The Department of Special Investigation has been asked to investigate the disappearance of two Malay Muslims last seen on April 30, when eyewitnesses saw them entering the Naresuan border patrol police camp in Bannang Sata district of Yala. They were reportedly looking for their missing boat, believed impounded by the policemen there.

Fifteen men killed and eight injured during the six-month period from January this year are a cruel reminder of the life-threatening danger facing paramilitary defence volunteers (or-sor) on daily basis in the three southernmost provinces.

One of the lingering issues still in the minds of quite a few people in the Deep South throughout December is the mysterious death in the army detention of Mr Abdullayib Doloh, a suspected militant.

Altogether 23 people, including 11 members of the security force and 12 civilians were killed in 69 violent incidents occurred during the holy month of Ramadan in the deep South, according to the statistics complied by the National Police Office.

Mere mentioning of the deep South tends to automatically draw the attention of most individuals to the violence problem which has gripped the region for nine successive years with little hope of an early end to the problem. Most of them are totally unaware that the region is also facing another deadly threat – that is Aids – which has siliently killed hundreds of Aids sufferers and is spreading a ...