The Red Zone
Both victims and perpetrators speak about the insurgency in southern Thailand.
Filmmaker: Thiwari Werayasobprasong
In southern Thailand, Aseeyah Bindoah is a mother of five and learning to shoot a gun at a firing range. She used to imagine the target was the person who murdered her husband, because it helped her feel a sense of revenge.
Now she has accepted that it is karma and tries to be the best mother she can. Learning to protect her family is her responsibility now.
Meanwhile Thida, a local teacher, has to travel within a group to protect herself: even schools are targets for insurgents. No one knows for sure who is responsible for the killings.
Many believe the beheadings and shootings are not part of an organized rebellion, but simply the work of unconnected criminal gangs. The effect on ordinary lives is one of paranoia and mistrust, among children and adults alike.
The predominantly Muslim areas of southern Thailand face brutality that fails to fall along purely sectarian lines. This is a shadowy war, in the red zone.