Separatist insurgents in Thailand’s southern border provinces should live up to their commitments and international legal obligations not to attack civilians, Human Rights Watch said today.
Since their armed insurgency began in January 2004, National Revolutionary Front (BRN) insurgents have frequently targeted Thai Buddhist and Malay Muslim civilians.
On May 5, 2025, the BRN issued a statement expressing regret over recent attacks. The armed separatist group reaffirmed the right of Malay Muslims to self-determination and said it had “no policy of targeting civilians” and “remains committed to international human rights and humanitarian law.” Human Rights Watch has repeatedly condemned the BRN for violations of the laws of war.
“The BRN’s public commitment to stop targeting civilians is unprecedented after more than two decades of terrorizing people in Thailand’s Deep South,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “But promises alone are not enough. The BRN needs to stop promising war crimes.”
In April, 57 insurgent attacks in Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, and Songkhla provinces killed 18 people and wounded 50 by both Thai Buddhists and Malay Muslims.
On April 22, BRN insurgents shot and killed Pongkorn Chumapan, 16, and wounded Pokanit Morasin, 12, when they attacked a pickup truck carrying Buddhist monks and novices from Wat Kura to Sabayoi district in Songkhla province.
Pongkong’s father, Sergeant Wattanarom Chumapan, told Human Rights Watch that “his son and cousins had become novices during school holidays, studying Buddhism and doing good deeds. But they were targeted in this brutal attack.”
“That morning, I took my son and other novices and monks to the temple to collect alms,” he said. “As soon as my pickup truck drove out of the temple gates, I heard gunshots coming from the jungle beside the road. It sounded like an M-16 assault rifle. I’m a police officer, and I knew it immediately.”
He said the bullets hit his son and another novice: “I grabbed my pistol and fired back at the two attackers until they retreated. I saw them fleeing on motorcycles, dressed as Muslim women with veils covering their faces.”
The BRN sees Buddhism as a symbol of the Thai government’s occupation of Malay Muslim territory. At least 23 Buddhist monks and novices were killed and more than 30 were injured in the clashes, most of them while collecting alms.
Victims of the BRN violence in May included teachers, police officers, elderly people, and children.
On the morning of May 28, 30-year-old police sergeant Abdullo Makassen was shot dead when insurgents attacked a police station in Chanai district, Narathiwat. Later that day, insurgents opened fire on a community sports event in Tha Bai district, Narathiwat, seriously injuring 37-year-old Mohammad Sukri Ha and 34-year-old Sainudin Jebuelahen, both teachers.
On May 2, in Chanai district, insurgents shot dead 76-year-old blind Thai Buddhist Sana Sanyui and seriously injured her son as they were riding a motorcycle home from the hospital.
On the same day, in Tha Bai district, six insurgents opened fire with assault rifles on a Thai Buddhist community. They killed 9-year-old Thai Buddhist Sasita Chankhong and her two elderly relatives.
Civilians have also fallen victim to indiscriminate shooting and bombings by BRN insurgents.
The laws of war, which apply to armed conflict in Thailand’s southern border provinces, prohibit attacks on civilians and civilian objects, including reprisal attacks or attacks that do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Anyone who commits a serious violation of the laws of war with criminal intent shall be held accountable for such acts. War crimes.
Human Rights Watch said that atrocities by BRN insurgents and Thai authorities have long fostered a cycle of violence and impunity.
Phra Kru Kositasudabhorn, a prominent Buddhist monk and peace advocate in Pattani, told Human Rights Watch that the April 22 attack on novice monks in Sapayoi district appeared to be retaliation for the April 18 killing of an Islamic teacher in Narathiwat province allegedly committed by Thai security forces.
“As long as this murder remains unsolved, Thai Buddhists remain at risk,” he said. “Samaneras and monks are particularly vulnerable. Government officials should understand that insurgents will use [state-sponsored] abuse and coercion to recruit new members and justify their violence.”
Insurgents claim that attacks on civilians are legitimate because the victims are part of the Thai government or they believe that Sharia law is not justified under international law.
The Sheikh Islam Office of the Central Islamic Council of Thailand issued a statement on May 6, 2025, condemning attacks on civilians in the “strongest terms” and noting that such heinous crimes are unjustifiable and are also serious religious crimes.
Thai authorities have implemented special security legislation in southern border provinces. Under the Emergency Government Executive Decree and martial law, Thai security forces can arrest and detain suspected BRN members for up to 37 days without effective judicial oversight, which has resulted in multiple deaths in military custody.
On May 22, a representative of the Internal Security Operations Command Region 4, which oversees counterinsurgency operations in southern border provinces, told a Thai parliamentary committee that such arrests and detentions serve as a deterrent, even when authorities do not have enough evidence to bring charges.
The human rights group Jaringan Mangsa Dari Undang-Undang Darurat (Victims of Emergency Law Network) reported at least 41 cases of arbitrary arrests of Malay Muslims from January to April.
Nasri Tugae, 22, a mother, told Human Rights Watch that her son was arrested on April 23 under martial law: “Soldiers raided my house and accused Nasri of involvement in the killing of a Buddhist [on April 22]. We tried to explain that my son was not at home that day and had gone to Yala to get a passport. But they didn’t listen.”
She said her son was taken to the Ingkayuth camp in Pattani province for interrogation: “When I told my son that there were accusations all over social media about him saying he was a murderer, he got scared.
My son was held for 26 days. Now he has been acquitted. My son was treated unfairly. Where is justice? Things like this only make Muslims more distrustful of officials.”
Human Rights Watch said there is a deep-rooted culture of impunity in the southern border provinces, where government-sponsored atrocities go unpunished.
No BRN members have been successfully prosecuted for extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, and torture. The 20-year statute of limitations for the Tabai crackdown, which left 85 people dead and hundreds injured, expired in October 2024, making further legal action impossible.
“Insurgent brutality and retaliatory government abuses have sowed distrust between Thailand’s Buddhist and Malay Muslim communities,” Pearson said. “Both sides should end abuses, hold perpetrators accountable, and commit to respecting human rights as they negotiate an end to the conflict.”
