Thai PM's apology for protestors' deaths lauded
Malaysiakini
Nov  3, 2006

Malaysia today lauded an apology from Thailand's premier Surayud Chulanont for the deaths of 85 Muslim protesters in troubled southern Thailand, saying the move would help ease the situation there.

"His step is a step in the right direction. It is an attitude of humility," Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters.

"I am very glad that he has taken the first very, very constructive step. It is not easy to make a public apology for something that had happened," he said.

Surayud yesterday apologised for the government's response in tackling one of the bloodiest days in the mainly Muslim provinces of southern Thailand that border Malaysia.

The 85 victims died when security forces broke up a riot in the border town of Tak Bai on Oct 25, 2004. Of those killed, 78 were crushed to death when they were loaded horizontally into army trucks.

Syed Hamid said Surayud had touched on steps to restore "normalcy" to the troubled region during his first visit to Malaysia last month after being installed by Thailand's military.

Bring back confidence

Surayud said he would "be interested to take some steps that will bring back confidence," Syed Hamid said, adding, "and I think he has done exactly that."

"It is magnanimous of him to recognise that the countries in the region are interested, that the security and the well-being of Thailand is (as) much of importance to us as it is to Thailand," he added.

The region on the border of Malaysia was an independent sultanate that mainly Buddhist Thailand annexed in 1902, and separatist unrest has erupted periodically ever since.

More than 1,500 people have been killed since the latest insurgency broke out in January 2004, with critics blaming deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra's heavy-handed approach for worsening the bloodshed.

Residents in Thailand's southernmost provinces are mostly ethnic Malay and Muslim, sharing more culturally with Malaysians than with the rest of Buddhist Thailand.