Paper long abstract:

This contribution asks how BRN-Coordinate, the separatist group that is responsible for much of the violence in Southern Thailand, uses violence to pursue its aims against the Thai state. BRN-Coordinate shifted its ideological and military work from the jungle sites to the villages in Southern Thailand in order to cope with the overwhelming military force of the Thai state. It will be stressed that secrecy is one of the main working principles of the group, which has important consequences for the inner cohesion of the group as well as the relations to its social environment.