of jewelry worth $20 million, including a rare blue diamond, from his employer's palace.
The decades-old theft led to tales of murder, deception, kidnappings and diplomatic intrigue that ended in a Thai court. On March 31, 2014, a Thai criminal court dismissed the case against five men, including a senior police officer, charged with murdering a Saudi businessman who had gone to Bangkok to investigate the theft.
Three Saudi diplomats were shot dead in Bangkok days before the Saudi businessman vanished in 1990. Thai officials denied that the murders were related to the jewelry heist. The diamond, which has been widely described as about 50 carats and one of the largest blue diamonds in the world, is still missing.
Before the unsolved multimillion-dollar theft led to a diplomatic spat between the two nations, as many as 300,000 were working in Saudi Arabia. Today, there are only 15,000 Thai migrant workers employed in Saudi, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Deep South includes Thailand's three southernmost provinces– Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat – and parts of a fourth, Songkhla. It is one of Thailand's most-impoverished regions, where thousands of Malay-speaking locals have sought jobs abroad, including neighboring Malaysia.
A low-level separatist insurgency, which reignited in 2004, has killed at least 7,000 people in the Deep South, leading to economic hardships among its residents, according to analysts.


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Drug traffickers arrested this month while smuggling crystal meth and heroin destined for Malaysia are linked to insurgents in Thailand's Deep South, Thai authorities said this week.
Narcotics smugglers and separatist rebel groups in the far southern region that borders Malaysia have been involved in a long-term reciprocal relationship, Maj. Gen. Jatuporn Kalumpasut, commander of a task force in Pattani province, told BenarNews.
"We found links between drugs gangs and insurgents. We can confirm that they are connected and have a symbiotic relationship," Jatuporn said.
On Monday, the Thai police's Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) announced that five drug busts nationwide had resulted in the arrests of 16 suspects during the past two weeks. Police also confiscated 9.8 million amphetamine pills, 450 kg (990 pounds) of crystal meth, 77 kg (170 pounds) of heroin, 1.654 kg (3.6 pounds) of cocaine and 706 kg (1550 pounds) of marijuana.
NSB officers said crystal meth and heroin were valued at 1 million baht (U.S. $30,000) per kilo, while methamphetamine is valued at 200 baht ($6) per pill.
Six suspects arrested with crystal meth and heroin allegedly were trying to smuggle the drugs into Malaysia through the border province of Narathiwat, according to police Maj. Gen. Kitti Sapaothong, the NSB's southern province commander.
Three of the suspects, who allegedly acted as forward observers, were arrested at a highway checkpoint in Chumphon province. They later confessed that a truck transporting drugs was following them. NSB officers stopped the truck at a gas station close to Malaysian border, he said.
Police found the drugs hidden inside fertilizer sacks that were placed under a pile of PVC pipes, Kitti said.
"This syndicate uses GPS to monitor and communicate," Kitti told reporters.
In Malaysia, Kang Chez Chiang, the deputy director of the national police's narcotics department, said his officers were aware of the arrests on the Thai side of the border.
"We cannot expose our investigation and the information that we have on the connection between the smugglers and the southern Thailand group because they are watching our movements, so I do not want to jeopardize our operations," he told BenarNews on Tuesday.
"But for us, of course, we have always cooperated with our counterparts in Thailand and, yes, there is a joint cooperation that is going on."
Links go back years
Jatuporn, the head of the Pattani task force, said he had found evidence linking drug traffickers with insurgents as far back as five years ago.
"In 2013 we arrested a suspect in Sungai Kolok. He admitted that he paid protection money to insurgents to pass through the Deep South several times," Jatuporn said, referring to a district of Narathiwat province that sits along Thailand's border with Malaysia.
Drug dealers have hired militants to kill other drug dealers to make the deaths appear to be tied to the insurgency, he said.
"It happened in a prison as a drug convict met up with an insurgent inmate," Jatuporn said. When they left prison, the drug convicts hired the insurgents to collect payments from other dealers or kill them if they refused to pay.
From Oct. 1, 2017, to July 23, 2018, Thailand arrested suspects in 1,705 cases, seizing assets valued at 134.53 million baht ($4 million), compared to 456 and 453 cases in the previous two years.
Meanwhile, Thailand's predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking southern border region known as the Deep South has been wracked for decades by a separatist insurgency. Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in violence throughout the region since the insurgency re-ignited in 2004.
Hadi Azmi in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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Thailand formally asked Britain to extradite former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who fled the country last year before she was convicted and sentenced over charges of gross negligence in a failed rice subsidy program during her tenure, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha said Tuesday.
Prayuth confirmed a BBC report that an official request had been given to the British government.
Yingluck, who has posted photos on her social media accounts in Britain, has denied any wrongdoing and described the charges against her as politically motivated.
"The extradition [request] sent to England is a normal procedure by the national police bureau, the attorney general and the foreign ministry. Just because she was seen there," Prayuth told reporters, referring to Yingluck.
"We cannot arrest anyone overseas," he said, "so it is the job of the very country to respond depending on their decision."
Yingluck, 51, who was overthrown in a coup led by then army chief Gen. Prayuth in May 2014, fled Thailand through Cambodia in August 2017 and recently ended up in London, BenarNews sources said.
After overthrowing Yingluck, Thailand's junta pursued criminal charges claiming that she had failed to stop corruption and losses of more than U.S. $5 billion in her administration's scheme to buy rice crops from farmers at prices well above the market rate. The program failed as the global rice market plummeted.
On Saturday, Yingluck's video clip posted on social media showed her in Covent Garden in West End, London's main entertainment neighborhood.
Thailand's extradition request, sent by the Royal Thai Embassy in London to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, was dated July 5, 2018, BenarNews sources said.
Prayuth said he did not discuss Yingluck's extradition during his meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May in London on June 20.
Yingluck shared the same fate as her older brother Thaksin Shinawatra, who served as prime minister from 2001 until he was toppled by a military coup in 2006. Thaksin came back to Thailand in 2008 but went into self-imposed exile in several countries, including Dubai, after he was sentenced to two years in jail for land fraud.


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Thailand and India will launch a 14-day combined military exercise codenamed "Maitree 2018" next week to share techniques about fighting insurgencies and terrorism, a military official said Thursday.
The Thai Army's 11th Infantry Division will host the annual exercise in Meuang District of Chachoengsao province from Aug. 6 to 19. The two countries will each send 50 troops to participate.
"We expect the Thai Army to successfully exchange military values with India and make use of many drills in real-life cooperation," Maj. Gen. Worayuth Kaewwiboonphan, the division commander, told BenarNews.
The first Maitree, whose name means good relationship, was held in Thailand's southern province of Krabi in 2016 and the next year in Himachal Pradesh, India.
"We aim to foster relations of the two armies, share experiences and techniques at the infantry company level," Worayuth said. "In addition, each of us would rehearse anti-national terrorism operation and then exchange techniques and improve performance."
Worayuth met with Indian Col. Vijay Singh Mehta in late May at the 11th Infantry Division in Chachoengsao on the outskirt of Bangkok to plan the exercise.
Worayuth said non-commissioned and commissioned officers will be involved in the training.
Activities will include sessions in Thai boxing, reconnaissance and scouting, ambush, day- and night-fire drills, raids, search-and-destroy and airborne evacuation missions.
Thailand and India established formal diplomatic relations in 1947 but their cultural and religious ties date back centuries with Brahmanism-Hinduism and Buddhism widely adopted in Thailand.
Since 2003, the two countries joined in a security framework – the Thailand-India Joint Working Group on Security – to bolster security arrangements and fight terrorism, according to the Thai Embassy in India.
"The two countries aim at bolstering their already good relationship in military cooperation to combat a possible threat," an Indian diplomat who asked not to be named told BenarNews. "We want cordial ties to continue."
The exercises come on the heels of a memorandum of cooperation signed by India and the United States in July to enhance security relations between the two countries, the Economic Times reported. Among the issues listed in the memorandum are combatting trans-national crime and accessing and sharing terrorism data.


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Thai authorities granted citizenship to three young soccer players and their coach Wednesday, less than a month after they were freed from a flooded cave in a dramatic rescue that riveted the world and unearthed their immigration status.
The three boys and their 25-year-old coach were with nine other Wild Boars soccer team members who were extracted from the massive Tham Luang cave in the northern province of Chiang Rai, where they were trapped for more than two weeks.
Their high-risk rescue involved hundreds of volunteers and led to the death of one diver. The rescue, which was widely covered by international media, gripped the world and exposed their personal background, revealing that the boys and their coach were among 490,000 stateless people registered in the kingdom.
Somsak Kanakam, sheriff of Mae Sai district in Chiang Rai, handed out citizenship cards to the three boys and their coach in a ceremony on Wednesday.
"I affirm that all four got Thai citizenship as I approved and it is effective today," Somsak told reporters as one of the boys, 13-year-old Mongkol Boonpiam, grinned while receiving his card.
The boys' coach, Ekkapol Chanthavong, came to the ceremony wearing an orange robe.
Ekkapol, also known as Ake, was the last person pulled out of the cave. Although he was earlier criticized for leading the children into the cave, Thais eventually rallied behind him.
Thai officials said Ekkapol decided to spend more time in a Buddhist monastery, where 11 Wild Boars were ordained last month as novice Buddhist monks. One declined to go through the religious ritual because he wasn't Buddhist.
Local reports said the coach and the three boys were all born in Thailand, but the Buddhist-majority country's strict Nationality Act does not automatically confer citizenship by birth.
In 1972, in a bid to stem illegal immigration from Burma and concerns over communist insurgency in border areas, Thailand amended its Nationality Act to require that both parents be legal residents and domiciled in the country for at least five years for their child to be granted Thai citizenship at birth. The kingdom also revoked citizenship from many people who had it under the earlier act.
The government's move caused difficulties for members of hill tribes in border areas who were not registered in a census that took place in 1956. Many residents had no way to prove that their parents were Thais as opposed to having entered the country as refugees, rights activists said.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said most of the stateless people in Thailand belong to "hill tribes" living in remote areas with limited access to information about nationality procedures and who, in the past, lived without registration or identity documentation.
The Thai government has pledged to attain zero statelessness by 2024, according to the UNHCR, which estimates that 490,000 people are stateless in Thailand and unable to vote, seek legal employment or travel freely.


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A former jet-setting Buddhist monk whose lavish lifestyle infuriated Thais received a 114-year prison sentence Thursday for fraud, money laundering and computer crimes, a court official said.
Wirapol Sukphol provoked outrage in 2013 when a YouTube video showed him wearing designer sunglasses in a private jet with a Louis Vuitton carry-on luggage by his side.
As a result of the controversy, the 39-year-old, who is also known as Luang Pu Nen Kham, was defrocked. He was also accused of raping an underage girl and allegedly had sexual relations with several women, and had impregnated one.
Wirapol fled to the United States and was arrested in 2016 in California where a court ordered his extradition. He had denied the charges and claimed he was ready to fight them in court.
The Ratchada Criminal Court in Bangkok handed his prison term Thursday, a court official, who requested anonymity, told reporters.
"Judges convicted him and sentenced him altogether to 114 years," a court official told reporters, adding that under Thai law Wirapol will serve 20 years because of legal technicalities stipulating the maximum penalty for multiple counts of the same offense.
Investigators said that between February 2009 and June 2013 Wirapol told his followers that the deity Indra told him in a dream to build the world's largest Buddha image made from emeralds, and a golden image of himself. He also invited followers to donate to his projects and his plan to buy a boat to aid victims of flood disasters.
At least 29 followers filed a complaint that they had donated 28.65 million baht (U.S. $862,000) that he misused. The court ordered Wirapol to return that amount to his victims.
The Thai court had determined that he spent the donations to maintain his lavish lifestyle, including buying a private jet, a Porsche and a BMW.
A verdict on molestation and child abduction charges is expected in October.
Wirapol is among high-profile monks in Thai who have been arrested or defrocked in connection with money scandals and improper sexual relationships. Thai authorities have raided well-known temples and arrested monks tied to corruption scandals.
On Tuesday, the national anti-corruption commission announced it has undertaken 81 cases related to funding frauds at temples.
At least five senior monks were expelled and detained in jail along with several government officers involved in the scandals.


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An 11-year-old Thai girl married in June to a Malaysian man 30 years her senior was brought back to Thailand with her parents this week, where they will receive government support services until the girl reaches age 16, a Thai official said Friday.
The governor of Narathiwat province in Thailand's mostly Muslim Deep South appeared to be trying to calm international outrage that ensued after the man's second wife shared information about the marriage on Facebook in June. But he stopped short of declaring the marriage void, saying its status would be assessed five years from now.
"The girl and her parents crossed back to the province and officials under the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security are taking care of their mental and emotional needs," Narathiwat Gov. Suraporn Prommul told BenarNews Friday.
He said the family was now staying at a ministry facility where doctors, psychologists, social workers and others were treating them and helping them find education and work opportunities.
"Into the future, we look to improve their livelihood, education and mental wellbeing," Suraporn said. "Because the girl did not have compulsory basic education like others, the government sector must find a solution for her and enable her to live a normal life."
The groom, identified as an imam or Muslim teacher, defended the marriage in a video in July, claiming it was a "nikah gantung," a Malay term meaning a marriage that takes place with the understanding it will be consummated at a later date, in this case after the girl turns 16.
A relative who asked not to be named told BenarNews the family had lived in Kelantan, in northern Malaysia, where the parents worked on a rubber plantation and did small jobs for the groom's family to survive. The wedding took place across the border in Narathiwat.
Islamic law allows a man to have four wives as long as he can provide for and maintain each of his families equally.
Under Thai civil law, a woman can marry at 20 without parental consent but can marry at 17 with her parents' approval or at 15 through a court order, according to legal experts. But the four provinces in the Muslim-dominant south are exempt.
"In 1946, Thailand enacted Sharia law in Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala and Satun, on Muslim family issues such as engagement, marriage, divorce, spouse relationship, family relationship and wills, while other matters follow Thai laws," Pattani Iman Sakariya Galeng told BenarNews.
In July, Safiri Jeha, president of the Islamic Committee of Narathiwat province, told BenarNews: "Islamic law allows youths age 15 and up to marry but they can be younger with parents' consent. They can have a ceremony anywhere with an imam."
"In the case of the 11-year-old girl who had wedding at Sungai Golok, they followed the Islamic teaching and Islamic law enacted in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Satun," he said.
Focus on child brides
Suraporn, however, suggested that the status of the marriage had not been determined.
"When she turns 16, we will assess this issue. The Malaysian groom is also an imam. He knows Islamic law, he would not break the rules," Suraporn said.
Suraporn said he met with provincial clerics Wednesday and notified all mosques that in the future weddings of young brides to foreign grooms must be solemnized at the provincial Islamic office.
A national human rights commissioner questioned whether that notification would solve the issue of underage brides.
"What about the marriage status? The Ministry of Social Development and Human Security and the Islamic Committee must make it clear," Angkhana Neelapaijit told BenarNews Friday. "What if the groom comes to claim his wife?"
The president of Duay Jai (With Heart) Group, a human rights advocacy organization in the Deep South, demanded that Islamic law be amended.
"In the future, we should prevent recurrence of this issue. We should amend doubtful Islamic law, create the right values among Muslim men and reconcile the laws across the border to have the same standard," said Anchana Heemmina.
Malaysia has a civil legal system and a separate Islamic legal system. Sharia law, specifically, the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territory) Act of 1984, sets the legal age for marriage at 16 for girls and 18 for men, allowing for exceptions with court permission. The civil law sets 18 as the minimum marriage age for both men and women.
Islamic family law requires a Malaysian who marries someone in another country to register with the Registrar of Muslim Marriages within six months.
Malaysian government leaders said they would weigh religious and cultural considerations as they work on establishing an age limit for marriages.
In July, Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said news of the child bride added urgency to calls to increase the legal marriage age to 18 – a plank in the Pakatan Harapan coalition's campaign promise. The coalition took power in May after defeating the Barisan Nasional bloc in the country's 14th general election.


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A Thai government crackdown on human trafficking last month including cases involving child pornography led to the arrests of more than 30 suspects in about 20 cases, police officials announced this week.
Eight suspects, including a university lecturer and a government official, were arrested after allegedly paying for online sex services involving underage boys, said police Maj. Gen. Kornchai Khlaikhlueng, the chief commander of the Thai police's Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division (ATPD).
The ATPD charged them with depriving boys younger than 18 of their parents' care and sent the charges to criminal court, Kornchai said. The suspects were released on 300,000 baht ($9,000) bail.
To break the case, investigators monitored Namphon Somngam, 27, who allegedly opened a Facebook account offering child pornography and sex services involving boys, according to an ATPD officer.
Namphon allegedly charged each customer a 300 baht ($9) membership fee to join a chat group named "Rak Dek" or love children, according to ATPD Col. Khomkrit Sukthai.
"Customers paid up to 1,500 baht ($45) for having sex with the boys. Namphon would deduct 500 baht ($15) for his broker fee," Khomkrit said.
Namphon has been charged with human trafficking by procuring Thai boys 18 and younger and disseminating child pornography online, according Kornchai.
"We rescued seven boys between the ages of 12 and 16 who later helped identify their customers," he said.
ATPD officials told reporters that joint efforts with the Tourist Police Bureau, the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security and non-governmental organizations saved 17 victims involved in 20 separate cases, leading to charges being brought against 33 suspects.
Online abuse
Kornchai told BenarNews he is concerned about a growing demand for cybersex.
"Selling and buying child porn online is the very beginning of a human trafficking ring," he said. "We are focusing on cracking down on online child-sex abuse rings because we want to make sure that human trafficking cases are going down."
Kornchai challenged a claim last year by a United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) research consultant that Thailand had surpassed the Philippines for the notorious title of webcam center for child pornography.
"I think this is not fair, and it's not true," Kornchai told BenarNews.
A UNODC representative in 2017 said intelligence indicated that parts of a major webcam operation had moved from the Philippines to Thailand.
Kornchai said some foreigners arrested in Thailand had child porn featuring boys from other countries, not Thailand.


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A self-described Belarusian sex coach pleaded not guilty in a Thai court on Monday to charges of soliciting prostitution and conspiracy to form a criminal syndicate that could land her a maximum of 17 years in prison.
The case of Anastasia Vashukevich attracted widespread media attention six months ago when Thai police arrested her and nine other foreigners during a raid on their sex-training course in Pattaya, south of Bangkok. Two were deported.
"They pleaded not guilty and are ready to defend themselves against the charges," Worasit Piriyawiboon, a lawyer with knowledge of the case, told BenarNews.
"They originally intended to plead guilty to lesser jail terms, but they made a last-minute about face, pleading innocent to fight the case," Worasit said, adding that Vashukevich and co-detainee Aleksandr Kirillov had hired a new lawyer who agreed with their decision. BenarNews was unable to contact the lawyer.
A Pattaya provincial court judge declared that if the seminar had included people having sexual intercourse or arranged for people to have sex, it would be considered illegal by Thai law even if there was mutual consent. Lawyers will submit legal submissions at another hearing on Aug. 27, when the court is expected to set a date for testimony to begin, according to the Associated Press.
Kirillov, the organizer of the seminar, told the judge that the course was about the art of seduction and how to impress men and women, and it did not involve sexual activity.
When prosecutors showed a photo of students having sexual intercourse, Vashukevich cried, Worasit said.
"Kirillov told the court that the photo was of a private activity that happened in a private room and it was taken after the seminar," Worasit said.
In February, police arrested and charged the 10 suspects with working without a permit and in early April charged them with soliciting prostitution and conspiracy to form a criminal syndicate. The charges charges carry a combined maximum prison term of 17 years, legal experts said.
Three of the 10 foreigners were found guilty of working illegally and were fined $100, police said. Two of the defendants have been deported, according to immigration officials, who declined to elaborate.
Vashukevich, who has written a book about seducing billionaires, catapulted to fame in early February after Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posted a 25-minute "investigative report" on YouTube.
The video, which relies on material from Vashukevich's Instagram account, allegedly includes footage of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko, a longtime adviser to President Vladimir Putin, receiving lavish treatment on Deripaska's yacht. Vashukevich and Kirillov could face a lawsuit in Russia over the video.
Vashukevich, whose social media name is Nastya Rybka, describes herself as a model and sex coach. She has posted racy photos of herself online, including a few showing her with Deripaska.


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As hundreds of thousands of Muslims marked Eid-ul-Adha in Thailand's troubled Deep South on Wednesday, Thai authorities said they killed three suspects in recent days while thwarting insurgent plots to disrupt the religious holiday.
Authorities said they also arrested 10 suspects in two counter-insurgent operations mounted during the past week in Thailand's southern border region.
Since the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan ended in mid-June, at least 17 people have been killed in attacks blamed on separatist rebels in the predominantly Muslim and Malay Deep South. On Wednesday, there were no reports of violence.
One of the operations took place on Tuesday, the eve of Eid-ul-Adha, when a combined force of soldiers and police shot and killed a suspected insurgent during a firefight in Mayo, a district of Pattani province, officials said.
The incident occurred near an Islamic school in Namsai village as the security force traded shots with six rebel suspects, killing one of them. The remaining five were arrested, according to officials.
"These men came into the neighborhood to plan attacks to disrupt Eid-ul-Adha but our intelligence officers were able to track them down first," police Col. Komkrit Srisong, the chief of Mayo police station, told BenarNews.
"We tried to arrest them but they returned fire, so both sides clashed."
On Aug. 16, during the first operation, security forces surrounded a house in Sa-ae Nai village in Yala province's Krong Pinang district, where seven suspected rebels were meeting to plot attacks related to the Eid holiday, authorities said.
"While five of them surrendered, two others did not and they used rifles to shoot back, so officials returned fire and killed them," Lt. Gen. Piyawat Nakwanich, the Thai army commander for the 4th Army Region, which covers the Deep South, told reporters as he visited the scene of the shootout in Yala.
All of the suspects were wanted for crimes, he said, adding the two slain men had led an attack on a police checkpoint in the same district, wounding 12 officers on April 3, 2017.
Police Col. Narawi Binwae-arong, the chief of police in Krong Pinang, said an intelligence tip-off, which indicated that the group was meeting to plot holiday attacks, led to the operation.

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A man hands out cash to a child and mother on Raya Adha day at a mosque in Yaha, a district of the southern Thai province of Yala, Aug. 22, 2018 (Mariyam Ahmad/BenarNews)

 
Deadly spate
The Deep South, which encompasses Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat provinces as well as four districts of Songkhla province, was relatively peaceful during Ramadan.
But since the holy month ended more than two months ago, at least 26 attacks carried out by insurgents have killed 17 people and injured another 23 across the region, according to official figures compiled by BenarNews from police and military reports.
The attacks included the Aug. 11 roadside shooting deaths at point-blank range of a Buddhist mother and her 14-year-old daughter as they were returning home from a flea market in Narathiwat's Bacho district.
Police Maj. Gen. Manas Sikasamat, who oversees the Narathiwat provincial police bureau, blamed insurgents.
"The shootings of the mother and daughter were related to insurgents. We arrested three suspected gunmen who gave us useful information," Manas told BenarNews without elaborating.
The area where the shooting occurred was also the site of a roadside ambush on July 18, when a gunman fired on a pickup truck with an M-16 assault rifle, killing the driver and injuring a passenger, officials said.
And on the same day the mother and daughter were gunned down in Narathiwat, a sniper killed a paramilitary ranger with five rounds fired from 100 meters (328 feet) away in Pattani's Panare district, authorities said.
Sunai Phasuk, a Thai researcher for Human Rights Watch who has decades of experience in the Deep South, said more killings had taken place lately in the region "due to the distorted religious teachings that attacking non-believers or Malay supporters of the government is a noble act."
He said Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), the largest and most potent of the region's various rebel groups, were responsible for much of the violence. Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in violence across the Deep South since the decades-old insurgency flared up again in 2004.
"Why doesn't the Malay community condemn them when the BRN claims they represent the Malay Patani [people]? The Malay Muslims must come out to condemn the BRN and refuse violence as a way to end the problem," Sunai told BenarNews.
Meanwhile, for the past three years Thailand's military government and MARA Patani, an umbrella group representing difference insurgent groups and factions, have been holding peace talks brokered by Malaysia. But, so far, both sides have not agreed to a geographically limited ceasefire, which is seen as a linchpin to advancing the process.
The talks seem to have ground to a halt, at least temporarily, partly because of the recent change of governments in neighboring Malaysia, according to a Thai official who asked not to be named.
In late June, Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's new prime minister, indicated that his government would carry on with brokering the southern Thai peace negotiations.
"Yes ... yes, we are," Mahathir said June 25 in response to a question on this from a BenarNews reporter.
But when the reporter asked whether the new government would replace Ahmad Zamzamin bin Hashim as facilitator of those talks with a different person, Mahathir responded, "We will announce later."




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A suspected insurgent shot dead a defense volunteer and a woman in Pattani town in Thailand's restive Deep South, while unidentified masked gunmen set fire to trucks and offices after tying up electricity workers in nearby Yala province, police and witnesses said Thursday.
Hundreds of people were shopping on Thursday night at an open-air market next to the Krue Se Mosque, a historic site in Pattani province, when a man pulled out a handgun and opened fire at Ayi Mudo, a 55-year-old defense volunteer, Police Col. Kirati Yusof told reporters.
Two rounds struck Ayi's head, killing him instantly, Kirati said.
"Stray bullets hit two other women and the gunman took his gun," Kirati said, adding that the victim was selling ornamental items in the market.
One of the two women was pronounced dead at the Pattani Hospital and the other remained under care, authorities said.
The shooting took place a day after suspected insurgents snatched electricity workers before torching their offices and trucks in Yala's Kabang district.
Unknown gunmen also opened fire with assault rifles at another regional electricity office in Pattani's Koke Pho district on Wednesday, authorities said.
There were no reports of injuries, but the gunmen also tried to set fire to the offices, police said.
A Kabang electricity worker, who requested anonymity, said armed men in black clothes snatched and tied him up with other colleagues after he returned to the building from dinner.
"I saw five men wearing balaclavas and dressed in black, all are armed. They tied me and others. After that, they torched the office, taking us behind the office," the worker told BenarNews.
"They set ablaze two trucks before leaving."
The gunmen did not harm him or his co-workers, he said.
Police Lt. Gen. Ronasilp Poo-sara inspected the Kabang electricity offices on Thursday and blamed insurgents for the attack.
"I believe the insurgents did this to revenge the arrests and extrajudicial killings of their militant leaders and supporters," he said.
On Aug. 22, days before the observance of the Eid-ul-Adha holiday, authorities announced the killing of three suspected Deep South militants and the arrest of 10 others in two counter-insurgency operations. 

Security forces also thwarted plots to disrupt the Islamic holiday, officials said, citing intelligence reports.
A separatist insurgency has wracked Thailand's predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking southern border region known as the Deep South for decades. Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in violence throughout the region since the insurgency re-ignited in 2004.
The Deep South encompasses Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat provinces, as well as four districts of Songkhla province.
The region was relatively peaceful during Ramadan. But since the holy month ended more than two months ago, at least 31 attacks carried out by insurgents have killed 22 people and injured another 29 across the region, according to official figures compiled by BenarNews from police and military reports.


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As Thailand prepares to extend work permits for 11,000 foreign migrant workers, including many in the fishing industry, a Human Rights Watch official called on the government Tuesday to outlaw forced labor.
Phil Robertson, a deputy Asia director for the global rights watchdog, praised the Thai government for ratifying an International Labor Organization (ILO) protocol on forced labor earlier this year, but he urged officials to pass a standalone law criminalizing such workplace practices.
"We're worried the Thai government is hesitating to fulfill its commitment to pass such a law in the face of unprincipled opposition by the National Fisheries Association of Thailand (NFAT) and other employer groups who don't want to take responsibility for forced labor practices against migrant workers from Burma [Myanmar], Cambodia, and elsewhere," he told BenarNews.
At a news conference in Bangkok on Tuesday morning, Robertson joined members of the Migrant Working Group, a coalition of NGOs focused on health, education and labor rights to call for government action. Last week, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan announced that the government would extend for two years the work permits set to expire at the end of September.
In January, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report and video challenging the government over deplorable conditions for migrant workers in the nation's fishing industry.  The 134-page report based on more than 200 interviews, spelled out how migrants – many of them from Myanmar and Cambodia – could be forced to work on fishing boats, prevented from changing employers, have their pay held or not be paid a minimum wage.
But NFAT Chairman Mongkol Sukcharoenkana said a new law was not needed.
"We in fisheries sector do not care about the claim about victimized laborers or the call for such law because we have solved those problems already," Mongkol told BenarNews.
He added that about 10,600 fishing boats were active in Thailand, down from more than 42,000 when Thailand received a yellow card warning from the European Union (EU) in April 2015.
That warning meant Thailand could face a ban on exporting seafood to the EU because of unregulated practices in the fishing industry.
Vice Admiral Wannapol Klomkaew, deputy secretary of the government's Command Center for Combatting Illegal Fishing, also played down the need for such a law, citing prosecutions of cases involving the mistreatment of foreign workers.
Since mid-2015, the courts have punished defendants in 42 of 88 cases regarding abusive or enforced labor practice in fishing sector and human trafficking, he told BenarNews without elaborating.
"We have PI-PO (port-in port-out) centers that examine the fishing boats so there is no place for illegal laborers. ... We track employers with bad records," Wannapol said.
Despite such comments from officials, Robertson said the country needed to protect workers.
"The decision point is now because Thailand needs to pass a forced labor law before the end of this year, or face the scorn of the international community," he said.
"Some employer federations are claiming that if Thailand passes a criminal law against forced labor then foreign investors will not make investments here. My question to Thailand is why in the world would you want an investment from a company that wants to use forced labor? It's better to tell that kind of investor to go somewhere else."


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Thai authorities released 12 people on bail Friday after arresting them for sharing a Facebook post about a British tourist who claimed that she was drugged and raped while on a beach holiday in southern Thailand, a lawyer said.
Attorney Winyat Chatmontree said police arrested his clients this week and accused them of violating the nation's Computer Crime Act by sharing false information that threatened Thailand's security.
The charge carries a penalty of up to 5 years in prison, he said, adding that all of his clients who were arrested in several provinces were released after their relatives posted bail of 60,000 baht (U.S. $1,875) per person.
"To commit a crime, one must have intent. But the accused shared the posts without knowing that the information was false and they thought it was just a report by foreign entities," Winyat told BenarNews.
The 19-year-old tourist, who has since returned to her home in England, claimed she was raped in June when she visited Koh Tao Island in Surat Thani province.
In her Facebook post, she alleged that Thai police refused to accept her rape complaint. But police denied her allegations and said evidence they had gathered did not support her version of events.
The multiple arrests and the woman's rape claim threaten to revive the controversy that engulfed the nation four years ago, when Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha apologized for his bikini remarks in the face of an international outcry over the brutal murders of two British holidaymakers on the same island.
The murders of British tourists Hannah Witheridge and David Miller in 2014 tarnished the image of Koh Tao, a famous destination for foreign backpackers. But the prime minister provoked outrage after suggesting that "beautiful girls" visiting the country should not expect to be safe while wearing bikinis.
"They think our country is beautiful and is safe, so they can do whatever they want, they can wear bikinis and walk everywhere," Prayuth, who is also the junta chief, told top government officials during a policy address.
"[But] can they be safe in bikinis ... unless they are not beautiful?"
His remarks, which drew widespread condemnation, came just two days after the battered bodies of Miller, 24, and Witheridge, 23, were found on the southern island.
"I want to apologize for everything if my remark was too harsh and caused misunderstanding," Prayuth said then, explaining that he did not intend to insult or blame anyone and was just trying to warn people to be more careful when travelling.
No sexual assault took place, police say
During a news conference on Thursday, Maj. Gen. Surachet Hakpan, deputy chief of the tourist police bureau, said his team of investigators had determined that no sexual assault had taken place, as alleged by the 19-year-old British woman.
"Our initial investigation concluded that there is no evidence to prove that the incident has happened, not a drug claim or a rape claim," Surachet said, adding that his investigators were still awaiting evidence from British authorities.
Other than the 12 Thais, police have also issued arrest warrants on the administrator of a Facebook page and the British editor of the Samui Times, who left Thailand in 2015, after they allegedly criticized the police for not taking the woman's formal complaint, officials said.
Critics say Thailand's Computer Crime Act is a broadly worded law that has been used by the military junta to curb free speech.
On Friday, Human Rights Watch urged Thai authorities to immediately drop what it called "bogus charges" against the 12 suspects.
"Thai police appear to be using computer-related crime charges against anyone who questions their shoddy investigation of the Koh Tao island rape case," Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.


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Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha on Tuesday defended the arrests of people allegedly linked to a little-known republican group, as a former diplomat lamented the erosion of "openness, tolerance and fair-mindedness" that he said once distinguished the country.
Among the at least four people arrested for suspected links to the group was a woman taken into custody for allegedly possessing T-shirts promoting the movement, officials said. The woman, identified only by her first name, Wanna, was picked up at her home near Bangkok on Sept. 6, a junta spokesman told BenarNews.
"We took her into remand because she was found to have a connection with a movement that posed security threats. We found documents, evidence and some symbols linked to a movement. We are probing into the details for sound evidence," said Maj. Gen. Piyapong Klinpan. The spokesman for the National Council for Peace and Order, as Thailand's military government is formally known, did not elaborate.
Attorneys with a legal aid group said the woman was still in custody and expected to be charged with sedition. Another three people were arrested and charged earlier for suspected links to the so-called Organization for Thai Federation group, said an attorney with the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, a local NGO.
In Bangkok on Tuesday, junta chief and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha touched on the arrests of the woman and the others as he fielded questions from reporters after his weekly cabinet meeting.
"In regard with the arrest of the black Organization for Thai Federation, don't you say that the government is bullying somebody," Prayuth said, referring to the underground group. "We are investigating whom they are connected with."
"Let me ask you, is the Organization for Thai Federation legal? Isn't it an attempt to change the nation's ruling system? Could it be treason?" he added. "Officials just did their job."
According to Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, the Thai government had contacted neighboring Laos and requested that Vientiane arrest a Thai national, Chucheep Shivasut, who is allegedly linked to the Organization for Thai Federation.
"Chucheep Shivasut, we tried to catch him for a long time," Prawit told reporters on Tuesday.
"There is a base in Laos and there are networks in Thailand. They sell T-shirts, flags made by Chucheep.  This is rebellion," Prawit said, adding that the group was trying to "promote a federal republic and put an end to the monarchy," he said.
The group has no public presence in Thailand but has supporters abroad and is mostly active on the Internet, the Associated Press reported.
Thailand: Once a 'beacon of truth and hope'
The idea of doing away with the monarchy is a taboo subject in Thailand, where the king is revered and strict laws guard against speech construed authorities as royal defamation. Since the junta sized power in a coup four years ago, scores of Thais have been charged and prosecuted under the infamous Lese-Majeste law.
Press freedoms have also been eroded under Prayuth's government, human rights and media advocacy groups have complained.
On Monday night, Thai police shut down a panel discussion in Bangkok hosted by the prominent Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT) about a U.N. fact-finding team's report on alleged rights abuses and atrocities committed against the Rohingya people in Myanmar.
In a letter to the FCCT, the local police station said it was shutting down the event because such a discussion would "affect the security of the country and international relations."
FCCT officials said it marked the sixth time that Thai authorities had shut down an event at the press club since the military toppled an elected civilian-led government in a May 2014 coup.
"The professional membership of the [FCCT] is deeply disappointed by the decision of the Thai authorities to shut down a planned discussion about a hard-hitting report by the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar released last month. The report recommended prosecution of Myanmar's military leaders for alleged genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in ethnic minority areas," the club said.
"The professional membership of the FCCT believe the Thai authorities have overreacted," the FCCT added. "This incident has caused unnecessary further harm to the country's already dented reputation for media freedom – Thailand was once one of the freest countries in Southeast Asia with a vibrant press"
Kobsak Chutikul, a former Thai ambassador and MP who was scheduled to appear on Monday's panel at the club, weighed in about the forced cancellation.
"Bangkok used to be the center of press freedom in Southeast Asia. It distinguished our country from many others [as] a beacon of truth and hope for the region," he told BenarNews on Tuesday.
Thais could  walk with their heads held high all over the world, proud of the tradition of openness, tolerance, and fair-mindedness of their nation, he added.
"It's a shame that this stature long cultivated by our fore-fathers is slowly being eroded.  Hopefully, the situation will change for the better and return to what it once was," Kobsak said.
This version contains a new English translation of the Thai name for the underground group.


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New laws published by Thailand's government on Wednesday sealed a May 2019 deadline for the first elections since the military seized power four years ago, although the junta chief again assured the public that the vote would occur in February.
The publication in the Royal Gazette of laws on electing members of parliament and selecting senators ended many months of speculation and set a timeframe for when the government would stage national polls, after the junta had postponed them at least one-half dozen times since overthrowing a civilian-led government in a May 2014 coup.
The laws will take effect in December, 90 days after publication. The constitution requires the election commission to organize the general election within 150 days of the laws taking effect, setting a deadline by next May.
"The tentative date proposed by the election commission is Sunday, Feb. 24," Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, the retired army general who led the 2014 coup, told reporters Wednesday as he reiterated a statement he made in late August. "The timeframe doesn't change."
The new laws stipulate that the parliament will have 500 members, including 350 elected from specific districts along with 150 representatives selected from party lists and allocated on the basis of proportional representation.
The senator selection law requires the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) – the junta's official name – to pick 244 people from a list prepared by the election commission and the nomination committee, and add six spots reserved for military leaders to total 250 members.
Prayuth also said he would exercise his power to relax some laws regulating political activities in order to pave the way for a fair election.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, who is in charge of security, told reporters last month that the junta would continue to enforce a law that bans political gatherings of five or more people in the name of national security. He said it would be lifted in mid-December or later to allow for campaigning.
Prayuth's announced date for elections should work for political parties, an official with one party told BenarNews.
"We don't want to see a delay of the election," said Nipit Indarasombat, deputy leader of the Democrat Party.
"I think two months for the election campaign is enough. It shouldn't be a problem, he said. "But, first of all, the junta needs to allow political parties time to hold some activities."


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A relatively unknown Thai political activist is behind an anti-royalist movement that has joined forces with an ex-member of Thailand's banned and defunct communist party and supporters of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, according to government officials and analysts.
Prayuth Chan-o-cha, the junta chief and current prime minister, last week defended the arrests of at least four people for suspected links to the movement that calls itself the Organization for Thai Federation (OTF).
Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan branded the group's activities as a rebellion trying to "promote a federal republic and put an end to the monarchy."
Officials and political observers say they believe that Chucheep Shivasut started the movement with backing from Surachai Saedan, a former Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) member, and Wutthipong "Ko Tee" Kochthammakhun, a loyal Shinawatra supporter.  

"Chucheep was associated with former communists like Surachai Saedan and hard-core Red Shirts or supporters of the former PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his political groups," an official who requested anonymity told BenarNews.
Little is known about OTF or its purported founder, Chucheep, who also carries the online pseudonym Uncle Sanam Luang, which refers to the Royal Ground next to the Grand Palace and the site of royal ceremonies.
Chucheep, according to Deputy PM Prawit, is believed to be operating from Laos. Bangkok has asked authorities in the neighboring country to arrest the activist, Prawit indicated last week.
He said he had no information on whether any Thai political parties were behind the group.
"There is a base in Laos and there are networks in Thailand," Prawit said. "This is rebellion."
Maj. Gen. Piyapong Klinpan, spokesman for the National Council for Peace and Order, as Thailand's military government is formally known, declined to provide information about OTF. However, Prayuth told reporters on Sept. 11 that authorities were investigating the group's links.
"Let me ask you, is the Organization for Thai Federation legal? Isn't it an attempt to change the nation's ruling system? Could it be treason?" the prime minister said.
'Mountain out of a molehill'
Thai political observers slammed the junta, saying it was overreacting through the crackdown.
Among the people arrested was 30-year-old Wannapa Khamphiphot, who was taken into custody and charged for allegedly distributing T-shirts promoting a movement aimed at overthrowing the current regime. The black shirts bore the group's logo of a tiny red and white flag.
Wannapa denied the allegations through her attorney.
Weng Tojirakarn, a key leader in the pro-Shinawatra umbrella group United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, told The Nation newspaper last week that the junta was exacerbating the situation, possibly for its own political gain. Others claimed that the crackdown, ironically, had helped raised the profile of what was an unknown group to many Thais.
"In fact, the group is rather powerless," Weng said. "They are completely impotent. And the junta is making a mountain out of a molehill."
Mass defections
The Communist Party of Thailand was active from 1942 until the 1990s. By 1977, various reports estimated its armed strength at 6,000 to 8,000 fighters, but it suffered mass defections in the early 1980s when the government began offering amnesty to its members.
Chucheep, on his YouTube channel, describes federation as the most democratic system in the world "because it offers equality through power decentralization and responsibility to local governments in the region, instead of centralization, which monopolizes budget, causing corruption."
BenarNews could not immediately obtain comments from Chucheep's other alleged supporters, including Surachai, a prominent 75-year-old communist in the southern province of Nakhon Sri Thammarat who was convicted of violating the nation's strict Lese-Majeste, the law that guards against royal defamation, in 2008 and 2010. Surachai received a 10-year jail term, but was granted a royal pardon in 2013.
A political observer, who asked that he be identified only as Sitha, told BenarNews that Chucheep was first seen in public when he began criticizing Sondhi Limthongkul, the leader of the right-wing group People's Alliance for Democracy, which led street protests against Shinawatra before the prime minister was overthrown in a coup in 2006.
Shinawatra, who served as prime minister from 2001 until he was toppled by the military, went into self-imposed exile in several countries. After Shinawatra was overthrown, Chucheep also left Thailand for Britain or France before again fleeing to Laos, Sitha said. Another supporter, Wutthipong, also fled to Laos, officials told BenarNews.
Titipol Phakdeewanich, dean of the political science faculty at Ubon Ratchathani University, expressed doubts on the junta's decision to order a crackdown on OTF.
"Who are they going to arrest? It is an unnecessary show of force ... simply because the movement doesn't destabilize the status of the Thai nation," Titipol said. "To the military, everything seems to be a threat to security."


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A Bangkok district court ruled on Monday that police could hold two political refugees from China for an additional 12 days to complete an investigation of their case, a court official said.
Wu Yuhua, who is also known by her nickname Ai Wu, was detained by police in Bangkok with her husband Yang Chong on Aug. 29 and locked up in an immigration detention center. They had lodged a bail application last week in a bid to stall attempts to repatriate them to China, where they fear political reprisals at the hands of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
"The couple appeared at the court in which the police sought extended custody because the case was not complete," a public information officer with the Pathumwan Municipal Court in Bangkok told BenarNews.
"The court approved the custody request for another 12 days," the officials said, adding that police had already charged them with illegal entry into Thailand.
Detainee Yang was being held at the Bangkok Remand Prison on the outskirts of the Thai capital, while Wu was at a remand facility for women in nearby Pathum Thani province, the official said.
He said he was unaware of a bail request related to Monday's hearing.
Supporters of the couple said they had been registered as genuine political refugees by the United Nations and were awaiting resettlement in a third country. But Thailand, which isn't a signatory to international conventions on refugees, doesn't legally recognize that status.
Officials with the Bangkok office of the U.N.'s refugee agency (UNHCR), however, declined to confirm last week whether the Chinese couple had refugee status.
"UNHCR cannot comment on, or even confirm the existence of, individual cases," Hannah MacDonald, a spokeswoman for the agency, told BenarNews.
Yang and Wu were initially targeted by Chinese police after taking part in the press freedom protests in the southern city of Guangzhou in January 2013.
They fled the country in February 2015 and made their way to Thailand after Wu started a support group for disappeared rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. In Thailand, they eked out an existence without papers in the country's Pattaya region.
They were approved as political refugees by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangkok in 2017, but had yet to be accepted for resettlement in a third country amid a global tightening of national immigration policies.
Wu and Yang were detained along with He Weiyi outside the New Zealand Embassy in Bangkok, where they had hoped to persuade New Zealand officials to consider them for resettlement.
Thailand has sent refugees fleeing China back home in the past.
In July, authorities in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing jailed two rights activists sent home from Thailand as they were awaiting resettlement as political refugees, prompting an international outcry.
Dong Guangping and Jiang Yefei fled with their families to Thailand in 2015, and were granted refugee status by the UNHCR office in Bangkok.
But as they awaited resettlement in a third country, they were handed over to China by the Thai police, in a move that drew strong criticism from the U.N.
Dong and Jiang were both found guilty of "incitement to subvert state power" and "illegally crossing a national border" by a court in Chongqing.
Jiang received a six-and-a-half-year jail term, while Dong was sentenced to three-and-a-half years, their relatives said, citing phone calls with police and online reports.
In July 2015, Thailand forcibly repatriated nearly 100 Uyghurs to China, a move that drew criticism from United Nations officials and human rights groups.  The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was shocked at the deportation of a group believed to include women and children who did not wish to return to China, where the Turkic-speaking Muslim minority suffers repression under Chinese rule.
Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews, helped produce this report.


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A Thai appeals court on Friday granted bail to Chinese dissidents Wu Yuhua, who was released, and Yang Chong, who face charges of violating Thai immigration law despite holding United Nations documents describing them as refugees.
Wu, who is also known by her nickname Ai Wu, was detained by police in Bangkok with her husband Yang on Aug. 29 and locked up in an immigration detention center. Unlike his wife, Yang has not been able to raise the required bail to leave the detention center.
"Because we do not have enough money to pay the bail, my husband, Yang Chong, is still detained by police. We cannot bail him out at this time," Wu told Radio Free Asia, a sister entity of BenarNews.
They had lodged a bail application last week in a bid to stall attempts to repatriate them to China, where they fear political reprisals at the hands of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
The judge at the Pathumwan Municipal Court read out an appeals court's ruling that the couple deserved bail because of "the nature of the relatively lenient charges and the good behavior of the couple," a BenarNews reporter heard in the courtroom.
"The bail bond for each is 300,000 baht ($9,240)," said the judge, overruling a lower court's denial of bail last week. "They are not allowed to leave the country without court's approval."
Clad in a prison uniform and a surgical mask, Wu Yuhua looked sickly but brightened when a translator informed her of the bail grant around midday.
Yang, jailed in Bangkok Remand Prison, appeared healthier but was chained around the ankles during the court appearance.
They were initially targeted by Chinese police after taking part in the press freedom protests in the southern city of Guangzhou in January 2013.
Existence without papers
They fled the country in February 2015 and made their way to Thailand after Wu started a support group for disappeared rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. In Thailand, they eked out an existence without papers in the country's Pattaya region.
They were approved as political refugees by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangkok in 2017, but had yet to be accepted for resettlement in a third country amid a global tightening of national immigration policies.
Lawyers from advocacy group Center for Asylum Protection posted bail for Wu at midafternoon. A group member who refused to give her name told BenarNews supporters of the couple had been able to raise only half the total amount.
An official at Central Women's Correction Institute on the outskirts of Bangkok informed BenarNews by phone at around 8:30 p.m. that Wu had been released. Other sources said Yang's supporters were trying to raise funds to make his bail.
In a related development, a senior official at the Lumpini police station in Bangkok told the court that police will charge Wu for illegal entry and Yang for overstaying a visa.  Each charge carries a maximum sentence of two years in jail.
"We will file the lawsuits Wednesday," Police Lt. Wiwat Naklada told the judge.
When asked why they were arrested, Wiwat said: "They made disturbance at the New Zealand Embassy so they were caught by the security guards and they were sent over to the police station."
Wu and Yang were detained on Aug. 29 along with another Chinese national named He Weiyi outside the New Zealand Embassy in Bangkok where they had hoped to persuade New Zealand officials to consider them for resettlement.
Thai laws violated
Police determined they had violated Thai immigration laws, regardless of their UNHCR status, she said.
"The man entered Thailand legally with tourist visa via Suvarnabhumi Airport but the visa was expired three years ago," she told BenarNews, citing immigration records. "He will face overstaying visa charge."
"Then woman will face the charge of illegal entry and illegal staying. We don't see any records to show that she entered the country legally," she said.
Lawyers with the Center for Asylum Protection declined to comment on Wednesday's scheduled court action, saying they had not seen the case file.
Wu is prepared to go to court.
"I guess the police will charge us. If he (Yang) is charged in the court, he will be put in the immigration jail and he will lose hope for a bailout," Wu said.
Thailand has sent refugees from China back home in the past.
In July, authorities in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing jailed two rights activists sent home from Thailand as they were awaiting resettlement as political refugees, prompting an international outcry.
Dong Guangping and Jiang Yefei fled with their families to Thailand in 2015 and were granted refugee status by the UNHCR office in Bangkok.
But as they awaited resettlement in a third country, they were handed over to China by the Thai police, in a move that drew strong criticism from the U.N.
Dong and Jiang were both found guilty of "incitement to subvert state power" and "illegally crossing a national border" by a court in Chongqing.
Jiang received a 6½-year jail term, while Dong was sentenced to 3½ years, their relatives said, citing phone calls with police and online reports.
In July 2015, Thailand forcibly repatriated nearly 100 Uyghurs to China, a move that drew criticism from United Nations officials and human rights groups.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it was shocked at the deportation of a group believed to include women and children who did not wish to return to China, where the Turkic-speaking Muslim minority suffers harsh repression under Chinese rule.
Radio Free Asia contributed to this report.


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A Thai court on Tuesday sentenced nine Muslim men from the Deep South to four to six years in jail after convicting them of conspiring two years ago to launch bomb attacks in Bangkok and a nearby province, while five others walked free.
A defense attorney challenged the decision, saying his clients were tortured to confess and will appeal within 30 days.
Mubarina Kana was the only defendant to be found with traces of explosives, according to the two-judge panel. He was handed a six-year jail term.
"Based on forensic probe, the trace of PETN, an explosive material that is not common, was found on his left and right hand," one of the judges said during the sentencing, referring to Mubarina. "It is believed that he had bombs."
The judge, who was not identified by the court, said eight other defendants conspired to form a crime syndicate and were each sentenced to four years in jail. Five others were found not guilty.
On Oct. 10, 2016, Thai security forces raided several residences in Bangkok and Samut Prakan, a province south of the capital, arresting dozens of Muslim men from the Deep South, mostly students at Ramkhamhaeng University, over allegations they planned car-bomb attacks.
Torture testimony
Defense lawyer Kijja Ali-isho who represented the 14 defendants said his clients testified they were tortured to confess while in military prisons in Bangkok and in Pattani.
"They were hit in the ears, kept in cold temperature, anything that would not cause external bruises," he told BenarNews after the verdict.
The court doubted their testimony.
"The defendants' claims of being threatened and tortured to confess is not substantiated because there were no signs on their bodies," the judge said.
The mother of Uzman Kadirhaji was in court to hear her son's sentence.
"I felt disheartened simply because we are Deep South people and they don't believe us about the torture," said Hanela Duerama, who traveled from Narathiwat province to the nation's capital, Bangkok, for the verdict.
"We told the truth, but they don't believe," Hanela told BenarNews. "I believe my son is not a perpetrator."
Pornpen Khongkachonkiat, director of Bangkok-based rights group Cross Cultural Foundation, described the verdict as a setback for justice.
Thai law allows swift arrest and detention of suspect without charge for up to seven days, during which authorities can question suspects who do not have legal counsel, according to Pornpen and legal experts.
"And when people sued officials ... many have won compensation, but none of the officials were punished criminally," Pornpen said. "Many stopped short there without further criminal prosecution, being satisfied with the money."


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