December
31, 2005: The government has reduced the Islamic terrorist violence in the
south. The killings and attacks peaked in the middle of 2005. Then the
government sent thousands of additional police and soldiers to the three
southern, Moslem, provinces. In addition to a different religion, the people in
those provinces are different ethnic ethnically. The southerners thus resent
migrants from the north, who are ethnic Thais (the southerners are Malay) and
usually Buddhist. Now the government is using economic persuasion to reduce
support for the Islamic terrorists. Villages that are violence free get more
aid, and those that tolerate Islamic terrorism get none, and a lot of attention
from the cops. Meanwhile, there are also the criminal gangs, who have long
thrived on smuggling stuff across the nearby Malaysian border. This is a rough
neighborhood, and the government does not want it to get any worse, and drive
away the growing tourist trade.
December
26, 2005: Three more people were killed by Islamic terrorists in the south.
