April 21, 2008
Bangkok - Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej will ask Malaysia during an official visit to send two men suspected of masterminding separatist unrest in the Thai south back to the kingdom, an official said Monday.
Samak heads to Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday evening and will return Thursday after talks with his Malaysian counterpart Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, government spokesman Wichainchot Sukchotra said.
Topping the agenda will be the unrest in Muslim-majority southern Thailand near the border with Malaysia, where a bloody insurgency has killed more than 3,000 people since it erupted in January 2004.
"The Thai prime minister plans to talk about militants," Wichainchot said. "We want to ask Malaysia to send two suspects who are on our wanted list back to us."
An army official, who did not want to be named, told AFP that the two men were thought to be key insurgent leaders who frequently crossed the porous border between Thailand and Malaysia. They were now believed to be at large in Malaysia.
Thailand's far south was an ethnic Malay sultanate until Buddhist Thailand annexed it a century ago, provoking decades of tension.
Also on the agenda Thursday were joint development projects, transportation links and potential gas pipelines between the neighbours, Wichainchot said.
