Nowadays, deaths of people do not create anything more than mild ripples, even less so when the dead happen to be Muslims, whose deaths have become commonplace these days. Take the case, for example, of those dying at the hands of the Sharon army in the occupied Palestinian territories, and those made targets of the bombings of Iraqi insurgents as well as the innocent civilian victims of "precision" US bombings in Iraq.

One wonders how the West would have reacted to the deaths in Thailand had the dead been other than Muslims. Watching the CNN coverage of the incident, it appeared initially that the CNN was reluctant to describe the victims as Muslims, whereas their enthusiasm in labelling Muslim perpetrators of any bombing incident as Islamic militants or such-like tags can hardly be missed even by the casual observer.

To those conversant with Thai society and who know the people well, the whole episode must come as a shock. For a tolerant, open, friendly, and peace-loving Buddhist society where the violent death of even one person creates news, to be faced with a situation such as this, where 84 innocent people lost their lives, must be a matter for serious concern for the Thai people. The editorial in the Bangkok Post following the incident stating, "Something went terribly wrong. Monday marked another black day in the history of the restive south" echoes the sentiments of the nation.

Some in the Thai government, though, would like to fault those who were killed!

In southern Thailand, the cause of death was attributed to the weak conditions of the protestors due to fasting, it being the month of Ramadan. They were protesting the arrest and demanding the release of six persons detained for allegedly abetting "Islamic insurgents." And the brutality that they were subjected to, as was evident from the video footage, would have caused grievous injuries to even those that were not "enfeebled by fasting."

Reportedly, 1300 of the 1500 protesters were arrested and herded inside trucks to be taken to a military base six hours drive away. We do not know the number of trucks available to carry the arrestees, but certainly there were not enough to transport them in a civilised manner. The result was 78 deaths by suffocation.

It is of course the right of governments to ensure law and order and take measures to tackle a situation as deemed appropriate. But observers believe that the violence perpetrated upon the Takbai protestors and the manner of their death can be ascribed to the ham-handed way the matter was handled. Observers opine: "The current troubles in the south have been exacerbated by the government''s policy of cracking down on militants, using heavy-handed tactics that may have served to encourage those who already felt disenfranchised."

The recent spate of violence broke out in the early days of January 2004 with attacks on government security posts that were attributed to local brigands. About 30 gunmen raided an army depot in Narathiwat province, stealing some 100 rifles.

The situation was aggravated in April when simultaneous attacks on ten police stations by Muslim youths in the provinces of Pattani, Songhkla, and Yala, resulted in the death of 128 people, 107 of them Muslims. The Thai premier described the dead as common criminals, not Islamic militants.

Southern Thailand has witnessed simmering discontent for some time now. This came to be expressed through a low level insurgency since the beginning of the seventies which continued until the eighties, ultimately petering out in the nineties with the commitment made by the central government to address the causes of the discontent of the south.

The south, predominantly Muslim, consists of four provinces that are inhabited by ethnic Malays, three of which border the Kelentan province of Malaysia. The southern provinces were originally part of the ancient Kingdom of Pattani, a semi-autonomous region, which adopted Islam in the mid-13th century. The region was annexed to the Siamese kingdom in 1902.

This has been a neglected area where the locals felt discriminated against due to the measures taken by the government in Bangkok related to their language, culture, and, even more importantly, the economy. The US "war on terror" and Thai participation in it has further alienated the local Muslims, who look with wary eyes at their government''s action in the region. According to analysts, "the south has failed to capitalise on the economic boom that has swept through the rest of Thailand in recent years and the government has not accommodated the needs of the local community, and loan schemes intended to promote development have excluded Muslims."

The locals on their part are persistent in their assertion that there are no religious undertones to the violence that the south is now witnessing. Yet there may be some that may be seeking separation from the north. According to Mansur Salleh, a writer and social worker from south Thailand: "It is all fictional. No Thailand Muslims are part of any terror groups. There are those who still believe in fighting for the separation of Southern Thailand from Thailand, and they are not many."

So far almost 430 persons have been killed in violence that erupted anew in January. And there are three major groups that seek separation of the Muslim majority region from the rest of Thailand.

The operation in Southern Thailand has been vested in the hands of a Deputy Prime Minister, Chavlit Yangchayud, an ex-army chief. Inevitably, the military method of combating the situation has dominated the policy planners as evidenced by the demand for deployment in the south of more special troops trained in anti insurgency operations. That is perhaps where the whole problem may be compounded. Although there is a very low-level separatist activity in southern Thailand, significant elements in the south do not subscribe to their aims. The dissatisfaction has much to do with deprivation and disempowerment, which the people in the south feel have been brought about by the central government''s indifference. That is what the Thai government must address.

In this regard the advice of a leading Thai newspaper is worth reproducing. The Nation calls on Prime Minister Shinawatra to take "a long hard look at himself" amidst fears that "the deep south will continue to burn."

The Nation''s editorial continues: "We have found ourselves in the most precarious state yet as far as the troubled region is concerned. No longer is our problem about coping with cells of bandits playing hide and seek with the authorities. Somehow, the people have been pitted against the state, and communal violence is threatening to escalate."

That is a situation Thailand can ill afford.

The author is Editor, Defence and Strategic Affairs, The Daily Star.