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BANGKOK, THAILAND - A GROUP claiming to be the leaders of a bloody four-year-old separatist insurgency in Thailand's Muslim south said on Thursday they had agreed to an immediate ceasefire.
'We have agreed to a ceasefire. Our group will now support peace in southern Thailand,' a spokesman for the unnamed group said in a statement broadcast on Thai army television.
If true, it would be the first group to claim responsibility for the near daily bomb and gun attacks which have killed more than 3,000 people in the predominately Muslim southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia.
'We want all other groups to stop their activities immediately,' the spokesman, who was not identified, said in Thai.
Mr Chettha Thanajaro, a former army commander in chief and defence minister, told army TV that ceasefire talks had been underway for 'some time now' before the group agreed to lay down its arms on Thursday.
He gave no further details on the group. -- REUTERS
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