Separatist insurgents in Thailand's southern border provinces should uphold their pledge and international legal obligations not to attack civilians, Human Rights Watch said today.
Barisan Revolusi Nasional (National Revolutionary Front or BRN) insurgents have frequently targeted civilians, both Thai Buddhists and Malay Muslims, since the outbreak of armed insurgency in January 2004.
On May 5, 2025, the BRN issued a statement expressing regret for recent attacks. While reaffirming the right to self-determination for Malay Muslims, the armed separatist group said that it "has no policy of targeting civilians" and "remains committed to international human rights and humanitarian law." Human Rights Watch has repeatedly condemned BRN laws-of-war violations.
"The BRN took an unprecedented step by publicly pledging not to target civilians, after terrorizing people in Thailand's deep south for more than two decades," said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "But a pledge is not enough. The BRN needs to stop committing war crimes."
There were 57 insurgent attacks in April, resulting in 18 deaths and 50 injuries from the Buddhist Thai and Malay Muslim populations in Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, and Songkhla provinces.
On April 22, BRN insurgents shot dead Pongkorn Chumapan, 16, and wounded Pokanit Morasin, 12, in an attack on a pickup truck taking Buddhist monks and novices from Wat Kura temple to collect alms in Songkhla province's Sabayoi district.
Pol. Lt. Wattanarom Chumapan, Pongkorn's father, told Human Rights Watch that his "son and his cousins were ordained as novices during their school break to study Buddhism and accumulate good karma. But they were targeted in this brutal attack."
"I picked up my son, together with other novices and monks, from the temple to collect alms that morning," he said. "My pickup truck had just left the temple's gate when I heard gunshots coming from the roadside jungle. They sounded like M-16 assault rifles. I'm a police officer. I could tell."
He said the bullets hit his son and another novice: "I grabbed my pistol and fired back at the two assailants until they retreated. I could see them escaping on a motorcycle, dressed as Muslim women and covering their faces."
The BRN considers Buddhism emblematic of the Thai state's occupation of Malay Muslim territory. At least 23 Buddhist monks and novices have been killed and more than 30 injured during the conflict, most while collecting alms.
Victims of the BRN's violence in May included teachers, police officers, older people, and children.
On the morning of May 28, Pol. Sgt. Abdulloh Makaseng, 30, was shot dead when insurgents attacked the Chanae district police station in Narathiwat province. Later that day, insurgents opened fire into a community sport event in Narathiwat province's Tak Bai district, seriously wounding Muhammad Sukri Ha, 37, and Sainuddin Jehbueraheng, 34, both teachers. On May 2, in Chanae district, insurgents fatally shot Sa-Nga Saeng-Yoi, 76, a blind Buddhist Thai, and critically wounded her son while they were returning home from the hospital on a motorcycle. On the same day, in Tak Bai district, six insurgents opened fire with assault rifles into a Buddhist Thai neighborhood. They killed Sasita Jankong, 9, a Buddhist Thai, and two older relatives.
Civilians have also been victims of BRN insurgents' indiscriminate shootings and bombings.
The laws of war, applicable to the armed conflict in Thailand's southern border provinces, prohibit attacks on civilians and civilian objects, including reprisals, or attacks that fail to discriminate between combatants and civilians. Anyone who commits serious violations of the laws of war with criminal intent is responsible for war crimes.
Abuses by both BRN insurgents and Thai authorities have long fed a cycle of violence and impunity, Human Rights Watch said.
Phra Kru Kositasudabhorn, a prominent Buddhist monk and peace advocate from Pattani province, told Human Rights Watch that the April 22 attack on novices in Sabayoi district appeared to be in retaliation for the killing of an Islamic religious teacher, allegedly by Thai security forces, in Narathiwat province on April 18. "As long as that killing remains unresolved, Buddhist Thais will still be at risk," he said. "Buddhist novices and monks are especially vulnerable. Government officials should understand that insurgents use [state-sponsored] abuses and heavy-handed tactics to recruit new members and justify their violence."
Claims by insurgents that attacks on civilians are lawful because the victims are part of the Thai state or that Islamic law, as they interpret it, has no justification under international law. The office of Sheikhul Islam, Thailand's central Islamic council, issued a statement on May 6, 2025, condemning the attacks on civilians "in the strongest terms" and stating that there is no justification for such heinous crimes, which are also serious religious offenses.
Thai authorities have imposed special security legislation in the southern border provinces. Under the Executive Decree on Government Administration in Emergency Situations and under martial law, Thai security forces can arrest and hold suspected BRN members for up to 37 days without effective judicial oversight, which has led to deaths in military custody.
On May 22, representatives of the Internal Security Operations Command, Region Four, which is responsible for counterinsurgency operations in the southern border provinces, told a Thai parliamentary committee that such arrests and detentions served as deterrence even when authorities did not have sufficient evidence to press charges.
Jaringan Mangsa Dari Undang-Undang Darurat, a human rights group, reported at least 41 arbitrary arrest cases of Malay Muslims from January through April.
The mother of Nasri Tugae, 22, told Human Rights Watch that her son was arrested under martial law on April 23: "Soldiers raided my house, accusing Nasri of being involved in the killing of a Buddhist novice [on April 22]. We tried to explain that my son was away on that day to apply for his passport in Yala province. But they did not listen."
She said he was taken to Ingkayuth Camp in Pattani province for interrogation: "My son was scared when I told him that there were allegations about him all over social media, saying he was a murderer. My son was held for 26 days. Now he was released without charge. My son was treated unfairly. Where is justice? Something like this will only make Muslims trust officials less."
There is an entrenched culture of impunity for state-sponsored abuses in the southern border provinces, Human Rights Watch said. There has been no successful prosecution of those responsible for extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, and torture of suspected BRN members. The 20-year statute of limitations of the Tak Bai crackdown, which left 85 dead and several hundred injured, ended in October 2024, preventing further legal action.
"Insurgent atrocities and retaliatory government abuses have sowed distrust between the Thai Buddhist and Malay Muslim communities," Pearson said. "Both sides should end abuses, hold abusers accountable, and commit to respecting human rights as they negotiate an end to the conflict."
