NARATHIWAT – Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan has promised to allocate more funds to arm residents in Thailand's three southern provinces, where security forces have been battling separatist insurgents for a decade.

Gen. Prawit, who also serves as a member of the ruling military junta, said during a tour of Narathiwat province today that he is willing to inject more than 20 billion baht from the state budget into "Thung Yang Daeng Model," a military program aimed at training local residents to deter insurgents from launching attacks on civilian targets. 

Under the model, communities in the restive provinces of Yala, Narathiwat, and Pattani – known colloquially as the Deep South – would be given weapons, CCTVs, and warning systems that would alert nearby military units immediately in case of an attack. 

"I will approve a budget of at least 20 billion baht to expand Thung Yang Daeng Model to cover 37 districts [of the Deep South] and four districts of Songkhla province," Gen. Prawit told an audience in Rueso district today.

According to Thai authorities, the model is currently being implemented only at Thung Yang Daeng village in Pattani, where insurgents have launched several attacks on civilians in recent months. 

More than 6,200 people have been killed in the Deep South since the latest wave of separatist violence broke out in 2004. The bloody campaign is waged by a variety of shadowy militant groups who aim to revive the independent sultanate of Pattani, which had been independent for hundreds of years before it was incorporated into modern Thailand in the early 20th century.

Even before the Thung Yang Daeng model, authorities were arming "village defence volunteers" in the Deep South, where suspected insurgents stage roadside bombings and drive-by shootings against troops and civilians almost on a daily basis.

The military's reliance on armed residents and "Rangers" – volunteers recruited and trained as a paramilitary force by Thai authorities – has drawn criticism from some civil rights experts who say some of these volunteers have committed human rights abuses.

In September, for instance, a Ranger admitted to murdering a 14-year-old Muslim boy and then planting a firearm in his hand in an attempt to frame him as an insurgent.

Today, a group of the village volunteers, armed with handguns and rifles, demonstrated their combat skills in front of Gen. Prawit during his visit to Narathiwat province, drawing applause from the Deputy PM and other high-ranking officials. 

Gen. Prawit said the military will also focus on improvement of infrastructure in the Deep South, not only military buildup. 

"I will instruct all relevant agencies to speed up the construction of 37 roads in the three southern border provinces," Gen. Prawit said. "This is basic infrastructure of the people. When civilisation reaches the region, the evil things will be erased, and there will be a change for the better."

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BANGKOK – Prime Minister and military junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha was granted an audience by His Majesty the King over the weekend, after the palace initially announced the monarch was not "ready" for the meeting.

PM Prayuth escorted two newly appointed ministers, Wisut Srisupan and Amnuay Patise, to swear their oath on Sunday before King Bhumibol, who is currently receiving treatment for several illnesses at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok.

His Majesty the King, who will turn 87 in December, spent approximately 40 minutes talking with Gen. Prayuth and the two ministers, palace officials said. 

The meeting was originally scheduled to take place on 21 November, but the palace said in a statement on Friday night that the occasion had to be postponed because of the king's health. 

"The team of doctors who are assisting His Majesty the King conclude that His Majesty is not ready for the audience, so he granted the permission to postpone the meeting," the palace statement said. 

The Friday announcement sparked wave of speculation on social media about His Majesty's health.

However, the rumours were put to an end on Sunday when the palace released a photo of Gen. Prayuth talking to His Majesty the King at the hospital.

King Bhumibol was checked in to the Bangkok hospital on 3 October with a high fever and rapid heartbeat. The king later underwent a surgery to remove his gallbladder, which was said to be infected. 

On 13 November, the palace said His Majesty was also suffering from an intestinal infection, but that his overall health was improving. 

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BANGKOK – A Thai historian wanted by the military junta for criticising the monarchy spoke out for first time on Saturday since he went into hiding six months ago.

Somsak Jeamteerasakul, a 56-year-old professor who taught political history at Thammasat University, wrote on his Facebook account early Saturday morning that he is alive and well at an undisclosed location. 

"I thank all of you who sent (hundreds of) messages to my inbox. There are so many. I fear I cannot answer each of them personally, so I have to express my thanks here," Somsak wrote. "I have been away for six months. There are so many issues I want to discuss with all of you. I will have to write about them bit by bit."

Somsak is a rare outspoken critic of the monarchy in Thailand, where offending the Royal Family is a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison. 

In February, the spokesperson of the Royal Thai Army publicly threatened to press lese majeste (insulting the monarchy) charges and an unspecified "social measure" against Somsak if he did not stop writing critically about the Royal Family on his Facebook. 

"The army would like to call on every sector to keep careful watch, in order to prevent anyone from slandering or insulting our beloved monarchy," said the spokesperson, Col. Winthai Suwaree. 

A week later, masked gunmen sprayed bullets across Somsak's residence in a Bangkok suburb, drawing condemnation from a number of academics who accused the army of intimidating the historian. Somsak was at home when the incident took place but was not injured, though he told the press that one bullet missed his head "by inches."

After Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, then-chief of the Thai army, staged a military coup on 22 May 2014, the junta summoned Somsak and hundreds of other academics, activists, and politicians for "attitude adjustment." Somsak did not comply, prompting the military court to issue an arrest warrant for him. 

Somsak, who commands a cult following among progressive Thais, refrained from posting any comments social media for the next six months after the coup. His silence has been a source of anxiety for many Thai activists, who feared he was captured and held incommunicado by Thai authorities. 

The Facebook post confirming his well-being on 22 November – exactly six months after the junta took power – has been received enthusiastically by his supporters. 

On the same day, students at Suankularb Witthayalai School, where Somsak studied during his high school years, paid tribute to the historian's announcement by organising a card stunt that resembled him during a football match against a rival school. 

In the mass card stunt, students juxtaposed Somsak's face with that of Veera Somkwamkid, an ultra-conservative activist who also graduated from Suankularb Witthayalai. 

Although Somsak did not specify his current whereabouts, he did publish a photo, presumably taken by himself, of a building on 9 Rue Du Sommerard in Paris where a group of overseas Thai revolutionaries met secretly in 1929 and plotted to overthrow the absolute monarchy in Thailand. 

Several close aides of Somsak also confirmed privately to Khaosod English that Somsak is living in exile in a "Western country."

After re-emerging on Facebook on Saturday, Somsak also published series of analyses about the 22 May 2014 coup, the Thai monarchy, and his thoughts on the current state of the Redshirt movement. 

His comments forced the spokesperson of the Thai military junta, Col. Winthai Suwaree, to say at a press conference today that Somsak should not discredit himself by airing "unsubstantiated" remarks about the monarchy. 

"Some matters are delicate," Col. Winthai said. "He should refrain from using defamatory words or using feeling to criticise another individual or organisation. It may affect his professional credibility."

Since staging the coup on 22 May 2014, the military junta has stepped up efforts to prosecute perceived "threats" to the monarchy. 

In an address to parliament as Prime Minister on 12 September, Gen. Prayuth decreed, "We will use legal measures, social-psychological measures, and telecommunications and information technology to deal with those who are not mindful of their words, are arrogant at heart, or harbour ill intentions to undermine the important Institution of the nation."

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PHUKET – A Thai-born Briton was finally reunited with her mother after 54 years of separation in Phuket province today.

Kimberley, 54, and her mother, Yokluen Chankaew, 79, hugged each other for this first time in more than five decades this afternoon, which was arranged by local administrators. 

Kimberley was born in Ta Kua Pa district of Phang Nga district in 1960 to Yokluen and an Australian manager of a mine in the province. Kimberley's birth certificate identified her as Tukta Chankaew, the Thai name her parents gave to her.

Yokluen said a British engineer who worked for the mine and his wife later asked to adopt Kimberley when she was four years old. Yokluen told reporters she decided to give up Kimberley, then known as Tukta, to the engineer because she was living in poverty.

"I thought I could not raise her up into a comfortable life," Yokluen said, adding that the British engineer and his wife, who were childless, soon left the country for the United Kingdom, and she never heard from them again. 

Yokluen said she was surprised to be told by a local official that she was going to meet Kimberley again after over 50 years of silence. "I didn't expect at all that I would see my daughter again," she said emotionally. 

Kimberley said she had been aware during the past 30 years that her biological mother was a Thai woman, but did not know how to find Yokluen. In September, she decided to travel to Thailand for the first time to look for her mother. 

Her quest ran into obstacle when she committed a common foreigners' mistake, confusing the name of Phang Nga province on the Andaman Sea with Pha Ngan island in the Gulf of Thailand.

"I ended up on Pha Ngan, but luckily a clerk at the hotel where I stayed on Pha Ngan gave me a lot of help and sought out all the information," Kimberley said.

The clerk, Kingkaew Yoobhakdee, got in touch with local administrators in Phang Nga, who in turn found that Yokluen had moved from Phang Nga to the neighbouring province of Phuket. 

After several months of tracking down Yokluen's residence, the officials finally arranged the meeting between the Thai woman and her long-lost daughter today. 

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