The safety zones would be an area where fighting is off-limits, but precise details of its location or size have not been made clear.
BANGKOK Thailand`s army has reached a breakthrough pact with a Muslim separatist group to create a safety zone in restive southern provinces, the lead negotiator said on Wednesday, but analysts queried if it could succeed without support from other groups.
The government has been negotiating with Mara Pattani, a longstanding umbrella group that claims to speak for the insurgents.
A decades-old insurgency in the Muslim-majority southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat has claimed more than 6,500 lives since it escalated in 2004, says independent monitoring group Deep South Watch.
"Both sides have agreed to the creation of a safety zone in one of the three southern provinces to show their good faith," negotiator Major General Sithi Trakulwong told Reuters.
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