Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont has reacted to escalating violence in Thailand’s southernmost regions by traveling to the area and taking his first steps towards ending decades of violence.

The South Thailand Insurgency has received major media attention in the wake of a series of violent incidents centered around the three southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.

The history of this separatist movement can be traced back to the early twentieth century when in 1909 a treaty with Great Britain recognized Thailand’s (then known as Siam) sovereignty over Pattani, which would then go on to be divided into the three aforementioned provinces.

Pattani was originally a Malay Sultanate and as a result more than three quarters of the population in the three southern provinces today are Muslim. Whilst having more in common with the Malays of Malaysia than the people of Thailand, Pattani’s Malay community retains a distinct individuality with a unique local dialect and sense of independence from both Thailand and Malaysia.

As far back as the 1930s there has been a drive to establish an independent Pattani state. The movement has taken many forms and the ideology has shifted between a desire to establish this independent state and a desire to establish cultural autonomy. Separatist groups have continued to be active until the present day.

The resurgence of violence at the turn of the new millennium has cast a deathly shadow over Thailand’s southern peninsula. The problems have not been helped by the words and actions of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his government who until 2004 insisted that the violence was not connected to religious motivation within the Muslim population.

When martial law was instigated in the southern Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces in January of 2004, the situation worsened as Thai troops killed hundreds of Muslims in bloody attacks.

Attempts to negotiate with the insurgents have been riddled with problems surrounding the anonymity of the movements’ leaders.

Bloodshed continued to spill onto the streets of the southern provinces until the military coup on September 19. On August 31, 22 banks were simultaneously bombed in Yala, whilst on September 16 six motorcycle bombs killed four people in Hat Yai as attacks overran into the neighboring province.

The military coup and current political volatility in Thailand has done little to quell the friction in the South. On Thursday November 2, military-appointed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont made a speech to 1200 Muslims in Pattani province apologizing for the problems created by the previous government, primarily resulting from the Tuk Bai Massacre which occurred in October 2004.

The Tuk Bair Massacre was spurred by a demonstration demanding the release of six men arrested for allegedly supplying weapons to insurgents. The demonstration became a massacre when the army used tear gas to control the crowd. Shooting began shortly after and scores of locals were rounded up and piled as much as five people high in trucks and driven for five hours. 85 men died in all, 78 of whom suffocated in the trucks.

The newly-installed premier’s pledge to rid the southern provinces of violence has thus far been unsuccessful as attacks continue to break out on an almost daily basis. Surayud stated that his government will only use peaceful means to end the century long tensions, although there has been no mention of the possibility of an independent Pattani state. Surayud has rather made clear that his intentions are to unify Thailand now.

The Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre was recently revived, after five years of absence, and is now headed by Phranai Suwannarat who has been charged with instilling peace into the tense region.

The current government has been very vocal about the negative implications of the previous government’s actions, but as of yet it is unclear how the newly-revived body will tackle the situation.

Surayud has already done what Thaksin refused to: he has apologized. However, this is only a single step on an already long journey that will most likely take years to complete. If Thailand is to unify itself then measures must be taken to remove the feelings of alienation felt by the country’s Muslim population.