An image captured from a videoclip of three insurgents declaring ceasefire in the South. The clip was shown on TV yesterday.

Chetta Thanajaro has returned to the political centrestage with a supposed answer to the violence in the South... or has he?

Within just hours, retired general-turned-politician Chetta Thanajaro went from boom to bust.

Two hours before noon, the leader of the Ruam Jai Thai Chart Pattana Party, a minor member of the governing six-party coalition, went on a big rollercoaster ride.

In the morning, there was a proclamation that permanent peace in the deep South was within grasp.

Pushed for answers

But when journalists began to nag him about the credibility of a videotape in which three unnamed men declared that all forms of insurgent violence and separatist activities had come to an end, Chetta began to retreat tactically.

He said he was not a 100 per cent certain that these men were the real thing, but if it was a hoax, he was not the only one who had been fooled.

However, he was man enough to take all the blame. Doubts over the merit of Chetta's so-called initiative to find peace began to compound when he said he was not prepared to give the name of the so-called leader even though he had no problem broadcasting his face and voice in public.

To make matters worse, Army chief General Anupong Paochinda came out and poured cold water on the historic announcement, saying the only way to deal with these self-proclaimed leaders was to arrest them and put them through the judicial due process.

He said Chetta had never informed authorities about any dealings with separatist organisations and added that, according to his information, the self-proclaimed leader was a former separatist who put down his weapons in 1987 after failing to unify all separatist factions.

'Nothing to do with us'

Exiled leaders were quick to distance themselves from the three men, saying they were not aware of any ceasefire and if there was one, it would not be unconditional.

Anupong identified the self-proclaimed spokesman as Malipeng Khan, who was active in insurgency from 1984 to 1987.

A senior Army officer who met Malipeng in Egypt and Syria said he could not make out which one of the Khan brothers the speaker was.

"It could be his brother Shamsudine. The guy dyed his hair and had a fake moustache.

"I couldn't really tell which of the Khan brothers he was," he said.