Ban Bala, Thailand - Failed government efforts to quell the Islamic insurgency in southern Thailand have left the area's Buddhists frustrated, armed and raring to fight back.
The violence has taken an ominous turn lately with a string of apparent tit-for-tat outrages. On March 14, hooded insurgents ambushed a van and killed eight Buddhists, including two teenage schoolgirls. That evening, two bombs outside a nearby mosque and at a teashop killed three Muslims and injuring about 20, and five days later, gunmen opened fire at a dormitory of an Islamic boarding school, killing three students.
It's the first time Islamic institutions have been targeted since the insurgency broke out in 2004.
No one has claimed responsibility, and the government has sought to portray the attacks as Islamic provocations, not Buddhist acts of vengeance. But the end result is heightened distrust on both sides that many fear could turn into communal warfare.
"We are ready to declare war," said Prasit Nuannin, the Buddhist chief of Ban Bala, a mountain community whose population of 2,000 is split about equally between Buddhists and Muslims.
Policemen and village militia armed with assault rifles and shotguns have stepped up their guard over the local Buddhist temple here, fearing insurgents will try to torch it.
The insurgency has claimed more than 2,000 deaths in the southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, which are 80 percent Muslim in the otherwise Buddhist-majority country. The rebels have never made public demands, but are believed to favor separation from Buddhist-dominated Thailand to form an Islamic state.
"We are most concerned that people will be divided to the point that Muslims and Buddhists will wage a war against one another," said army spokesman Col. Akara Thiprot. "The insurgents are trying to cause rifts among people to show that the situation has gone beyond the government's control."
It's impossible to verify the claim that Muslims are attacking their own, but the theory isn't ruled out by some analysts, including moderate Muslim ones, who see how the insurgents could profit from radicalizing the Muslim population.
Either way, the latest violence is a blow to the government's hope of solving the problem.
The regime that took power following a military coup in September had vowed to make peace in the south a priority, distancing itself from ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's widely criticized reliance on heavy force.
But Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont's softer approach and offers of negotiation have also failed and the violence has worsened despite government insistence that progress is being made.
Ban Bala is an example of a mixed community that had been peaceful and is now infected by the violence.
A few days after the van ambush, a Buddhist man in Ban Bala was shot dead in his home and two nearby houses were burned down, while three Muslim men were wounded in two separate shootings. Rumors spread that Muslim insurgents wanted to torch the temple.
Romali Jehheng, a 51-year-old Muslim in Ban Bala, said he had no idea whether vengeful Buddhists shot the three Muslims, but he is "afraid of everybody." He said he has stopped visiting teashops - popular gathering places that have become terrorist targets.
Army spokesman Akara said 38 Muslim families, fearing revenge by Buddhists following a shooting incident, abandoned their homes in Yala province's Bannang Sata district in February, and returned only after the authorities remonstrated with their suspicious neighbors.
The region is awash in firearms, thanks in part to the government.
In 2004, revered Queen Sirikit bluntly urged people to defend themselves, and she sponsors arms training programs that cater almost exclusively to Buddhists. After the attack on the van her military aide, Gen. Napon Bunthap, quoted her as saying: "We have to help people there to survive. If they need to be trained, train them. If they need to be armed, arm them."
In Ban Bala, some 400 village militia members, mostly Buddhists, share 140 shotguns they take out on patrol, according to village chief Prasit. The Interior Ministry has also trained and armed thousands of other civilians - Muslims and Buddhists alike - to defend their villages.
Many southerners have bought handguns and rarely leave home without them despite a ban on carrying unlicensed weapons in a public place.
The government is persisting with its peace effort. Visiting the south last week, Prime Minister Surayud said the government was considering offering the insurgents an amnesty - something the previous government rejected.
At the same time, he supported the arming of Buddhists to protect their families.
But the government's inability to curb the violence is raising tempers. Lately, Buddhist mourners at funerals for insurgency victims have directed their fury against the authorities for failing to protect them.
"When state power does not function, people feel the responsibility to protect themselves and take justice into their own hands," said Chaiwat Satha-anand, a political scientist at Bangkok's Thammasat University.