Thaksin Shinawatra

On July 15, Interior Minister Chitchai Wannasathit declared a "time of national crisis" and appealed for unity on the second successive day of unprecedented attacks on the provincial capital of Yala that killed two policemen and wounded 26 people. In nearby Narathiwat the same day, unidentified gunmen killed two teachers, a favorite target in an 18-month insurgency that has claimed about 900 lives.

A decades-old Muslim separatist movement in the region died down in the late 1980s after the government granted an amnesty. But violence surged again in 2004, with almost daily attacks. Government efforts to suppress the violence have been largely unsuccessful, and critics have charged that the government's heavy-handed tactics have driven moderate Muslims to sympathize with the extremists.

Southern Muslims have long complained of government discrimination in employment, education and economic development.

The Japan Times Weekly: July 23, 2005
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