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Published on November 2, 2007

The last of the 250 residents from remote Buddhist villages in Yala's Bannang Sata and Than To districts returned home yesterday after being given assurances by security forces that it is safe to do so. The displaced Buddhists, who fled their communities in fear for their lives after Islamic militants/Malay separatists went on a killing spree late last year, had been sheltered at Wat Nirot Sangkharam for the past 12 months. The homecoming was both a happy occasion for the villagers and an opportunity for the government to demonstrate the ability to restore law and order after reportedly having flushed out insurgents from surrounding Muslim villages.

Brutal insurgents who live among the Muslim population in Bannang Sata and Than To districts have carried out a campaign of terror, killing and maiming both Buddhists, who they want to scare away, and Muslims, who they want to intimidate into submission. The majority of the more than 2,600 people killed in the deep South - Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces - were Muslims suspected by the militants of cooperating with security forces.

But insurgents have also made it a point to target Buddhist teachers, public health workers and villagers, aiming to cause panic and trigger an exodus of Buddhists out of the predominantly Muslim provinces. They must not be allowed to succeed in their evil design.

It is encouraging that security forces have shown confidence in their capability to protect Buddhist villagers as well as Muslim communities in those areas. The insurgents are bent on driving a wedge between followers of the two faiths, but the government needs to demonstrate beyond doubt that the security forces must be maintained for as long as it takes to restore peace and a sense of normalcy.

Since violence broke out in January 2004, the hate-filled insurgents have succeeded in causing divisiveness and distrust between Muslims and Buddhists, who had traditionally coexisted peacefully. The government must see to it that the insurgents are suppressed and their campaign stopped. It must spare no effort to encourage both the Muslim majority and Buddhist minority to engage in a reconciliation process. The prerequisite for this is that security forces build up confidence by guaranteeing public safety for both communities.

Unlike previous episodes of violence, which were strictly armed struggles between Malay separatists and the government, today's insurgents make no distinction between the security forces and unarmed civilians. They consider both to be fair game, their bodies to be mutilated to cause maximum damage to the fabric of society.

Only after Muslims are completely freed from the militants' reign of terror can they be expected to participate fully in a reconciliation process. But the Muslim majority also has a duty to protect the Buddhist minority that lives in its midst. Let's not forget that Thai Muslims and followers of other religions, who all form a minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Thailand, have not been discriminated against. Indeed, Muslims form an integral part of Thai society; the religion's leading members rise to the top of all professions, government service, business circles and academia.

It may be true that the problems for Muslims in the deep South, who are of Malay descent, are more complicated than for Muslims who live elsewhere in Thailand and who are Thai and are well integrated into mainstream society. It may be true that Muslims in the deep South were discriminated against by the governments of the past, who regarded them as rebellious for their refusal to learn the Thai language, when their main concern was fear of losing their distinct Malay identity. But the Thai government, and indeed the whole of Thai society, is beginning to clean up its act, doing all it can to assure Thai Muslims of Malay descent that their fears are unfounded and that learning the Thai language does not mean they have to abandon their Yawi dialect or their Malay way of life.

Proficiency in the Thai language will only help southern Muslims participate more fully as citizens in a democracy, and will enable them to compete on a more equal footing for their fair share of political power and national wealth. Ultimately it will smooth the path for their integration into the country's multicultural society.

The Nation