Thailand may make major gesture to Muslim south

BANGKOK, Oct 27 (Reuters) Thailand's post-coup government is likely to drop some charges against 58 Muslims involved in a 2004 protest in the restive far south that led to 78 Muslims dying in army custody, Defence Minister Boonrawd Somtat said today.

The move would be a major gesture by the mainly Buddhist administration in Bangkok to the Muslim majority in the three southernmost provinces, where more than 1,700 people have been killed in nearly three years of separatist violence.

It would also signal a break with the ''iron fist'' policy of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who refused to censure army, police or government officials after the incident in the town of Tak Bai.

''It would be good to drop some charges that have weak evidence, to show our sincerity and that we are insisting on peaceful methods,'' Boonrawd told reporters.

He did not give further details, or say whether the government would drop all the charges.

The 58 are accused mginly of causing a public disturbance and damaging government property in the protest outside Tak Bai police station demanding the release of Muslim villagers they said had been arrested wrongly.

Soldiers and police shot dead six people to disperse the crowd. A further 78 were crushed or suffocated to death after being stacked ''like logs'', in the words of one survivor, in the back of army trucks and transported to a nearby military camp.

Since his appointment after a September 19 bloodless coup against Thaksin, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont has promised to eschew violence in a bid to bring peace to the mainly Malay region, an independent sultanate until annexed by Bangkok a century ago.

''It is the Prime Minister's policy to work towards national reconciliation,'' Boonrawd told reporters.

Surayud and coup leader Sonthi Boonyaratglin, Thailand's first Muslim army chief, are due to visit the far south on November 2 to meet religious and community leaders.

A government-appointed probe into the Tak Bai incident criticised police and army handling of the demonstration, but top army officers in charge were not punished.

The southern army commander was moved back to Bangkok, but was promoted to general from lieutenant general.

REUTERS AB VV1249