Thai senior senator Kraisak Choonhavan brushed aside the suggestion by former Malaysian premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad to give more autonomy to the three troubled provinces in southern Thailand.

"Mahathir can have his opinion but we feel that the Thai constitution has already allowed a great deal of local decision making," he said in an telephone interview with malaysiakini yesterday.

On the other hand, Kraisak, who is also chair of the Thai Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, welcomed the call by ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim for a peaceful resolution.

"... the statement by Anwar calling for peaceful collaboration is more reasonable," he added.

In an interview with Utusan Malaysia last week, Mahathir called for greater autonomy in the Muslim-majority Thai provinces and accused the neighbouring country of ignoring the problem until it was too late.

Thailand's English newspaper The Nation reported that Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra had dismissed Mahathir's call as 'not constructive'.

Divert attention

Meanwhile, Kraisak claimed that the demonstration by 20,000 odd people in the Northeast Thai province of Bureerum against Mahathir's remark was a tactic by the Thai government to divert attention.

"This was a government-organised demonstration to raise nationalism so they can continue to cause more suppression and justify the suppression," said the senator, known for his criticism over the manner in which the Thai government handles the situation in the south.

"Thaksin condemns anybody, this is his cowboy reaction. This is a natural reaction from Thaksin, because he does not want to be seen as losing the south but he's very close to that. The violence happened because the Thaksin government denied the basic democratic practice in the south," he claimed.

The senator described the death of 84 people last week during a demonstration in Tak Bai as a 'national tragedy'. It was reported that they died from suffocation and convulsion in packed security trucks.

Kraisak said although the Senate has set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the incident, there is an on-going tussle in the Senate itself.

"The Senate is divided and most of them are in favour of Thaksin. There's no hope in the Senate as only a minority are against the violence," he added.

Since early this year, more than 414 people have been killed in the Muslim-majority southern provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala.