When it comes to the country's Muslims, the Thai government appears to be following a political script that the hawks in the US government will welcome - a crackdown is the best way to deal with a restive people.

All week, the media here have been reporting about the government's offensive in the southern provinces, including the arrest of three Muslim men for their alleged involvement in a spate of violence against two government outposts.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's faith in such tough policies in the provinces dominated by the country's Muslim minority was captured by a newspaper headline last week: ''Premier orders death warrants.''

Action questioned

Thaksin had also given other orders - such as wanting the men responsible for the attacks o­n the government posts o­n Apr 28 to be arrested at any cost.

But moderate Muslim voices are questioning the government's reaction to the gunmen's attacks o­n two outposts in Thailand's southernmost provinces, in which four marines and three soldiers were killed. The attackers also escaped with weapons such as 33 M-16 assault rifles they had taken from the posts manned by the marines and the army.

''Like o­n any other issue, the government is claiming that it knows best and needs no other diagnosis or to look at other options,'' says Surin Pitsuwan, a former Thai foreign minister and a member of the country's Muslim minority.

''What is needed are policies that will undermine the perpetrators of these attacks, not strengthen their cause,'' adds Chaiwat Satha-Anand, director of the Peace Information Centre at Bangkok's Thammasat University and a Thai Muslim, too.

These views were also reflected Sunday in a newspaper commentary written by Thongbai Thonpao, a senator and leading human rights lawyer, about violent incidents in the south and perceptions that it remains a restive region in this mainly Buddhist country.

''We have to tackle (the problems) at the roots. Violence should be avoided,'' he stated in the Bangkok Post, an English-language daily.

Muslim minister

Nevertheless, there are some voices in the Muslim community who doubt the government will pursue a harsh agenda, given that the country's internal security apparatus is headed for the first time by a Muslim, Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha.

The minister is from the south and he is concerned about the region, says Pakorn Priyakorn, executive committee member of Thailand's Islamic Centre. ''He is keen that the problem will be resolved without offending Muslims (in the south).''

But the consequence of the Apr 28 incidents has resulted in the predominantly Muslim provinces in the south - Satun, Nara Thiwat, Yala, Pattani and Songkhla - being cast as the continuing trouble spots of Thailand.

The Thai media must shoulder the responsibility for keeping this perception alive, says Azizah Salmat, a post-graduate student researching Islam, media and violence in Thailand. ''The media reflects this bias of Muslims being suspicious.''

''They describe the incidents in the south as a 'Muslim Problem','' she adds. ''And at times it is done unintentionally; they don't even know about it.''

According to Pakorn, this media bias stems from the past, when there was a presence of Muslim separatist movements in the south, near the border with Malaysia. ''They still look at it as if it is a separatist problem. But what we had in the south did not compare in ideology and strength with the separatist movements in the Philippines, Indonesia or Sri Lanka.''

It is a bias that has been fed by outbursts of violence that have happened in recent years. In 2002, for instance, there were 12 attacks between March to July, ranging from bombings, shootings, arson and gun theft. Seven policemen were killed.

But investigations revealed that these attacks were linked to rival gangs waging turf wars instead of the work of any Muslim separatist movement.

Linked to JI

Besides that, there have been reports of Muslim groups in the southern provinces with links to Jemaah Islamiyah, a group the US government and intelligence agencies in some Southeast Asian countries have named as being a network of Islamic militants.

Thai Muslims are the largest minority in Thailand, numbering close to four million out of a population of some 61 million people. Although the southern provinces that have predominant Muslim populations became part of Thailand in 1902, the presence of Islam in the country goes back to the 14th century.

The Muslim identity in the south has been sustained through religious schools and festivals, and Muslim citizens have the freedom to wear the clothes particular to their tradition, such as the headscarves for women.

This has not sat well with some bureaucrats and government officials, resulting in Muslims feeling like they were treated as ''second-class citizens,'' says Chaiwat of the Peace Information Centre. ''In o­ne survey done some years ago, at least 24 percent of the government officials did not want to work in the south, and 25 percent felt indifferent. That is at least half the bureaucrats surveyed.''

According to Surin, attempts by Thai governments to ''integrate the Muslims'' the way such it was done with the other minorities in the country ''have not worked and will not work''.

He attributes that to the strands of religion, culture and language that shape the identity of the Muslims in Thailand. ''The issue has deep roots - political, social, economic - and they have to be recognised by governments.''

The government needs to be sensitive to this complex picture when dealing with the violence in the south, says Chaiwat. ''There are specific conditions that have given rise to these incidents.'' - IPS