Renewed Fighting Prompts the Reclassification of a Non-International Armed Conflict in Southern Thailand

22 August 2022

Renewed fighting – despite ongoing peace talks – prompted the reclassification of the armed violence between Thailand and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Coordinate (BRN) as a non-international armed conflict on our Rule of Law in Armed Conflict online portal.

‘While we declassified this conflict back in 2021 due to the fact that there was no more fighting, renewed clashes between the Thai armed forces and this armed group suggest that the absence of clashes at the time was only a lull in hostilities, which prompted us to reclassify this situation as a NIAC’ explains Dr Chiara Redaelli, Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy.

The RULAC entry on this conflict provides detailed information about this armed group, the classification, applicable international law, as well as recent developments that promoted this reclassification.

The Barisan Revolusi Nasional Coordinate (BRN)

BRN was founded in 1963 as a response to the compulsory registration of Muslim boarding schools and the imposition of a secular curriculum by the Thai government.

‘BRN aims at liberating the southern Thai provinces inhabited by the ethnic – predominantly Muslim – Malay population and at establishing an independent Islamic state’ underlines Dr Redaelli.

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