<p>After a series of arrests and the detention of junta opponents, activists across the country have come up with new tactics to campaign for fair play in the August referendum. Instead of hosting seminars, handing out flyers, and marching, they are using more creative non-violent protest methods like balloons, dolls, and cartoon figures.&nbsp;</p> <p></p>

<p>People and civil society groups in the Deep South of Thailand have donated more than 3 million baht to help an Islamic school after it was forced to close down under a court order.</p> <p>Civil society groups in the Deep South on Saturday, 19 March 2016, organised a fundraising event to help the Waemanor family, who ran a Pondok, Islamic religious school, called ‘Jihad Pondok’ in Talo-Kapo Village, Yaring District, Pattani Province until the court confiscated its land in early February. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p>A member of the Malaysian Parliament has urged the Malaysian government to acknowledge the recent confiscation of the land of an Islamic school in the Deep South by the Thai authorities while questioning Malaysia’s role in the peace process. &nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">A human rights activist in Thailand’s restive Deep South has denied rumours that he is a member of an insurgent group in the region.</p> <p>Wifa-e Molor, 31, a human rights activist based in the Deep South province of Pattani, on Tuesday, 9 February 2016, spoke to the local <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wartanimap">Wartani News</a>, to reject a rumour that he is a member of an insurgent group affiliated with Abdullayib Dolah, 42, a suspect in the assassination of a Muslim cleric in Pattani. &nbsp;Abdullayib died in custody in mysterious circumstances on 4 December 2015.</p>

<div><em>For the past few decades, Malay, Thai, and Chinese locals living in the southernmost provinces of Thailand have had to carry out their lives amidst an atmosphere of violence and tension.&nbsp;The story examines the everyday's life of Muslim Malay and Thai-Chinese in Patani to see how the violence affects their life and their attempt to normalize the daily discrimination and conflict.</em></div> <p></p>

<p>A poll conducted by a think tank in Thailand’s Deep South shows that people in the restive border provinces are in favour of peace talks despite their distrust of state volunteer corps.</p> <p>The latest survey on how people in the southern border provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat view the violent conflict, social issues, justice system, and peace process between the Thai state and the Muslim insurgent groups shows that 76.9 per cent of the local population, the majority of whom are Muslims, are in favour of the ongoing peace process.</p>

<p>A Key PULO member talks about his 18 years behind bars, during which he helped to further peace talks.</p> <p></p>

<div><em>The latest round of peace talks has just started in early June in Kuala Lumpur -- quietly. The talks were reportedly initiated and supported by Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader, himself.&nbsp;Srisompob Jitpiromsri, a renowned academic and authority on the Deep South conflict discusses the prospect of the talks under the military regime.</em></div> <p></p>

<p>The Thai military detained five students without arrest warrants while carrying out a search and collected DNA samples from another group of students in the restive deep south.</p> <p>According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/wartanimap/posts/646678742100534">Wartani</a>, military and security officers from the Southern Border Provinces Police Operation Centre (SBPPOC) stormed into Darussalam Foundation School in Bang Kaew District of southern Phatthalung Province at around 10.20 am on Tuesday and detained five students without arrest warrants.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1429185873&amp;section=00">Khaosod English</a>: A commander of the Thai army has admitted that a military intelligence unit mistakenly identified a summer lesson at an Islamic school in the southern province of Pattani as a terrorist conference.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Thai military reportedly killed two suspected insurgents and arrested three suspects during a raid at a school in Thailand’s restive Deep South. However, there are reports that another woman was also killed at the scene.</p> <p>Nearly a hundred military officers surrounded an Islamic school in Mayo District in Pattani Province at around 3 am on Friday in an attempt to arrest suspects believed to be hiding in the school, according&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/wartanimap/posts/589562511145491">Wartani</a>, a local media outlet based in the southern border province of Pattani.</p>

<div>Given the circumstances in the south where the draconian special laws (martial law, the Emergency Decree and the Internal Security Act, all of which violate very basic human rights to different extents) have been imposed for more than ten years now (compared to just six months for the rest of the country), there is no proper and official communication channel for the non-state armed groups (NSAGs, which despite their official protests are often referred to as separatists by both the Siamese colonialists/Thai governments and Thai media). </div>