Christians Under Attack

injured their three-year-old daughter, police said.

After gunning down Praphan Ponlarak, 36, and his wife Chaddakan, the assailants decapitated Praphan, making him the 29th victim to be beheaded in Thailand's troubled deep South since the region's separatist insurgency took a turn for the worse in January 2004. Their daughter was admitted to Bannang Sata hospital, 780 kilometres south of Bangkok, for treatment

Also on Monday, two Thai-Muslim labourers were gunned down in Kabang district, Yala, killing Luesong Hayiwale, 50, and seriously injuring Mahamu Samae, 41. On Sunday the bullet-riddled bodies of a Thai-Muslim couple working in a Bannang Sata rubber plantation were found by police.

'The insurgents are trying to sow hatred between Thai-Muslims and Thai-Buddhists and terrorize the area,' said Bannang Sata Police Sub-Lieutenant Than Serikan.

Despite the near daily killings in the region, Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont on Sunday reiterated his pledge to resolve the conflict through peaceful means during a visit to Yala with several cabinet ministers over the weekend.

Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani provinces comprise Thailand's deep South where more than 2,100 people have died in an escalating separatist struggle over the past three years.

Surayud, who was appointed prime minister on October 1 by a military junta that overthrew elected premier Thaksin Shinawatra on September 19, has adopted a conciliatory approach to the southern insurgency, in contrast to the tough tactics adopted by his predecessor.

Thus far the change of tactics have failed to end the near daily killings in the region, though Surayud has won international praise for adopting a conciliatory approach to the insurgency.

Thailand, a predominantly Buddhist country, has painted the southern conflict as a separatist insurgency, downplaying its religious element, a stance that has been accepted by much of the world's Islamic community.

The three provinces, bordering Malaysia, constituted an independent Islamic sultanate known as Pattani for hundreds of years before being conquered by Bangkok in 1786. The border provinces came under direct rule of the Thai bureaucracy in 1902.

A separatist struggle took off in the 1950s, fuelled by government efforts to suppress the local culture and religion in the region.

The long-simmering separatist struggle, after a two decade-long lull, took a turn for the worse when Muslim militants raided an army arms depot and stole more than 300 weapons in January 2004.