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Published on October 30, 2007

A combined force of more than 100 military and police officers raided 19 locations in Narathiwat's Muang district during the pre-dawn raid and took 14 suspects into custody.

Meanwhile, some 50 government armed forces raided a village in Songkhla's Saba Yoi district and captured two suspects yesterday afternoon.

Authorities suspected that all the 16 people arrested were involved in many incidents of violence in the restive region over the past few years.

Officials confiscated some weapons from the suspects' houses, including shotguns, ammonium nitrate and explosive devices. The raids were part of an operation aimed at bringing down the leading militants who officials believe started the surge of violence in the Muslim region at the beginning of 2004. The government said earlier the operation was the heading in the right direction to contain the violence.

However, a survey released yesterday by Intellectual Deep South Watch, an academic institute under the Prince of Songkhla University (PSU), indicated that violence in the region remained high.

There have been 7,587 cases of violence in the 45 months since January 2004 that have killed 2,631 people and injured 4,247 others, the survey said.

The number of violent incidents declined from 147 in July to 114 in September, resulting in a reduction of deaths from 209 to 125 in the same period. The number of bombings was 29 in July, 37 in August and 26 in September and drive-by-shootings slightly declined from 95 in August to 74 in September.

"The figures might go up and down like a wave but the trend line of violence is very straight, suggesting the situation has never really improved since January 2004," said PSU academic Srisompob Jitpiromsri, who conducted the survey.

The killings, bombings and injuries have been a way of life for residents for nearly four years, he said.

Militants were waging their "small war" against the government and kept local people in fear, while the state apparatus was too weak to face their challenge and had failed to contain the violence, he said.

A political process to build trust among local people and government officials - as well as rule of law to bring justice - are the only possible steps to restore peace, Srisompob said in his survey report.

The Nation