By Darren Schuettler
BANGKOK (Reuters) - A group claiming to be the leaders of abloody four-year-old separatist insurgency in Thailand's Muslimsouth said on Thursday they had agreed to an immediateceasefire.
"All our fighting groups, both military and politicalgroups, will support peace in the south from now on," aspokesman for the unnamed umbrella group said in a statementbroadcast on army TV.
If true, it would be the first time the shadowy rebels haveclaimed responsibility for the near daily bomb and gun attacksthat have killed more than 3,000 people and hit rubberproduction in the predominately Muslim provinces borderingMalaysia.
Chettha Thanajaro, a former army commander-in-chief anddefence minister, told Reuters that his peace talks with 11rebel groups got under way in earnest last year. Some of thediscussions were held in Germany.
"They need to keep their word. If there is no violence inthe next week, then the government will get involved and starttalking to them more," he told Reuters.
The rebel spokesman said groups that did not lay down theirarms would be seen as "criminals" and pursued by securityforces.
Chettha did not name the umbrella group or the two rebelswho appeared on television, clad in khaki vests and short andthe round caps worn by Muslim men, against the backdrop of ablue, white and yellow flag.
The alleged rebel leader announced the ceasefire in theMalay language spoken by 80 percent of people living in thedeep south.
Human Rights Watch said last year the BRN-Coordinate groupappeared to be masterminding the unrest that started with awell-organised raid on an army barracks in January 2004.
Analysts were sceptical of the ceasefire announcement.
"The question is whether the government has talked to theright people and the right group. In the past, it has metpeople claiming to represent insurgents in the region, but theviolence never stops," Panitan Wattanayagorn, a security expertat Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, said.
BLOODY HISTORY
The three southern provinces -- Narathiwat, Yala andPattani -- are home to a majority of Thailand's 6 millionMuslims. The region accounts for 10 percent of rubber outputfrom Thailand, the world's top producer.
The region, which included an independent sultanate annexedby predominantly Buddhist Thailand a century ago, has resistedefforts by various military governments in the 1950s and 1960sto import Thai language, culture and religion.
Separatist rebels waged a low-level guerrilla war in thedensely forested region throughout the 1970s and 1980s, buttheir campaign petered out in the 1990s under a moreconciliatory, democratic government in Bangkok.
However, violence flared anew in 2004 shortly after thenPrime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a former policeman,dismantled an army-run organisation that included civilians andMuslim religious leaders, and put police in charge of security.
Millions of dollars in promised development aid for thebackwater border region, infamous for crime and smuggling,failed to stop the violence.
Thaksin flooded the region with 30,000 troops and police,but it further alienated the population, especially after 78Muslim men arrested after a protest died of suffocation in armycustody.
After Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup, Prime MinisterSurayud Chulanont travelled to the south to apologise for theheavy-handed military response, but the "hearts and minds"campaign failed to stop the bloodshed.
Last year was the bloodiest in the far south since theinsurgency began, with nearly 800 people killed.
(Additional reporting by Ploy Chitsomboon and NoppornWong-Anan; Editing by Alex Richardson)