Based on a study called "Violence and Death Caused by State Policies: a Case Study of the Three Southernmost Provinces", researcher Kritaya Archavanitkul said Thai nationalistic bias had failed to include the Muslim-Malay ethnic group in the notion of Thai state-building. The bias began in King Rama V's reign and was broadened during the premiership of Field Marshall Plaek Phibunsongkram, she said.

"The Thai state has never trusted Muslim-Malays in the deep South and has considered them outsiders," she said. "Injustice, discrimination and rights violations, notably of the right to one's religion, are common in the region and have caused violence."

Unfairness stimulated many people in the predominantly Muslim region to turn to violence to release their frustration, she said.

The research, released at a seminar hosted by Mahidol University's institute for population and social research yesterday, found violence had sharply increased in the last two years, with 952 and 2,078 cases in 2004 and 2005 respectively. In the first half of this year, 878 cases of violence occurred, she said.

Ordinary people were the most frequently targeted, and the deaths of ordinary people far exceeded those of security officers, soldiers and police. A total of 808 civilians were killed in 2004 and 2005, against 101 police and 44 military officers, she added.

Shooting is the most frequent method of violence, followed by arson and explosions, she said.

Kritiya castigated the dissolving of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre in 2002 and tough handling by Thaksin's government as serious mistakes that had intensified violence over the past two and a half years.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation