<p>Transcript of talk presented by Adam John at the Tak Bai 17th Anniversary Commemoration organised by the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cap.patani/videos/1223490441490008">Civil Society Assembly for Peace (CAP)</a> on Monday October 25th 2021.</p>

<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><img alt="" src="http://deepsouthwatch.org/sites/default/files/u3/10399980_653931401375268_6295795965663615239_n.jpg" /></div> <div> </div> <div><span>Photo from <a href="https://deepsouthwatch.org/th/node/9316">Deep South Watch</a></span></div> <div> </div> <div>“Don’t you know, we are here under Martial Law” said the officer to Faisal when he refused to delete the photos he took of the officers while they were escorting home a man they had a </div>

<div>“The absence of a united women’s coalition hinder[s] a collective and strategic effort to call for inclusive and gender-sensitive peacebuilding”, argues Firdaus Abdulsomad in her Master’s thesis entitled ‘Women’s participation in the Patani Peace Process : a case study of the barriers to women’s participation in building peace in Patani’ which can be read <a href="http://www.scriptiesonline.uba.uva.nl/sv/scriptie/640110">here</a>.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Firdaus Abdulsomad who identifies herself as “a second generation Patani Malay who grew up in Sweden” undertook her fieldwork r </div>

<p>I took a taxi from Kuala Lumpur's bustling shopping centre at the Petronas Twin Towers in the heart of the city. It was taking me along one of the busy highways which cuts through the city to a tom yam restaurant. Thai food is very popular in Malaysia but what most people are unaware of is that most of the owners and workers of the thousands of tom yam restaurants across Malaysia are Patani Malays from across the border in Thailand's Patani region of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.</p>

<p>When the Japanese scholar and translator, Hara Shintaro used the term 'Siamese imperialist' in a translation of a YouTube post by BRN, a Malay armed resistance organization believed by many to be the strongest and most active group in the Patani conflict, it was condemned not simply for being an incorrect translation but being “too harsh”<a name="m_7533375008648219930__ftnref1" title="">[1]</a>. Of course, it is not only the Thai state which does not take kindly to being described as an imperialist.</p>

<p>The Military Junta should be careful how it reacts to the passing of King Bhumibol. Emotions are high right now in Thailand which the military will no doubt aim to exploit to consolidate its political power over the country.&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">Unlike Thailand, Sweden was successfully elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations (UN) Security Council recently. Sweden was by far the favourite amongst the European candidates. It had already received enough votes to secure its position on the Security Council in the first round.</p>

<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> <p>Today marks the 107th anniversary of the Anglo-Siamese Treaty.&nbsp;It will be remembered by those aware of the Treaty as the day Thailand colonized Patani. This isn't exactly true. Thailand or the Siamese Kingdom as it was at that time had already forcibly moved in to occupy the most northerly Malay State on the eastern coast of the Malay Peninsula much earlier.</p> </div>

<div><em>A human rights activist from Thailand’s Deep South speaks about her motivation for co-founding a human rights organization, after her own experience of a family member being harassed. Since the start of 2016, she has been repeatedly harassed by the military due to a report, co-written by her, revealing allegations of torture by the state.&nbsp;</em></div> <p></p>