At about 4:00 p.m. local time Wednesday, Santi suddenly tightened up his A-1 submachine gun and called his colleagues to abridge near Doodin district as soon as he found a suspicious black box near the handrail. Although it was proved to be a false alarm later, Santi told Xinhua that many roadside bombs were camouflaged as trashes.

    To get more information from local people, Santi said, the military is now moving closer to the residents, despite the fact that many soldiers are Buddhists while locals are Muslims. "We have to build the affinity between the army and the civilians," he said, "in order to implement strategic and operational policies in the deep South with fairness and justice."

    In a bid to win back the local people's hearts, the army has set up community radio broadcast, visited local tea houses regularly, helped villagers build fishing ponds and showed them how to avoid attacks when working on rubber farms.

    "In Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, we cannot win by force-for-force, but by winning local people's hearts and minds," said Kachonsad.

    Rubber farmer Mohammad Sai Daisa in Doodin district, while watching his fish farm with a satisfied look, said, "When the soldiers came, they brought us the pisciculture and an additional income of more than 20,000 baht (about 500 U.S. dollars) a year from selling fish. They are not only our defenders, but also friends and relatives of our village." Enditem