Into the South

What will it take to end fighting between the government and insurgents in Thailand’s deep south?

It is said that the dead tell no tale. But in death, the widows of two of south Thailand’s most wanted militants reveal the deepest thoughts behind men involved in the region’s most violent conflict. Hasem Bueraheng and Maroso Chantrawadee were among some 60 armed insurgents who mounted a daring raid on a marine base in Thailand’s Narathiwat province. The mission failed. Both were among 16 militants killed while the rest fled. Their widows - Prachaya Binjehmoodor and Rusnee Maeloh - see them as martyrs. They tell us about the turning point that caused them to fight for an independent Pattani state, and what life was like in the years that followed. Ahmad Somboon Bualang of the Thailand Center for Muslim & Democratic Development takes us into the history of the region. The southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani were part of the Malay-Muslim sultanate of Pattani. In 1909, it was annexed by Thailand, then known as Siam. Over the decades, resistance against Buddhist-centric Thai rule has been simmering with the ebb and flow of separatist movements fighting for a Malay-Muslim state.