The joint meeting at the Government House on September 18 between government and Democrat MPs to exchange views on the government’s handling of the unrest situation in the deep South represents a new chapter in Thai politics that the country’s two opposing political camps have joined hands to tackle the southern violence which has dragged on for almost nine years.

The deputy national police chief, Pol Gen Adul Saengsingkaew, is in favour of a super agency to deal more effectively with the unrest problem in the deep South.

The recent appointment of Mr Kasturi Mahkota as the new president of Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo) has now been challenged by the Pulo’s council of senior leaders.

Fifteen men killed and eight injured during the six-month period from January this year are a cruel reminder of the life-threatening danger facing paramilitary defence volunteers (or-sor) on daily basis in the three southernmost provinces.

Mere mentioning of the deep South tends to automatically draw the attention of most individuals to the violence problem which has gripped the region for nine successive years with little hope of an early end to the problem. Most of them are totally unaware that the region is also facing another deadly threat – that is Aids – which has siliently killed hundreds of Aids sufferers and is spreading a ...