Bangkok: Affirming that the near-daily violence in Thailand's insurgency-affected southern has improved considerably, Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said he did not want people living in the troubled region to abandon their homes.

Speaking during his weekly TV and radio address, Samak, also defence minister said yesterday that the government officials were now trying to persuade residents of the restive South not to sell their properties and move elsewhere.

"I have told them that we should live together," said Samak, who made his first visit as Prime Minister to troubled Yala and Pattani provinces on Saturday since taking office on February 6.

He said he was briefed by senior officials working in the region during his Saturday visit and was told that the overall violence in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and four districts of Songkhla province had improved significantly in the past six months.

He again urged "misguided" insurgents operating in the deep South to surrender their arms and turn themselves in to government authorities, and affirmed that the government would continue to use peaceful approaches to solving problems of violence.

Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat bear the brunt of the continuing insurgency on an almost daily basis.

Some 3,000 persons have been killed to date since renewed violence erupted in January 2004.
Source : PTI