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Part 1
In The Shadow Of War: Life beyond checkpoints in southern Thailand
In one corner of the Land of Smiles is a place where going to a supermarket will require to you to get your car and ID checked, and where locals who stud their neighbourhoods with CCTV cameras will rush to inspect any suspiciously parked car. Fourteen years since a separatist insurgency flared up in Thailand’s deep south, ST's Tan Hui Yee and Arlina Arshad spent two weeks traversing the high security region.
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We slow our car as it approaches one of Yala city’s many checkpoints, the mugshots of wanted men glaring at us from a nearby poster. A policeman motions for us to proceed. He then spots our backseat passenger, Mr Waearong Waeno, an ethnic Malay artist who wears his snowy beard long and has unruly hair peeking out from under a beanie.
