December 8, 2009
BANGKOK (AFP) - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak began his first official visit to Thailand Tuesday, a landmark trip focused on easing tensions in the restive southern border area of the country.
His Thai counterpart, Abhisit Vejjajiva, is due to officially welcome the Malaysia premier to Government House before the two men begin talks in the early afternoon.
Abhisit will host a banquet in Najib's honour on Tuesday evening and on Wednesday the two leaders will travel to Thailand's far south region where a six-year separatist insurgency has claimed more than 4,000 lives.
Abhisit has visited the area once since becoming premier a year ago.
This trip will include visits to two schools, one government-run and one Islamic, and Thailand would like to learn from Malaysia's success with its moderate Muslim education system, said deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban.
"The Malaysian prime minister will visit the southern region tomorrow. Thailand expects cooperation from Malaysia on the success of its bilingual Islamic school system," Suthep told reporters.
Tensions have simmered in the mainly Muslim Thai region, formerly an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate, since it was annexed in 1902 by mainly Buddhist Thailand. The latest spate of violence erupted in January 2004.
On Monday, a powerful bomb hidden in a motorcycle ripped through a market in Narathiwat province, where the two premiers are scheduled to visit, killing two people and wounding nine others.
Thai army chief General Anupong Paojinda travelled to the region on Sunday to prepare security arrangements for the two leaders.
Najib and Abhisit will fly to Narathiwat on Wednesday, visiting two boarding schools, a handicraft village and a so-called "widow village" that shelters some 140 families affected by the unrest.
They will also attend the renaming of a "friendship bridge" spanning the countries' river border.
Thailand has in the past accused Malaysia of failing to prevent insurgents criss-crossing the porous 650-kilometre (400 mile) border.
But since Najib came to power in April the rhetoric has softened. In October he called on Thailand to offer "some form" of autonomy to the restive region, a proposal backed by Abhisit, who called it the "right approach".
