Thai leaders spar over autonomy for south

The interior minister says it could calm the insurgency-racked south. Opponents see a step toward secession.

from the February 19, 2008 edition

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The backdrop to the current debate is the apparent failure of exploratory talks between Thailand's former military-installed government and exiles who claimed to speak for the southern insurgency. While this approach, coupled with legal amnesties, was successful in co-opting separatist leaders in the 1980s, it has so far been unable to tame the current groups in the south, say analysts.

Although the insurgency includes Islamist militants with foreign training, most security experts agree with Thailand's assertion that the groups are localized, largely self-financed, and focused on driving out authorities from Bangkok, which annexed the area in 1902. Thai officials say Al Qaeda has inspired, but not assisted, militants in the south.

Much of the violence is directed at civilians, particularly Muslims who cooperate with Thai authorities against the militants. Soldiers, police, and teachers are prime targets for shootings and roadside bombings, and more than 250 public schools have been razed by arsonists. The lethal conflict belies Thailand's image as a safe, peaceful tourist destination.

Last year, a surge in troop levels and aggressive sweeps of militant villages led to a decline in attacks after a peak in June. In addition to more than 30,000 police and soldiers, various paramilitary and ranger units are deployed in the south. Troops are also arming pro-government militias in Buddhist villages, with support from Thailand's influential monarchy.

But mass arrests of militant suspects, who have been held without trial at Army bases under martial law, are causing a backlash among Muslims, who allege torture and mistreatment during detention, says Sunai Pasuk, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. "The Army is depleting its community support, and this creates a breathing space for militants…. People don't want to warn the soldiers anymore about roadside bombs," he says.

Former Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, a retired Army general, won praise in 2006 for apologizing for past government abuses in the south, including the breakup of a demonstration in 2004 that led to the deaths of more than 80 Muslim men in Army custody.

He also promised broad reconciliation and a redress of past injustices, raising hopes of a judicial reckoning for security forces implicated in abuses.

But a string of setbacks and political infighting caused his olive branch to wither, leaving Army hard-liners a free hand to go back on the offensive. "Surayud said the right things," says a Western diplomat in Bangkok. "It was a nice symbolic gesture, a step in the right direction, but there was no follow-through."

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