The three Muslim-majority provinces bordering Malaysia have been plagued by separatist violence since January 2004, and Thaksin’s decision to impose emergency rule there was widely criticized.
In the first on a special two part series, he takes a look at the impact of the conflict on daily life.

The call to pray rings out from the infamous Kruese Mosque. It was here two years ago that 32 young people were shot dead by the Thai military.

The young men had earlier raided a nearby police station and then taken refuge in the mosque.

Eyewitnesses say army commandos responded by storming the mosque and shooting most of the men in the head.

Harul witnessed the killings.

Harul, male in Bahasar Malayu
The young men slept in the mosque on Tuesday. Early the next morning they went to the police station and attacked the police. After the attack, they run back to the mosque. They were altogether 32 young men. Then the military came in and shot them one by one.

One of those young men was Saya Dolau’s son.

I find him sitting with his wife outside their bamboo house in a village near Pattani.

Children laugh and play around them, but their faces are filled with sorrow when they talk about the death of their eldest son.

I was so shocked to hear my son and to see his body. I never thought that my son would be involved in the violence. My son told me that he was going to do missionary work before that day and went out. I was surprised because he had never done missionary work before. When I heard about the killings the at the Kruese mosque, we immediately went there. All the dead bodies were brought to the army camp. I was forced to look through them and I found my son’s dead body among them.

This is a poor family. Support for the shadowy insurgency groups is fuelled by high levels of poverty and corruption.

However Dolau doesn’t know exactly why his son got involved.

I think the situation is very bad. I have no idea when the authorities can solve the problem. I want other families to see my family and take care of their sons and daughters carefully so that they don’t experience what we have.

Research shows that only an estimated 10% of people support a separate Islamic state - and fewer still are likely to condone militancy to achieve it.
Government statistics also show that two-thirds of people being killed are Muslim. Militant groups are thought to be attacking locals who do not share their ideals.
Ordinary Buddhist villagers are also frequently targeted, along with Thai police and the military.

People of all religions here say they have lost trust in each other.

They don’t know who is who.

The daily bombs, killings and violence affects every aspect of life. The economy and the education system are in a poor state.

I am taken to a Islamic school in Pattani. It’s a large high school in a compound. We walk across a volleyball field to reach the main building.

The headmaster, Waedurame Maminchi, arrives a few minutes later, after praying. He’s wearing a Malay Sarong and an Islamic hat.

Before the violence many students from other areas came to study here. The schools here are renowned for teaching Islam, as will has the local language Malay. But, since the crisis they have left as parents fear their children’s security.

He says the economic outlook for his school is bad.

“The number of students has decreased. The authorities supports schools according to the number of students. Since the crisis, we get less students and therefore less money”

There is also a serious shortage of teachers in the south.

Many have been killed in the violence, some shot in front of their students by unknown gun men.

A ex-teacher who was too frighten to give his name, says it’s just too risky to teach now.

“Many teachers from public schools, they are scared, they fear for their lives as many teachers are being killed. Sometimes, they are on their way to school when they were shot dead. Other cases, they are shot on their way home. Other times they are killed on the weekends, going to the market. I am scared like all teachers. But I was born here. I grew up here. So I don’t have any other place to go. There are many teachers who came from other provinces that have all left now, so there is a shortage of teachers.”

Due to the curfew, schools have to finish in the early afternoon.

You rarely see people on the street after dark, particularly outside the large cities.

People are frightened of meeting with Thai soldiers or militants at night. The atmosphere here is dramatically different from the tourist filled streets of Bangkok or Chiang Mai.

Visitors who once cam here from Malaysia and Singapore have been scared away.

Rubber is the major business in this area, however it too is struggling. The milk is usually collected at night, but the violence makes that impossible, as one of the workers explains.

“We changed the working time for security. Now, we start at 6 am in the morning. We are afraid of soldiers. When we started our job at 4 in the afternoon we got a lot of rubber. In the morning the Sun stops the rubber milk, so now we get less rubber and money.”

People here do not believe the conflict will end anytime soon.

Instead bright young people are leaving the area.

“I am Masuerin Dalot. I am from Pattani Province. I am student of fourth year. As I know about the situation of southern of Thailand like Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, there are facing the bombing everyday. And everything is going worse. I think that if this situation is not ending many people must move to other places. I will move to other place like Songkhla, Sadon or Pathalon and others.”

The people I met here want the post Thaksin government to do much more to end the violence. They want their cries of injustice, discrimination, and economic marginalization to be taken seriously.

One young Muslim graduate told me simply, “The soldiers should go back. More soldiers, more problems”.