You have to give it to the lads of Internal Security Operations Command.  When it comes to sniffing out reds under the bed, they have few equals.

On 7 February, the press had reports from ISOC Region 4, which covers the deep south, that insurgents were disguising themselves as human rights activists and infiltrating NGOs. 

You didn’t need to be a fortune teller to foresee what was coming next. 

2 days later it was reported that in the early morning hours, ISOC had raided the Pattani office of the Working Group on Justice for Peace.  Looking for insurgents after a tip-off, said Lt-Col Prawet Suthiprapa, who led the raid and who must have had a hard job keeping a straight face. 

For a start, the ISOC raiders immediately started looking inside the computers.  Must be bloody midgets, these insurgents, to hide inside a computer.  And of course, if you suspect there is a micro-insurgent lurking in a computer, there’s no need to turn it on and start trawling through the files.  Which is what ISOC did.

And what interest would the files of the Working Group on Justice for Peace have for ISOC?  Well, this organization does what it says on the label.  They are a group, who work on issues of justice, so that there will be peace.  Which means they often end up countering injustice.

Injustice like locking people up for long periods without charge or trial (which is legal but unjust), or preventing family members from visiting suspects (which is probably not legal and they’ve been told not to do it but it still goes one and is not just), or chaining Muslims to dogs (which is not illegal but not just), or beating people to the point of breaking their bones (which is illegal and not just), or mistreating people to the point of killing them (which is definitely not legal or just), or just disappearing them (which is not legal or just and turns into a lasting torment for the families).

And of course the perpetrators of these things are sometimes government agents, maybe even ISOC themselves.

It is of course unthinkable that ISOC were scanning WGP files in a search for the names of people who might be blowing the whistle on them.  Heaven forbid anyone would suspect that they would make specious claims about infiltration just so they could cover their own arses.

But while we are in the predicting mode, here are some future reports from the south.

1 April

Citing intelligence reports, security forces in the 2 southernmost provinces allege that insurgents are disguising themselves as doctors and other medical professionals.  ‘They do this so that they can spread false rumours about ill-treatment of suspects by security personnel,’ said a government official who requested anonymity.  ‘But fortunately we have found out about their plans.’

3 April

Troops surrounded Narathiwat Provincial Hospital at 2 am today saying that they suspected that militants dressed in white coats were hiding there.  After a thorough search of the premises, 3 suspects were led away for further questioning.  They were later released when the Hospital Director vouched for their identity as doctors.  After treatment in their own Emergency Ward, the three doctors announced they would be seeking a transfer to some other province.

25 June

Educational institutions have become the latest target for separatist subterfuge, according to a police source.  Recently captured information, according to a high-ranking police officer, shows that separatists are posing as academics so that they can publish research that shows police activities in a bad light.  Police have appealed to the public to be aware of any academic research that seems to cast doubt on the honesty, efficiency and bravery of police officers.

27 June

A pre-dawn raid on Prince of Songkhla’s Pattani campus met with only partial success, according to police reports.  While the officers failed to identify any separatists, they were able to locate on researchers’ computers false information tracking such things as the numbers of deaths, injuries and violent incidents, all of which might lead unsuspecting members of the public to mistakenly believe that the police were not doing their job.  The offending data was successfully erased.

2 August

Rangers operating in the deep south became suspicious over recent weeks at the number of times they had been ambushed.  At first they were unable to understand how people could identify them in their black uniforms.  Eventually, they realized that their whereabouts would have been monitored by the numerous army check-points and they now believe that criminal elements have somehow acquired military uniforms and are acting as spies.  A Rangers officer promised they would soon ‘sort that lot out’.

At the same time Army patrols report increasing frustration at disruption of their operations by the random and raucous arrival of Ranger units.  The undisciplined behaviour of some Rangers has led Army Intelligence to suspect that southern bandits may be masquerading as Rangers in a deliberate strategy to foil their activities.

4 August

A massive battle erupted early this morning on the Bannang Sata-Bacho Road when an Army patrol got into a fire fight with a Rangers unit.  Details are still emerging but it appears that each side mistakenly identified the other as the enemy.  The Army reported few casualties on its side but an estimated 23 insurgents killed.  The Rangers admitted to one or two missing in action, while inflicting 24 casualties on their assailants.