In the South of Thailand in the provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat where Thailand borders Malaysia the constant killings continue everyday. Yes, everyday someone is killed by a bomb or from being gunned down by “insurgents”.

The restive south has been this way for a long time, separatist violence has occurred for many decades but it was only recently that things escalated to how they are now. The escalation in terrorist activities, I call them terrorists as they are killing innocent people with bombs, shootings and even beheadings.

In 2004 these bombing and murders started to escalate, by 2005 the Prime Minister at the time, Thaksin Shinawatra gave wide ranging emergency powers to try and curb the insurgency. In September 2006 the prime minister granted the Army Commander at the time Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, extraordinary increase in executive powers to combat the unrest.

Just after these powers were granted the Army Commander ousted the prime minister in a coup. The army commander then tried to calm the restive south with reconciliatory gestures from the junta government, the insurgency only intensified. The death-toll, 1,400 at the time of the coup, increased to 2,579 by mid-September 2007 and to nearly 2,700 by January 2008.

So what is all this unnecessary murder going on for, well these are some of the reasons that have been mentioned.

1. A long time resentment of Thai cultural and economic imperialism in Pattani.

2. Allegations of police brutality, rape, disrespect of Islam.

3. Presence of Thai owned businesses such as gogo bars, brothels and drug trafficking.

4. Deepened scars from ongoing attacks.

This is what happened in the south just the last few days;

A three year old boy and his 45 year old father were gunned down in a brutal and heinous attack. The father was riding along a road with his son on the way to work at a rubber plantation when insurgents opened fire. The man was shot 5 times and the boy caught some stray bullets. The mother survived the attack to explain that her husband was also an army informant; this is what led to his and his son’s murder.

Then two policemen were killed and five others injured in a separate attack. They believe the attack was directed at one police officer who died as he was accused of carrying out extra judicial killings.

I am personally sickened by these people, by both sides that are fighting each other and killing innocent civilians. When I read about a 64 year old man gunned down and beheaded on his way to the market, it is sickening to my stomach.

Any religion that fights and murders people, isn’t a good religion to be worshipping or following. How these people can believe that they are doing this for the good of their religion or culture is so beyond me. I don’t believe in any higher being! No god, Buddha, Allah and so forth. If there is a higher force, other than us he must be disillusioned and disheartened with his followers.

No god could want his people to murder other human beings, no matter the nationality or religion. If there is written text where these supposed higher beings say to do these things, I denounce them, and hope that the followers suffer like no one could imagine. If there is a hell, I hope it is so much worse than it is made out to be. May it be a thousand times hotter, a million times more punishing than any of us could imagine.

To both sides fighting this battle, this foolish quest that is killing so many innocent victims, I wish and I would pray if I knew that there was a god to pray too, for them to stop this battle, stop it for the kids who are dying. If you want to, take the battle out into an open field and fight each other into extermination, stop being cowards with the hidden bombs and ambush killings.