<div> <div>Police in the restive Deep South of Thailand have accused three prominent human rights defenders of defaming the Thai army after the three published a report on the torture and inhumane treatment of Muslim Malay suspects in military camps. &nbsp; &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On Tuesday, 26 July 2016, police officers in Pattani Province accused Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, Director of the Cross Cultural Foundation, Somchai Homla-or, Advisor of the Duay Jai group, and Anchana Heemmina, President of the Duay Jai group, of defaming the Royal Thai Army. </div></div>

<div><em>The second round of the peace process in Patani seems to be following the first round’s suit: ending up in a stalemate. However, even an abortive attempt for a peace process is not at all useless, and is able to create a considerable impact on the political public sphere in the conflict area.</em></div> <p></p>

<div> <div>The Civil Court has ruled to shut down an Islamic school in Thailand’s restive Deep South, alleging that it supported Muslim Malay insurgents, although the Criminal Court previously found the school executives not guilty.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On Thursday, 21 July 2016, the Bangkok Civil Court made a decision to confiscate the land owned by Islam Burapha School, a pondok school in Narathiwat Province, in Thailand’s Deep South, reasoning that the school gave support to the separatist movement, BBC Thai <a> </a></div></div>

<div>The Patani conflict in southern Thailand has been seen as an internal issue for both sides of the conflict. The Thai authorities have always insisted that it is a domestic matter and even still refuses to recognize it as a conflict but rather criminal activity or banditry. On the separatist side, the militant organizations' leadership and fighters have always come from inside Patani despite the fact that in the past, some financial support and military training came from outside such as from the Libyan and Syrian governments. </div>

<div>Fully armed soldiers guarded state electricity executives during their visit to a controversial coal-fired power plant project in Thailand’s restive Deep South amid opposition from the local community.</div> <p>On Wednesday, 13 July 2016, armed troops and Humvees were sent to guard executives of the state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) during their visit to the site of a coal-fired power plant project in Thepha District, Songkhla Province.</p>

<div><em>Thailand’s assimilation policy in the past 80 years on the Muslim Malay in Thailand’s three southern border provinces, known as Patani, has been repeatedly cited as one of the main reasons for the armed struggle, claiming almost 6500 lives already. Due to this uncompromising assimilation policy, the state of the Malay language in Patani has become very weak and marginalized. As the peace process has progressed, concerns about the linguistic rights of the local people have been raised and will be included in discussions at the dialogue table.&nbsp;</em></div> <p></p>

<div>Activists and journalists in the Deep South of Thailand have been intimidated for producing t-shirts allegedly supporting the separatist movement. </div>

<p>The Thai authorities have prohibited rangers and soldiers in the restive Deep South from having affairs with Muslim women.</p> <p>Col Yuttanam Petchmuang, Deputy Spokesperson of the 4th Region Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), on Saturday, 2 July 2016, apologized to a Muslim community in the Deep Southern province of Yala about a meeting between two rangers and two Muslim girls in Than To District of Yala,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/BBCThai/photos/a.1527194487501586.1073741828.1526071940947174/1791581804396185/?type=3&amp;theater">reported BBC Thai</a>.</p>

<div>The liberation movement engaged in armed struggle for the independence of the three southernmost provinces has always cited Thailand’s assimilation policy and its discrimination against the use of local Malay language as one of the main reasons of the armed struggle.&nbsp;The policy of language discrimination in Thailand dates back at least 80 years ago.&nbsp;These decreed that Thai nationals, whatever their ethnicity, must speak Thai, learn Thai in school. This greatly affected people in the Deep South whose first language is Malay.Due to this uncompromising assimilation policy, the state of Malay in Patani has become very weak and marginalized. Hara Shintaro, an expert in Malay and&nbsp;and fierce critic of Deep South politics discusses how&nbsp;the language, Malay identity and violent conflict are intertwined</div> <p></p>

<div>Amnesty International has today issued a worldwide <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=ASA+39%2F4292%2F2016+">Urgent Action</a> appeal for Somchai Homla-or, Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, and Anchana Heemmina, who have been charged by the Thai military with criminal defamation and violations of the Computer Crimes Act.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 21 June 2016, Amnesty International headquarters in London issued an appeal to its members worldwide to write to the Thai authorities calling for them to immediately and unconditionally drop charges against Somchai Homla-or, Pornpen Khongka </div>

<div>The Thai authorities must reverse their decision to charge three prominent human rights defenders with criminal defamation and computer crimes for documenting and publishing details of human rights violations in the country, Amnesty International said today.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>“Instead of using broad and vague laws to target human rights defenders, the Thai authorities should be following up on the reports of alleged torture and other ill-treatment, with a view to holding those responsible accountable,” said Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International’s Director of Global Issues.</div>

<div>Muslims all over the world are observing their religious duty of fasting during the holy month, Ramadan. Hostility being prohibited during this month, many people have the naive hope that the conflict situation in Patani, or the Muslim-majority southernmost provinces of Thailand, will improve at least temporarily. </div>