August 16, 2012:
Violence in the Moslem south has been up during the last two months. June saw 47 people killed and 92 wounded, while in July 42 died and 96 were wounded. Over the last two months there have been 19 bombings. This month the violence has declined but the politicians in the capital and the Buddhist majority in the north is losing patience with the eight years of Islamic terrorist violence. Since early 2004, there have been 11,754 terrorist attacks resulting in 5,206 dead and 9,137 wounded. In that time the government has spent $5.3 billion to suppress the violence.
The lack of a solution in the south has been caused by political problems. Six years ago there was an army coup and that has distracted the generals ever since. Although civilian government has returned, the generals are still unable to get their act together. Commands in the south are often given out according to internal army politics, not the best officer for the job. The army keeps changing its tactics and does not always cooperate with other security agencies. Corruption in the army doesn't help either as many commanders down there get involved in business deals that often leave southerners angry. As a result of all this, the violence continues.
A decade ago the population of three unruly southern provinces consisted of 1.9 million Moslems and 400,000 Buddhists. Since then 120,000 Buddhists and 190,000 Moslems have fled their homes because of the violence. While most of the Moslems went to other parts of the three provinces, most of the Buddhists fled the south. Most of the refugees were Moslem because the Islamic terrorists have attacked the Moslems who did not agree with the violence and opposed the terrorists. The Islamic terrorists are intent on driving all non-Moslems out of the three provinces and establishing a Moslem state. Buddhist villages have acquired armed militias for protection over the years and a growing number of Moslem villages have as well.
August 14, 2012: In the south two terrorist attacks left two dead and one wounded.
August 10, 2012: Pressured by Moslem nations, the UN has proposed a referendum in southern Thailand to end the violence down there. The Thai government rejected the suggestion.