Southern Thais see faint hope in Muslim coup chief

BANGKOK, Sep 22: Faint hopes have been kindled in the Muslim-majority far south that this week's coup by Thailand's first Muslim army chief will ease violence in a region where 1,700 people have been killed in separatist unrest since 2004.

''There have been no real changes, but we do expect slightly better treatment and understanding from the authorities as the coup leader is a Muslim,'' said Roya Vansoh, an Islamic teacher at the central mosque in Pattani, a southern provincial capital.

In the days leading up to his putsch, army head Sonthi Boonyaratglin placed himself at direct odds with his political masters on the south, staging a peace rally and proposing talks with the as-yet-unidentified insurgent leaders.

The daily cycle of shootings and bomb and arson attacks in the troubled provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani does appear to have slowed since Tuesday night's ouster of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was loathed in the south.

Thaksin tried everything from the iron fist to the velvet glove to end the unrest, including sending more than 30,000 troops and police and ''bombing'' the region with millions of paper birds of peace.

He also refused to apologise or discipline army officers following the death of 78 Muslims in military custody after a protest in 2004 in the village of Tak Bai.

DIEHARD MILITANTS

Given the anonymous nature of an insurgency whose roots go back more than a century, however, Muslim leaders said it was impossible to know whether the let-up in violence is the result of a policy shift by the militants, or just coincidence. ''All we can see is that there has been less violence,'' Yarta Wattanalerdsakul, vice-president of Pattani's Islamic Council, said today.

Brian Dougherty of Bangkok-based security consultancy Hill and Associates said it was unlikely the multi-headed, anti-government and anti-Thailand militant movement would throw in the towel that quickly.

''There is an element among the militants that doesn't really care who is in charge. Their goal is to create chaos and mayhem. There is no real attempt to establish anything. It's just violence,'' he said.

Eighty percent of people in the far south, an Islamic sultanate until it was annexed by Bangkok a century ago, are Muslim, ethnic Malay and do not speak Thai as their first language.

Several groups such as the Pattani United Liberation Organisation and Barasi Revolusi Nasional -- Malay for National Revolutionary Front -- waged a low-level guerrilla war in the 1970s and 1980s.

Security experts believed they had died off until a major raid on an army barracks in January 2004 began an uninterrupted campaign against all symbols of Thai authority, from soldiers and police to government officials and teachers.

There is no evidence to suggest the insurgency has any links to international militant groups, although some security experts and foreign governments fear it is only a matter of time before the likes of al Qaeda or its regional affiliates are involved.

REUTERS