The Troubled South

One of the reasons for the illegal military coup last year was the then goverments not too hot record dealing with the troubled south.

In the southern five states of Thailand there as been an insurgency by Muslim extremists who want to be part of Malaysia, into the mix had organised crimes and plenty of inter village vendetta and you have nearly 3000 deaths in four years.

The Junta doesn't seem to have coped any better than the previous goverment, only today a army informer was disembowelled, shot and then crucified with a warning tape to him warning others not to turn supergrass. Later that night two Buddhist were shot and be-headed by insurgents for being nothing more than of the wrong religion.

I have no axe to grind either way, but from the outside the south does seem to get a raw deal from the central goverment and over heavy handed tatics by goverments aren't working. I hope it doesn't spread because not too far away are the resort islands of Phucket and Koh Samui, any attack on these tourist traps would deal a serious blow to the thai economy.