Home made bombs explode, armed groups behead Buddhist monks, government officials, including teachers, are targeted almost daily in the three provinces of Southern Thailand, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat where martial law has been declared in January 2004.
About a thousand have lost their lives, killed either by separatist insurgents or by Thai army and police.
Low level guerilla insurgency has been a way of life, on and off, in the southern provinces since 1902 when Thailand annexed part of an independent Malay sultanate. Thai authorities have so far kept the insurgency local. But how long will...