Transcript Peace Building in Southern Thailand

Peace Building
in Southern Thailand
Abdulghani Suetair
Asst. Director of
College of Islamic Studies
Prince of Songkla University
Conflict area of Southern Thailand
The situations in Southern
Thailand
Southern Border provinces
 There are 33 districts in Pattani, Yala and
Narathiwas provinces
 10,927 Square Kilometers
 Total Population is 1,748,682
- Muslim 1,386,880 (80%)
- Buddhist 351,367 (20%)



The Southern Border provinces defined by the
government is consisted of 4 border provinces
namely, Pattani, Yala, Narathiwas and Satun
and including some districts of Songkhla
province namely Thepa, Sabayoi, Nathawi and
Chana
44 districts and 16,409 Squarekilometers
Muslims = 62%


-
-
The popular needs of the Muslims in the south
is right and freedom to practice their own
religion
The problems facing by the Muslims 80%90% goes to :
Poverty
Injustice
Communication with Thai officials
Problems caused by the Thai officers
Statistics of the violence


From January 4, 2004 – February 16, 2007
violence happened 6,272 times in 293 villages
(78% of 4 provinces)
Injured and dead 5,285 persons = Buddhist
3,134 (59.14%) Muslims 2,054 (38.76%)
General Situation in 2007
- The violence happened in 3 provinces 1,228
times, average 3.4 times /day
- Injured 2,362 persons or average 6.5 persons /day
- More than one forth of this number dead, average
1.7 persons/day
- The most critical area is Muang Yala District
where most of the incident happened on the local
road during 7.00 am -9.00 am and during 8.00
pm-9.00 pm
- Two third between 15-44 years and more than
80% male
- Buddhist 57% and Muslim (63%)

Possible Root Causes
4B
BACKGROUND
BELIEF
BENEFIT
BUREAUCRACY
Conflict Actors
State/
Government
People
Insurgents
Challenges for peace building



Prevent newly emerging minor armed conflicts
from becoming full scale wars
Prevent all types of conflicts from becoming
violent
“Socialization” and “Institutionalization” of
peace and peaceful ideals

“consultation”?
Types of Actors
Level 1: Top Leadership
Military/political/religous/
leaders with high visibility
Level 2: Middle-Range Leadership
Leaders respected in sectors
Ethnic/religous leaders
Academic/intellectuals
Humanitarian leaders (NGOs)
Level 3: Grassroots Leadership
Local leaders
Leaders of indigenous NGOs
Community developers
Local health officials
Refugee camp leaders
Approaches to
Building Peace
Few
Focus on high level negotiations
Emphasizes cease-fire
Led by highly visible, single
mediator
Problem Solving workshops
Training in conflict resolution
Peace commissions
Insider-partial teams
Local peace commissions
Grassroots training
Prejudice reduction
Psychosocial work in
postwar trauma
Affected
population
Many
Actors & approaches to peace
building
Elite
High-level negotiations
Problem-solving
workshops
Local peace
commissions
Top
leaders
Middle-level
leaders
Grass-roots
leaders
Society
Peace building strategies

Developing a “peace inventory”



Who is doing what kind of peace activities? By doing
joint research; convening a conference
Creating better channels & coordination
“vertically” & “horizontally”
Organising “peace donors” conference


Relay / share information
Coordinating activities
Southern Thailand Peace Network
(STPN)






Prince of Songkhla University, Pattani Campus
Prince of Songkhla University, Hadyai
Campus
Yala Islamic University, Yala Province
Thaksin University, Songkhla Province
Hadyai University, Songkhla Province
Yala Ratjaphat University, Yala Province
STPN ACTIVITIES




Establishment of Student Peace Club in every
university
Training student leaders in peace studies and
conflict management
Development of peace curriculum among
STPN members
Organizing peace national and regional
seminars and conferences
Role of Collage of Islamic Studies, Prince of
Songkhla University
in Peace Building
CIS’s Peace Building
Student affair
Lecturers
Executive committee
Grassroots
Student’s activities for peace building,
jointly organized with STPN members from
various universities
 Teaching and encourage for prisoners
- Youth under 15 years old who involved
with drug and violence
 Programs of interfaith dialogue
- Muslim - Buddhist student interfaith
dialogue within university
-Between Muslim and Buddhist student
leaders from Thailand and student leaders
from Malaysia

Lecturers Activities for Peace Building
- Project Thai-Malay intellectual dialogue
- International peace seminar
In 2007 seminar on ‘Peace Building from
various experiences”
- Project joint research working between
CIS (Thailand) and UUM (Northern
University of Malaysia)
-Teaching and workshop for conflict
resolution; conferences and seminars

CIS Executive Committee Activities
- To advice and give attention to every
government policy which dealing to the
conflict
- To be representative of Muslim
community in Thai parliament
- Establishment of grassroots leader
network
Grassroots Activities





Understanding the pure teaching of Islam
Youth Training Camp
Children Training Camp
Women Short Course Training
Religious sermon; Friday and Eid al Fitri and
Eidil Adha
Thank you for kind attention
Please feel free to contact me at
[email protected]