Muslim insurgent group claims ceasefire in southern Thailand

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BANGKOK, Jul 17 (AP): An organisation claiming to represent groups involved in southern Thailand's Muslim insurgency announced Thursday it will end all violence in the region.

"We have come to an agreement to have a cease-fire from July 14 onward," a spokesman for the previously unknown group, the United Southern Underground, said in a videotape broadcast simultaneously on many Thai television stations. "We want to see peace and stability in the region."

The announcement was greeted with widespread doubts that the killings, widely believed to be perpetrated by a number of allied groups, would end. Several bombings have occurred in the region since July 14.

Former army commander and Defence Minister Chetta Thanajaro, who now heads a small political party, said the agreement was the result of informal talks he held with leaders of the insurgency. He said the organisation that made the announcement represented 11 different underground groups operating in southern Thailand, but did not identify them or their leaders.

Calls to the government spokesman went unanswered Thursday, a national holiday. Thai army spokeswoman Col. Sirichan Ngathong declined to comment. Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej earlier said his government was not holding talks with any separatists, but that at least two insurgent groups were in discussions with mediators in Geneva.

The insurgency flared in early 2004 in Thailand's three southernmost provinces, Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani, the only Muslim-majority areas in the predominantly Buddhist country. Since then, drive-by shootings and bombings have become an almost daily occurrence, killing more than 3,300 people. "We want all our military and political units and other groups to stop their activities immediately," said the group's spokesman, who was not identified by name. He said anyone who continued violent activities in the region was a "criminal." The videotape of the statement was provided by army-run Channel 5 to other TV stations.