<div><em>After being forced to shut down since the 2014 coup, along with many other community radio stations in the area, Media Selatan, a local Malay radio station in the Deep South, is coming back on air early this year. The director of Media Selatan states that shutting down local media is tantamount to closing channels for citizens to express their opinions about the ongoing peace process.&nbsp;</em></div> <p></p>

<p>Doctors say they found no physical injuries on the body of a suspected insurgent who died in custody in the Deep South, but the suspect’s wife maintains that her husband died from ‘unnatural’ causes.</p> <p>On Tuesday, 15 December 2015, Lt Gen Manee Chanthip, Deputy Commander of the 4th Army Region, and the medical staff of Songklanagarind Hospital in Hat Yai District of southern Songkhla Province, jointly held a press briefing on the controversial death in custody of Abdullayib Dolah, 42, a suspect in the assassination of a Muslim cleric in Pattani Province.</p>

<p>A Deep South civil society group has called for an independent investigation into the death of a suspect in custody.</p>

<p>Despite reports from Russian intelligence about ISIS members hiding in the country, security experts said that Thailand still has minimal risk of a spread of violence from the troubled Middle East. However, given the rise of Buddhist hardliners and security officers distracted by political dissidence, this might change. &nbsp;</p>

<div>The first ever skateboard competition in the southernmost province of Pattani has been held. A rare public event in a violence-plagued region, it comes amid calls for the Thai military and the Malay Muslim freedom fighters to establish a ceasefire zone in residential and economic areas.&nbsp;</div> <p></p>

<p><em>Note: Abu Hafez Al-Hakim is a vocal member of MARA Patani, a peace dialogue panel comprising several Muslim Malay groups which struggle for the right to self determination of people in Thailand's restive Deep South, so-called Patani. This article reflects his personal view, not the official view of MARA Patani. Watch Abu Hafez interview with Prachatai <a href="http://prachatai.org/english/node/5358">here</a>.&nbsp;</em></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><em><img alt="" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/263/19892270940_fc10e3f53a_c.jpg" style="height: 334px; width: 500px;" /></em></p>

<p>Security officers in the restive Deep South collected DNA samples of a five-month-old child believed to be the son of a fugitive suspect in a 2012 Hat Yai bombing. &nbsp;</p>

<p>The coalition of insurgent groups in the restive Deep South of Thailand has rebutted reports that they have reached an agreement with the Thai state on ‘safety zones’.</p> <p>On Sunday, 22 November 2014, MARA Patani, the umbrella organization of separatist movements in Thailand’s Deep South, issued a statement to make clear that the group has not concluded any agreement with the Thai state during the latest round of negotiations on 11-12 November 2015.</p>

<p>A Buddhist monk from a well-known temple has suggested that the government should burn a mosque for every Buddhist monk killed in the restive Deep South.</p> <p>Venerable&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/Watbenchama/posts/566952423453339">Aphichat Promjan</a>, chief lecturer monk at Benjamabophit Temple, a Bangkok temple under royal patronage, on Thursday, 29 October 2015, posted on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Watbenchama/posts/566952423453339">Facebook </a>the suggestion that state authorities should take radical measures to quell the violence in the Deep South. &nbsp;</p>

<div>A Buddhist Thai youth has been indicted for alleged involvement in the separatist movement for the independence of Thailand’s three southernmost provinces, which are predominantly Muslim Malay.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><span id="docs-internal-guid-85983485-7f13-eb6e-6b83-fa52da18cf94">According to the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/BBCThai/photos/a.1527194487501586.1073741828.1526071940947174/1705100376377662/?type=3">BBC Thai service</a>, the public prosecutor on 15 October 2015 indicted the first ever Buddhist Thai in a rebellion case related to the Deep South insurgenc </div>

<div><em>The Deep South peace process often focuses on the Muslim Malay, but there are several other minorities that do not have much of a voice in this process. Prachatai talks with a Buddhist Thai group, an LGBT group, and ethnic Chinese on their views on the regional unrest.&nbsp;</em></div> <p></p>

<p>The Supreme Court has dismissed charges against a Malay Muslim accused by the National Police Chief for reporting torture at the hands of investigating officers. &nbsp; &nbsp;</p>