Suspected separatists have killed five people in Thailand's troubled south, police said Sunday, as the premier visited the region and vowed to continue peace-building talks with rebels. Three Muslim rubber-tappers were shot dead in Yala province on Sunday afternoon, a local police officer said, just hours after Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont's plane landed in neighbouring Pattani province.
On Saturday night, a Muslim village chief was shot dead at a wedding party in Yala, while a Buddhist man was killed in a drive-by shooting in Narathiwat, local police said.
Surayud arrived in Pattani accompanied by a delegation of ministers. After meeting with military and civilian officials, he told reporters that negotiations with separatists were ongoing, and said that the authorities had made contact with insurgents in Thailand and Malaysia.
"We are continuing with the reconciliation plan, which many countries are confident will bring peace. Our job now is to bring down the level of violence," Surayud said. More than 2,100 people have died in separatist violence in the three Muslim-majority southern provinces since January 2004.
Surayud, who was installed after a coup last September, has extended several olive branches to southern rebels in a bid to end the ongoing separatist insurgency, only to see violence escalate since he took power. He has also made frequent visits to the restive south, most recently in March.