While there is still no progress on the Malaysia-brokered peace talks between the Thai government and separatist groups, informal peace talks between local government officials and government opponents are making headway.

Train services in Yala province were suspended on Sunday November 18 after suspected insurgents detonated two bombs and opened fire at a train in the province, killing one defence volunteer and wounding 15 other commuters.

This year’s January 4 marks the 12th year anniversary of the biggest arms robbery by Islamic militants when they raided the 4th development battalion’s Peeleng camp in Narathiwat’s Cho Airong district and escaped with 413 weapons, mostly M16 assault rifles.

I understand the reason and the necessity for the military to use special law such as the Emergency Decree in the restive deep South because for most of the violent cases which took place there eyewitnesses were nonexistent and the perpetrators were motivated with special reasons that the use of Criminal Procedure Code alone to deal with the cases was almost impossible.

The surge of violence against soft targets such as women, Buddhists in particular, in recent months and the latest car bomb attack in Betong downtown on July 25 have raised a big question mark about whether these signal the launch of the second round of war of insurgency against the Thai state and its people by the Islamic militant groups.