SUNGAI KOLOK, Thailand, 8 October 2005 — Along with the ubiquitous cans of soda and packets of pot noodles, the mom-and-pop stores of violence-plagued southern Thailand are selling tickets to a new life. For 5 baht ($0.12), the stubs of paper buy a 30-second boat ride across a narrow river to Malaysia — the land of opportunity for young Muslims wanting to escape 21 months of unrest in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces.
As the death toll climbs above 900 and the local economy collapses, young Muslims see little point in staying behind to get caught up in an increasingly dirty guerrilla conflict between separatist militants and more than 30,000 soldiers and police. “People here worry about three things. Where will the authorities arrest me? When should I leave? How will I die?” said Abdulrahman Abdulsahad, president of the Islamic Council of Narathiwat province, 1,200 km (750 miles) south of Bangkok.
The fear is taking its toll on youngsters in Narathiwat and the neighboring provinces of Yala and Pattani, once an independent sultanate where Muslims now say they feel like second-class citizens. “I am definitely going to move,” said Sobri, a 22-year-old Muslim university student in Pattani who wants to further his studies in Malaysia. “If you don’t agree with the government, you are their enemy.” The mainly Buddhist administration in Bangkok has poured troops into the region, where 80 percent of the 1.8 million population are Muslim, ethnic Malay and non-Thai speaking, but has failed to halt the daily bombings and shootings.
