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Published on July 24, 2007

Kijja Ali-isloh, deputy secretary-general of the association, said the authorities did not have any evidence to charge most of the villagers being held.

Kijja also accused the military of forcing hundreds of villagers to join Army-created job training projects, suggesting that such schemes were a stunt to boost the Army's image rather than help the local community.

The authorities arrested more than 350 people this month in a massive crackdown on separatist insurgents in violence-prone districts in the deep South. But officials in the region, as well as local residents, have said the shakedown has forced insurgent cells to relocate to other districts. They say those taken into custody are merely sympathisers and innocent villagers. Only 15 of those arrested have actually been charged, according to Sunai Phasuk, a researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Sunai said he has received reports that the interrogation by military officials involved torture. "So these [cases] need to be first of all resolved very quickly, and access to lawyers needs to be granted immediately. That is the only way to guarantee a certain level of transparency," he said.

Army spokesman Colonel Acra Tiproch dismissed the allegations of torture and said the military was offering detained suspects counselling and job training.

Srisompob Jitpiromsri, a professor at Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani, said the number of insurgent attacks this month has dropped dramatically but warned that much more has to be done to end the unrest.

The state has to turn to measures like fair trials and reliable forensic testing in order to build confidence among the people, he said.

In Yala's Yaha district yesterday, two gunmen on a motorbike shot Mahama Cheni, 46, killing him instantly, while Abdulkadir Yahor, 44, who was riding pillion on Mahama's motorcycle, was seriously wounded.

In Narathiwat's Rusoh district, police found the body of Abdulroseh Pawong, 35, near a creek where he was fishing. He was shot at close range with a handgun, police said.

More than 2,400 people have been killed since the unrest began in southern Thailand in January 2004, with thousands more injured.