By DPA,
Bangkok : Sectarian violence in southern Thailand has claimed 4,390 lives over the past six years and left 7,139 injured, a survey revealed Sunday.
The Deep South Watch of Prince Songkhla University in Pattani, 750 km south of Bangkok, recorded 10,284 acts of violence in the region since January 2004.
It said 60 percent of the 4,390 people killed were Thai-Muslims, The Nation newspaper reported.
The predominantly Muslim southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala have suffered continuous violence perpetrated by government forces and separatists since Jan 3, 2004 when Islamic militants raided an army arms depot and seized 300 war weapons.
Harsh army crackdowns in 2004 on the long-simmering separatist movement further antagonized the local population and gave rise to a reprisal killings, targeting both Buddhists and Muslims.
Besides a struggle for greater autonomy from the predominantly Buddhist Thai state, the border region is also notorious for illicit trade in smuggled goods, arms and drugs.
According to an opinion survey conducted by Deep South Watch, residents listed the drug trade as the most urgent problem.
The region of two million inhabitants was an independent Islamic sultanate until it was conquered by Bangkok about 200 years ago.
Ethnic Malay Muslims have never wholly submitted to rule by the central government.