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On CONFERENCE ON THE SOUTH:

Three-day gathering seeks to show region as more than a land of violence.

Beaches and bombs! Although the two seem to have nothing in common, many residents in the deep southern provinces believe that odd coupling is what people from other parts of the country tend to associate with their region.

For a long time, the region has been perceived as a land of violence - stemming mainly from the Muslim separatist movement - operating against the backdrop of a beautiful landscape. The reality, say local residents, is very different.

The First Inter-dialogue Conference on Southern Thailand, which opened here yesterday, aims to change these perceptions.

Entitled "Experiencing Southern Thailand: Current social transformations from people's perspectives", the three-day gathering hopes to present other sides of the story that reveal more about the lives of people in this culturally and socially diverse region.

About 370 scholars from Thailand and 22 other countries - including Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, Japan, the United States and several European countries- are attending the conference, which was opened by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.

"The South has been treated like a place in the dark where few outsiders know what's going on," said Dr Wattana Sukannasil, a sociologist from Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani, which is co-hosting the conference with Harvard University's Department of Anthropology.

"We would like to start to open it to some light, so that other people can see us, our stories, hopes and dreams. Darkness makes people afraid of the region. But we hope this will change when they see and understand more of us," he said.

The conference is being held in this southern province, where 85 per cent of the people are Muslims, comprising most of the Thai Muslim population of about half a million people. Discussion topics include Islam in southern Thailand, the relationship between Islam and Buddhism from a southern perspective, recent changes in Islamic education, and border identities in the southern Thailand-northern Malaysia region.

Former foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan, who delivered the keynote speech, said the southern part of Thailand has become increasingly significant in the eyes of international scholars because of the unique co-existence of different cultures.

In the past few decades governments have done well in managing ethnic and religious difference between Buddhist and Muslim Thais, he said. The strategy of peaceful co-existence is to accept people's differences and diversities, he said.

"Diversity is an asset, a kind of social capital," he said. "Conflicts can be resolved by accepting [people's] multiple identities and make them feel secure and confident [enough] to contribute to society."

Along with Muslims, the conference is also discussing other ethnic and cultural groups in the region, such as Buddhist Thais, Chinese, the Urak Lawoi, the Sakai people who live on the mountains and in the forests - and the Moken, or "Sea Gypsies". "It is the interwoven ethnicity, cultures and social structures that make the southern part of Thailand the way it is today," said Wattana. "We want to show as much as possible the complexity and diversity of the region."

Participating in the conference are a score of representatives from fishing or forest-based communities whose livelihoods are under threat, mostly from industrial development.