Southern Thailand’s Phantom Insurgency

From ‘hit and run’ to ‘hit and hide’

By: Murray Hunter

Life in Thailand’s southernmost border provinces, Narathiwat, Yala, and Patani has taken on a sense of normality over the last 12 months that belies a media-preoccupied insurgency that has largely disappeared.

There is an atmosphere of indifference to the presence of the Thai military and paramilitary forces and daily media reports of v…