In July 2002, after some 14 policemen died in separate attacks over span of seven months, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra publicly denied the role of religion in the attacks, and was quoted as saying he did not "think religion was the cause of the problems down there because several of the policemen killed were Muslim".
#SOUTH THAILAND INSURGENCY FREE#
Others have claimed that the insurgents have forged links with groups such as the religious-nationalist Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines and the quasi-secular Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Indonesia.Īt first, the government blamed the attacks on "bandits," and indeed many outside observers believed that local clan, commercial or criminal rivalries did play some part in the violence in the region. Some reports suggest that a number of Pattani Muslims have received training at al-Qaeda centres in Pakistan, though many experts believe, to the contrary, that the Pattani guerrilla movements have little or nothing to do with global jihadism. Others suggested the violence occurred under the influence of foreign Islamist groups such as al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah, but since their modus operandi – attacking army depots and schools – is not a similar MO to other groups attacking Western targets, most view the connections as weak. Many local and regional experts have implicated the region's traditional separatist groups, such as PULO, BRN and GMIP, and particularly the BRN-Coordinate (a faction of BRN) and its alleged armed wing the Ronda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK). The identity of the actors pushing conflict remains mostly obscure. Identity of insurgencyĪ resurgence in violence by Pattani guerrilla groups began in 2001. Furthermore, while those in the insurgent groups support armed conflict, most Southern residents seem to want negotiation and compromise and the rule of law to return, along with an end to human rights abuses by both sides. The national referendum to support the junta-backed constitution for Thailand was favored by a majority in all three southernmost provinces and passed overwhelmingly in the southern region of Thailand, with 87% of the 3.7 million voters who participated there approving it. Some locals in the area support some kind of independence from Thailand others clearly do not. The Malaysian government argued the claim "absolutely baseless," and "very imaginative." Financing aside and despite official Thai agency alternative explanations, the essential cause of the continued violence is likely to be rooted in historical animosity generated by a Buddhist culture taking over, and administering under an often corrupt motif, an Islamic culture. The Council for National Security, a military coup which had seized power in 2006, claimed to have evidence the insurgency was being financed by restaurants selling Tom Yam Kung soup in Malaysia.