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Rethinking Thailand's Southern Violence.

Article Excerpt
Rethinking Thailand's Southern Violence. Edited by Duncan McCargo. Singapore: NUS Press, 2007. Softcover: 225pp.

The book is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary Thai politics. Though all of the seven contributors focus their analysis on the consequences of the upsurge in often indiscriminate violence in Thailand's three southern provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, the issues they canvas go further in shedding light on the country's social, religious and political conditions in the first decade of the 21th century. Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the incidence of violent attacks not only between the authorities and local residents but also of intra-Malay Muslim community violence. From 84 such attacks in 2003, the number of incidents rose to 1843 in 2004.

During the first six months of 2005, more than 650 persons died in attacks and more than a thousand others were wounded, the majority in both cases Muslims of Malay descent. Thailand's southern Malay minority, long ignored in national politics,...

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