Barisan Revolusi Nasional

Main area of operation of the BRN.

The Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu Patani,^[1][2] also known by the shorter form Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), meaning "National Revolutionary Front", is a Patani independence movement in northern Malaysia and Patani, southern Thailand. It is the most powerful rebel group in the region.^[3]

Originally the BRN was established as a roughly territorial organisation, prioritizing Pattani secessionism. Since 2001, however, the BRN-C (BRN-Coordinasi) has become its most active wing, leading the south Thailand insurgency and imposing extreme religious values on the local society.^[4]

The BRN-C, through its "Pejuang Kemerdekaan Patani" paramilitary wing, is the main group behind the murder of teachers in the Southern Border Provinces.^[5]

History

The BRN was founded on 13 March 1963 by Haji Abdul Karim Hassan. By 1984 three main factions were discernible within the group:^[6]

BRN-Koordinasi

The BRN-Coordinate or BRN-C (BRN-Koordinasi) is currently the largest, most active and best organised of the BRN subgroups. Rejecting the Pan-Arab socialist thought that influenced the early BRN, it favours Salafist ideology and is involved in political activism in the mosques and indoctrination at Islamic schools. The main recruiting unit of the BRN-C is the Pemuda (youth) student group and its leaders are mainly Islamic religious teachers, including veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan.^[4]

The BRN-Koordinasi is acknowledged as the group currently spearheading the insurgency in southern Thailand and is at the origin of the group known as Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) to which most violent attacks have been attributed in the last decade.^[4]

The BRN-C sees no reason for negotiations and is against talks with other insurgent groups. The BRN-C has the vision of becoming a mass-organisation. It has as its immediate aim to make southern Thailand ungovernable, having largely been successful at it.^[7]

Structure

The Pejuang Kemerdekaan Patani (Patani Independence Fighters) are the paramilitary wing of the BRN-C. These militant units operate in the rural areas of southern Thailand working along with the BRN-Coordinate leadership in a loosely organised strictly clandestine cell system dependent on hard-line religious leaders for direction.^[8] These armed groups of youth have routinely intimidated and terrorised local Buddhists, as well as local Muslims who don't share the extreme ideologies of the BRN.^[9] They are also behind the attacks on schoolteachers.^[10]

Other groups

• BRN-Congress or BRN-K (BRN-Kongres), led by Rosa Burako, has been pursuing a military struggle but is currently less active.
• BRN-Ulama. There is little information about this subgroup.^[9]

The group's violent separatist insurgency began in 2004, with tactics such as setting two bombs at one location, with the second designed to kill and injure those attending the aftermath of the first. In total, the southern insurgency has killed more than 6,000 people.^[11]

Incidents

In the past decade the BRN-C has been involved in numerous arson, bombing, and murder attacks to create an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty in the three southern provinces of Thailand. Thai military observers believe that the attacks are mostly carried out by its loosely affiliated and clandestine RKK outfit.^[12][13]

On 1 May 2013 insurgents attacked a restaurant in the Pattani Region. The perpetrators, armed with machine guns, killed six people including a two-year-old child.^[14] The act was an act of revenge, that appeared twelve hours following the action in the three predominantly Muslim provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala.^[15]

See also

• Islamism
• Salafi jihadism
• South Thailand insurgency

Notes

References