Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has agreed to a peace plan put forward by a high-level panel to end an insurgency in Muslim-majority provinces, a spokesman said yesterday. The centrepiece of the plan announced on Monday by the independent National Reconciliation Commission is to create a new regional body to mediate the conflict that has claimed 1,300 lives in the last two years.
Government spokesman Surapong Suebwonglee said the premier had tasked his top deputy, Chidchai Vanasathidya, with implementing the plan. "He assigned Chidchai to properly implement the proposals made by the commission, immediately if possible," he told reporters. "But the prime minister asked Chidchai to report to him on which proposals would require passing new laws, because for those the government has to wait for a new parliament," he said.
General elections in April failed to produce a parliament and new court-supervised polls are set for October. |