Policy Research Group   - Strategic Insight: Thailand’s Southern Insurgency

Thailand’s Southern Insurgency
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editor on 21 December, 2009 02:50:00
 
Southern Thailand is witnessing a violent insurgency though it has not attracted
the world attention as yet in the way Afghanistan and Iraq do. It is a Muslim
majority pocket in a Buddhist majority country.
Reports speak of daily ambushes, attacks on monks, teachers and innocent
labourers and IED blasts. Incidents of shootouts and kidnappings have become a
regular feature of the insurgency which is rocking the area since 2001 and has
claimed over 4000 lives so far.
These days, southern Thailand looks as much like a war zone as a place like
Iraq: Checkpoints and machine guns nests dot the roads.
Intriguingly, no one seems to have a clear idea of who is behind, or what they
hope to gain, according to CFR expert Joshua Kurlantzick.
Thailand specialist Duncan McCargo opines that the separatists are angry young
people who are alienated from the State and have come under the sway of
charismatic Islamist preachers.
LEADERLESS
There have been suggestions that Bangkok should open a dialogue with the
southerners but in the absence of a clearly delineated leadership, the
government will find it difficult to proceed ahead.
Southern Thailand insurgency at the core is a political impasse with no obvious
goals. Neither military might nor pussyfooting politically will help. In fact
such measures will see more alienation. The situation calls for innovative
approach in offering inclusive governance and in giving the locals a sense of
participation in shaping their destiny even as the economic ills are addressed
on a war footing.