Southern Border Provinces Administration Center

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The Southern Border Provinces Administration Center for short SBPAC ( Thai ศูนย์ อำนวย การ บริหาร จังหวัด ชายแดน ภาค ใต้ , RTGS Sun Amnuaikan Borihan Changwat Chaidaen Phak Tai , for short ศอ.บต. ; German translated "Administrative Center of the Southern Border Provinces") is a civil-military one Thai government project . It is to lead and monitor the activities of the military and authorities in the three Thai provinces of Pattani , Narathiwat and Yala bordering Malaysia .

history

Prem Tinsulanonda, founder of the SBPAC (1984)

All three provinces were part of the Patani Sultanate in the past . The majority of the population of the provinces professes Islam , in a country with a predominantly Buddhist population. This created tension and civil war-like situations. The center was founded on January 20, 1981 under the order 8/2524 of the Thai Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda . The basis for this was the instruction 66/2523 issued by Prem. The military should use political means rather than force in counterinsurgency. Among other things, a general amnesty was issued for fighters of the Communist Party of Thailand (KPT), which was active in the provinces and supported the Muslim insurgents. The rebels were to be stripped of their base by fighting poverty and setting up development programs in the Muslim provinces. Corruption should also be combated. The center worked with the Malaysian military as the rebel activities were often cross-border. The strategy is considered successful: the influence of the KPT was successfully suppressed and the violent activities of the Muslim rebels decreased significantly. The center continued to operate even after the security situation had massively improved.

This changed when Thaksin Shinawatra took office in 2001. Thaksin dissolved the center on April 30, 2002 with the order 123/2545. He declared the unrest over and handed over sole responsibility for internal security to the Thai police. In reality he wanted to smash the old structures in the south. The SBPAC was controlled by the royalist parties and the Democratic Party. He wanted to push back this influence, especially that of General Prem, who was chairman of the Privy Council at the time. (You have to imagine the Privy Council as a kind of shadow government, officially the Privy Council advises the king). After the dissolution, civil war-like unrest erupted in the provinces after the police became the sole state power. Arbitrary arrests and house searches have increased. Numerous people disappeared without a trace. Many people were killed as part of the “War on Drugs” campaign. The SBPAC was no longer available as a control instance. The military no longer intervened as a mediator. The resistance of the Muslims was resumed. In 2004 martial law had to be proclaimed. After the overthrow of Prime Minister Thaksin by the military in 2006, the center was reopened on November 2, 2006 by General Surayud Chulanont with the order 207/2549.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sor Rattanamanee Polkla, Arnaud Dubus: Policies of the Thai State towards the Malay Muslim South (1978-2010). Institut de recherche sur l'Asie du Sud-Est contemporaine (Irasec), Bangkok 2001, ISBN 9786167571003 , p. 34.
  2. ↑ a b Jayshree Bajoria, Carin Zissis: The Muslim Insurgency in Southern Thailand. Council of Foreign Relations, September 10, 2008, accessed August 26, 2018 .
  3. ^ Duncan McCargo : Thaksin and the resurgence of violence in the Thai South. Network monarchy strikes back? In: Critical Asian Studies . tape 38 , no. 1 , 2006, doi : 10.1080 / 14672710600556429 ( tandfonline.com [accessed August 26, 2018]).
  4. Jump up ↑ The spiral of violence in southern Thailand. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, July 23, 2005, accessed on August 26, 2018 .
  5. ↑ No One Is Safe. Insurgent Attacks on Civilians in Thailand's Southern Border Provinces. Human Rights Watch, August 27, 2008, accessed August 26, 2018 .