On your first post: What that lady meant to say is that the Islamistic militants kill both Muslims and Buddhists (that’s well known and is reported about daily in the papers), not that the Muslims normally were killed by state authorities. And she complains about what she perceives as unequal distribution of attention. Thus there is no inconsistency.

On Nidhi: I read his piece a while ago. I found some elements quite interesting, especially references to religious motives. However, I tend to agree with a friend of mine who has been doing field research in Pattani. He asserts that Nidhi is rather naive. That same friend wrote about the “unorderly border region” which enabled a number of shadowy elements, amongst them police and soldiers, but also smugglers, drug traders, etc., to go about their business more easily than in other parts of the country. However, that does decidedly not mean that police, military or bureaucrats, for that matter, serving in other parts of the country are clean.

Thanks for making the effort of identifying and reading additional sources of information on the south.

This one incident does not prove that all of the Thai military in South Thailand are corrupt, but it does show that some of them are. Certainly double dealing such as this helps to sow the seeds of resentment of the Central authorities pretty deeply.

Army anti-narcotics agent held after deadly shootout

The major wounded during a police drug bust in Bangkok is an Army anti-narcotics agent running an illicit drug syndicate in the strife-torn South, Metropolitan Police chief Lt-General Adisorn Nonsee said yesterday.

Major Chanont Chinnawong and his alleged accomplices, Sukhum Juajaemjan and Withoon Niyakij, have been charged with possessing drugs with intent to sell, murder of an officer on duty, attempted murder of officers on duty and possession of firearms without a permit. This combination of offences carries the death penalty.

…

Adisorn said Chanont had long trafficked drugs in Pattani and neighbouring Yala and Narathiwat provinces, capitalising on his expertise and status as a military narcotics suppression officer.

Chanont was familiar with the three provinces and always talked himself out of vehicle searches at police checkpoints every time he was pulled over, Adisorn said.

These last two, topical posts were predeeded by a posting about a paper by Nidhi Aeusrivongse, ‘ Understanding the Situation in the South as a “Millenarian Revolt” ‘, which I found over-the-wire, at your urging.

That posting doesn’t seem to have been accepted, although it is now refused when I try to resubmit it on the grounds that it’s already been submitted.

I think that article is both very soundly reasoned and presented and am interested to hear what your opinion of it is.

You previous statement :

>
– “Most of those killed may have died at the hands of the security forces.” Would anybody in his or her right mind make such an outrageous statement? And where is his supporting evidence or analysis?

seems to be contradicted in the course of The Nation’s on the 14 April bombing in Yala that left 11 dead :

A young Muslim woman in downtown Yala, who asked not to be named, pointed out that more than half of the 2000-plus people killed since January 2004 were Muslims but their deaths did not attract the same kind of media attention or public sympathy as those of the Buddhist victims.

The Nation does not contradict her assertion. I know that reportorial standards world wide are not what we might wish, but I can’t imagine The Nation printing that if it were patently untrue.

New draft charter to grant amnesty to coup makers

A de facto amnesty was given to the September 19 coup makers in the new constitution.

When the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) told the press conference after the half-day secret meeting in Chon Buri, they didn’t mention anything about granting amnesty to last September’s coup makers in the new charter.

However, the amnesty was stated in Article 299 of the new draft.

The article states: “Whatever has been recognised under the Thai (interim) constitution of 2006 to be legal and constitutional, including all actions related to the incident be it before or after the promulgation of this constitution, will be legal under this charter.”

The Nation online 11 April 2007

For electronic resources, please allow me to refer you to a google search along the lines of “Thailand South Insurgency.” This should return quite a number of sources. I have also posted two or three links in the thread on the South here on New Mandala. As soon as Askew’s paper comes out, I will place the link here as well.

Just in case you have access to books, here are four titles:

Duncan McCargo, ed. 2007. Rethinking Thailand’s Southern Violence. Singapore: SUP.

Rohan Gunaratna, Arabinda Acharya, Sabrina Chua. 2005. Conflict and Terrorism in Southern Thailand. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Aademic.

Imtiyaz Yusuf and Lars Peter Schmidt, eds. 2006. Understanding Conflict and Approaching Peace in Southern Thailand.” Bangkok: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

Utai Dulyakasem and Lertchai Sirichai, eds. 2005. Knowledge and Conflict Resolution: The Crisis of the Border Region of Southern Thailand. Nakhon Sri Thammarat: The Asia Foundation, School of Liberal Arts, Walailak University, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Hope this helps.

The fun part of governing is that you can spend the money of other people — the NSC and the Surayud government have discovered a similiar basic truth.

This sad event reflects the dangerous deterioration of relationships between local Muslims (not merely the terrorists) and local Buddhists (not merely defense volunteers) that has been going on for quite some time.