KL, Bangkok resume joint patrols

KL, Bangkok resume joint patrols

MALAYSIA: Malaysian and Thai military forces on Tuesday conducted
joint patrols along their jungle border for the first time since
the 1970s, after plans to resume them were sped up due to recent
violence in southern Thailand.

Meanwhile, top defense officials denied a report quoting a
Cabinet minister as saying several Thais had been arrested in
Malaysia in connection with the violence.

"To date there have been no arrests," Deputy Defense Minister
Mohamed Shafie Apdal was quoted as saying on Tuesday by the
national news agency, Bernama. Armed Forces Chief Mohamed Zahidi
Zainuddin was also quoted as saying no arrests had been made.

On Monday, the New Straits Times newspaper quoted Home
Ministry Secretary Abu Zahar Isnin as saying Malaysian
authorities had arrested several Thais in connection with the
violence.

Soldiers from the two Southeast Asian neighbor countries last
held coordinated border patrols during Malaysia's decades-long
Communist insurgency, when rebels launched attacks in Malaysia
from jungle hide-outs in Thailand. The insurgency had petered out
by the 1980s. -- AP