About 40 per cent of the killings in Thailand's south since 2004 have been due to shooting incidents. But not all are related to separatism. -- PHOTO: REUTERSBy Nirmal Ghosh, Thailand Correspondent
Straits Times
BANGKOK - THE conflict in southern Thailand has spawned an expanding 'gun economy' which is fuelling the violence that has killed well over 3,000 people since January 2004, independent research groups said on Wednesday.
In a response to militant violence, several government agencies have been arming and training civilian militias - mostly from the minority Buddhist community.
The programme includes free or subsidised guns, ranging from handguns and shotguns to automatic weapons. But this has led to a free-for-all weapons race, with legal and illegal guns being supplied under the table to anyone with the money to buy them.
Guns are brought in from neighbouring Cambodia, or supplied over the counter or surreptitiously by dealers in Bangkok often working with the connivance of corrupt officials - including rogue soldiers. And in many cases, guns are stolen off victims of the violence.
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