The situation in southern Thailand continues to deteriorate. A series of recent attacks indicate a troubling new sophistication by the Islamic insurgents there. The government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has responded with legislation that gives it sweeping new powers in the South. The danger, though, is that government action will compound local grievances rather than quiet the insurgency and only accelerate a destabilizing downward spiral.
Thailand's South is predominately Muslim. The region's three southern provinces have long complained that they have been neglected by the central government in Bangkok. Those grievances helped launch an insurgency decades ago, which, following a government amnesty in the 1980s, has since dried up.
In recent years, however, the insurgency has resumed, fueled by anger that Thailand's development and prosperity has not been shared with the South. In 18 months, there have been almost daily attacks that have claimed about 900 lives.
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