Rebel fighters, he said, are too busy helpingwomenandchildren flee across the border to Turkey to conduct their usual nighttime attacks and booby-trapping of government forces.
For years, child-welfare organisations have criticised Thailand's tourism industry for often helping to promote the image of Thai womenandchildren as passive sex objects.
Just outside the capital, Muscat, twenty-one women are teaching Omani children how to sail, andhelping to revive their country's rich maritime heritage.
In the past three years it has taught thousands of children how to sail and it is also helping to develop a women's squad in an effort to boost Oman's Olympic chances.