<div>Media coverage on the conflict region in southern Thailand, historically referred to as Patani¹, reports on acts of violence such as bombings and shootings which are assumed to be carried out by separatist groups from the Patani Malay population despite no one ever officially taking responsibility for the violence. </div>

<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>Experts have expressed fear at decreased use of the Malay language in the three southernmost province, so-called Patani, at a public forum held by Deep South Watch earlier this month.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Manawawi Mama, a lecturer in the Malay language, Yala Rajaphat University, expressed concern that these days when young people speak, they have a habit of mixing Thai and Malay in their speech. </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><span>(New York, October 29, 2014) – The Thai government should immediately investigate and prosecute security personnel found responsible for the killing of an ethnic Malay Muslim child in southern&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.hrw.org/asia/thailand" target="_blank">Thailand,</a><span>&nbsp;Human Rights Watch said today.</span></p>