Narathiwat, Mar 4 (NNN-TNA) Thai Defence Minister Boonrawd Somtas said Saturday that pro-active measures are needed against the continuing insurgency in restive south as defensive strategy alone could not cope with almost daily violence.

Gen. Boonrawd told the press in Bangkok that he went to Pattani Friday to boost morale of security officials there as well as to learn about their problems to report to the cabinet in considering solutions.

The minister said part of the problem in the three southern border provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani was due to widespread narcotics consumption, as the militants offered drugs to young men.

He said the violence problem in the region must be considered from both security and drug-related perspectives.
Security officials must from now on employ stringent measures and they must use more offensive measure through local villagers' cooperation in order to strengthen communities, he added.

In other developments, Army, police and administrative officials Saturday interrogated a suspected militant who was believed to have fled during a clash between army rangers and a group of militants on a mountain in Narathiwat Friday.

Thirty-year-old suspect Doramae Mudo-aceh was brought from his home in Joh I Rong district for interrogation at the district police station.

Upon learning that the man would be taken for questioning, a group of local women and children surrounded the officials as they escorted Mr. Doramae in a bid to prevent them from taking the suspect away. The village headman was later asked to explain to the protesters that the suspect would be released if he was found innocent.

After more than an hour of negotiations, the villagers let the officials lead him away.

Rumours circulating among villagers in two districts here state that the men who were killed by army personnel yesterday were not insurgents but were only illegal log poachers.

At least five suspected militants were shot dead in the clash with army rangers while an undetermined number were wounded in the encounter. The army also seized an militant training camp, the first since the violence was renewed in the three troubled southern provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat three years ago.