As the situation of insurgency in Thailand Muslim-dominant southern-most provinces further deteriorates with a grim light of any possible solution, Thailand joining the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 could help improve the situation in the restive Deep South, an expert said.

With about 50 percent of people in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Community speaking Bahasa Melayu, Thailand, of which majority are Buddhist speaking Thai, would inevitably be forced to become more open to differences in religion, language and culture of neighboring countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, which are dominated by Islam. Thai Muslim people in the three southern-most provinces, as a result, would benefit from it, observed General Ekkachai Srivilas, director of King Prajadhipok's Institute's Office of Peace and Governance.

"When we become part of the ASEAN community in three years, Malaysians, (who speak the same language as Muslim people in the south) would freely walk across the border to work in Thailand and vice versa," Gen Ekkachai said, adding that at that time Thai government and majority of Thai people will change their way of viewing southern Muslim people accordingly.

Historically, it was just about 110 years that the area of 11, 000 square kilometers, adjacent to Malaysia, used to be the Sultanate of Pattani, before being annexed as part of Thailand.

The conflict has so far claimed a total of 5,243 lives and injured 8,941 people. The death toll includes 4,215 ordinary citizens, 351 soldiers, 280 policemen, 148 teachers and educational personnel, seven Buddhist monks and 242 suspected insurgents. The violent conflict has also produced 2,295 widows and 4,455 orphans, according to the latest statistics compiled by Isra News Agency, a news agency which specialize in reporting news from the South.

The on-going violence flared up with guns robbery from a military camp in January 2004. About 50 insurgents robbed machine guns from the camp and killed four soldiers manning it, while an unspecified number of insurgents set fire to 22 schools and patrol outposts in the province. Since then, guerrilla warfare, such as road-side bombings, planted bombs in rubber plantation and drives- by shooting, occurred almost every single day, killing accumulated number of soldiers, defense volunteers and both Buddhist and Muslim local people.

"Since, no particular group claimed responsibility for the violence, the situation is obscure. People live in fear and are uncertain about who the separatists are and who are not. Villagers and officials don't trust each others," said Pratubjit Neelapaijit, a researcher and activist on southern violence issue.

The situation has specifically deteriorated in the past few months as can be seen that at least one or two incidents occur almost every single day. This is also attributed to the latest mistake killing of four Muslim villagers by Thai military in late January, observed Pratubjit. Thai Military on Wednesday admitted that it was the army's mistake and paid compensation to the victims' families.