Thai insurgency needs political solution: Report

BANGKOK: Thailand's government should change its tack and pursue dialogue with ethnic Malay rebels to find a political solution and end a deadly conflict in its Muslim south, a report said yesterday.

Almost six years since a separatist rebellion re-emerged in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces, the government has made no progress in tackling the insurgency and needs to urgently shift its approach, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said.

More than 3,700 people have been killed in the violence, according to independent monitors Deep South Watch.