Coordinated attacks reignite Thailand’s southern insurgency

Dozens of coordinated night-time attacks across the three southernmost provinces near Malaysia over the weekend injured three people and left government buildings and vehicles burned File image of Thai army rangers at the scene of a roadside bombing that killed four of the comrades in the restive southern province of Pattani. (Reuters pic)BANGKOK: A surge in attacks across Thailand's south has put a spotlight on the low-level insurgency by Muslim separatists that has killed thousands of people in the last two decades.Dozens of coordinated night-time attacks across the three southernmost provinces near Malaysia over the weekend injured three people and left government buildings and vehicles burned.They were followed on Monday by an explosion at a convenience store.These are the latest incidents of incendiary attacks in the long-running conflict in Thailand's far south.How did it start?The region concerned used to be part of the former Malay-Muslim Patani sultanate but was annexed in the early 1900s by Buddhist-majority Thailand -- then Siam -- following an agreement with colonial power Britain.Concerns about cultural identity, political representation and economic development grew.From the 1960s militants including the main rebel group Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) began fighting for an independent Islamic nation.The current unrest began in January 2004 when militants raided an army base in Narathiwat province, killing several soldiers and stealing weapons.In October that year security forces opened fire on protesters outside a police station in the town of Tak Bai, in Narathiwat, killing seven.Following the shooting 78 people suffocated after they were arrested and stacked on top of each other in the back of Thai military trucks -- a deadly crackdown widely seen as a trigger for the southern unrest.The "Tak Bai massacre" has long been an emblem of state impunity in the Muslim-majority south, and 20 years later murder charges against seven officials were dismissed when the statute of limitations expired.Since 2004 around 7,000 people have been killed in the simmering conflict, according to monitor Deep South Watch.Are the recent attacks unusual?In July assailants killed five soldiers in a shooting and bomb attack at a checkpoint.

Six civilians were wounded.The Thai government warned at the time of a series of violent incidents in the past two to three months that it blamed on a "terrorist network seeking to instil fear among the public and target state officials".Former Thai MP and human rights advocate Kannavee Suebsang told AFP there…