Around one year after Harong Maeroh, a 43-year-old Thai Muslim, reached out to Bring People Home, a project helping people accused of promoting insurgency from the deep South reintegrate into society, he says his life has "definitely changed" for the better.
"I am so happy now," he said, smiling.
"I can go everywhere I want. I can spend my day as a normal person. I can drop my children off at school. I don't feel like I have to hide any more."
After signing up for the project in April, he can now look back in gratitude on how it changed his life. He says that among the biggest changes it brought was that he could move back to Thailand, his home country, from Malaysia after being driven out by fears of being targeted by authorities.
Mr Harong can enjoy his time with his loved ones without fear.
He also found a new source of income by undergoing training in woodworks.
Bring People Home, currently overseen by the Fourth Army Region commander Lt Gen Piyawat Nakwanich, seeks out those who have joined or been accused of taking part in the 14-year-long armed struggle in the deep South to surrender themselves to authorities, while providing them legal assistance.
The project, started in 2013, reaches out to participants living in their home communities, where they are encouraged to attend activities like "adjustment" sessions and vocational training to help them land jobs and reintegrate themselves into society.
Lt Gen Piyawat has pledged to provide safety and justice to all participants in the project.
He noted, however, that the goal was not to clear them of their criminal charges.
"Participants' criminal cases are still tried in court," Lt Gen Piyawat told Spectrum. "The army region will only help facilitate the handling of their cases.
"If they don't have a lawyer, we'll find a lawyer or find information about a lawyer. If they have to travel to the court but they don't know how to go there, we will take them there. We'll provide them with legal advice."
wear and tear: A shophouse gate with holes from a motorcycle bombing on Jan 22 in Yala.
According to Lt Gen Piyawat, 288 insurgents from the deep South facing arrest warrants joined the programme last year. This year, 161 insurgents have reached out to show interest in participating.
Lt Gen Piyawat says there are people both inside and outside of Thailand who want to join the project.
At least 2,000 ex-members of the two leading rebel groups in the deep South, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) and Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo), have shown interest in joining Bring People Home, says an ex-Pulo fighter claiming to speak for members of the group who were hiding out in Malaysia, Brunei, Scandinavia and the Middle East.
FLEEING FOR SAFETY
Mr Harong is among the Bring People Home participants who once faced an arrest warrant. He left his home in the Bacho district of Narathiwat to seek work in Malaysia in 2005 following the death of his brother in the Tak Bai incident when 85 protesters were killed by police on Oct 25, 2004.
On that day, a demonstration of around 1,300 people had gathered at a Tak Bai police station to protest against the detention of six men. When the crowd tried to cross the police barrier into the station, police responded with tear gas and water cannons. Protestors started to throw rocks. Matters escalated as police started firing into the crowd, killing protestors.
Among the victims were Mr Harong's elder brother.
He recalls strangers arriving at his house for questioning about his involvement in the incident the next day, which made him fear for his safety.
At the time, he was so scared that he decided to flee and find a safer place to hide out where he could go unbothered by authorities' suspicion of his ties to the Tak Bai incident.
Mr Harong decided to head to neighbouring Malaysia, where he was hired as a rubber plantation worker.
"At the beginning of my stay in Malaysia, I travelled with my passport to get a stamp when travelling out of Malaysia to Thailand every three months, then would return to Malaysia again.
"But after I knew that authorities had issued an arrest warrant for me, I dared not go back to Thailand out of fear of being arrested. I had so much fear. I didn't know what to do. I hadn't done anything wrong."
Mr Harong says authorities have accused him of being behind a bomb blast in Bacho district despite the fact that he was not based in the area at the time that the explosion took place.
"Authorities told me that I was mentioned by some witnesses in this bomb blast case. That's why they had to ask the court to approve the warrant to arrest me,'' he said.
After joining Bring People Home, the army region commander helped Mr Harong fight to prove that he was not in Thailand when the bombing took place. The court eventually acquitted him.
facing up: Former insurgents from Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) and Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo) join the Bring People Home project. PHOTO:S: Patipat Janthong
HOMECOMING: From left, Harong Maeroh, a participant in the Bring People Home project, and his wife, Nisapariya Rayorsalae. Hakim Bueraheng, an electronics technician from Yala, joined Bring People Home after he was put on a blacklist of those accused of involvement in insurgent attacks.
REACHING OUT
Nisapariya Rayorsalae, 30, the wife of Mr Harong, was a driving force in getting her husband to participate in the project.
"I was shocked when I heard that my husband was accused of being involved in a bomb blast in Bacho district and that authorities had issued him an arrest warrant. How had that happened?" Ms Nisapariya said.
"At that time a few years ago, I took my small kids to leave Thailand and meet him in Malaysia. I also work at a rubber plantation there."
She stayed with her family in a small hut on the rubber plantation for several years. She struggled to make time to take care of her two children, and they did not receive an education for a long while.
"I feel sorry for my kids who kept questioning why we had to live like this. Whenever my kids were sick, I could not bring them to see a doctor because we stayed in Malaysia illegally and we didn't have so much money to pay for medical expenses.
"And one day came when our Malaysian employee realised that my husband was wanted by authorities who had issued a warrant for his arrest. He stopped paying us for work.
"We didn't have any money left to spend living in Malaysia for the months that were to come,'' Ms Nisapariya said, her eyes filling with tears. "At that time, we were like living in something of a hell on Earth.''
As the family struggled with what next steps to take, it occurred to Ms Nisapariya that it may be best for Mr Harong to surrender to authorities.
If he did so through the Bring People Home project, it would offer a safe opportunity for him to finally speak his truth.
She encouraged him to speak up against the injustice he was facing and seek fairness.
"I believed my husband was not involved in that bomb case in Bacho district," she said. "I know him well. He is a responsible husband and a good father of two kids."
Ms Nisapariya had heard of Bring People Home on a TV show while living in Thailand. She knew that the Fourth Army Chief had set up a "hotline" using his private mobile phone number for insurgents from the deep South to contact to express their interest in participating.
Lt Gen Piyawat flew by helicopter to reach out to insurgents at different places in the region.
Ms Nisapariya asked a relative in Narathiwat to find the army chief's mobile phone number.
She made the first phone call in April last year -- after a few missed calls, she finally reached the army chief himself.
She told him her husband had decided to surrender to authorities and was prepared to move back to Thailand. She asked for his help in providing safety and justice for her husband.
The army chief promised to call her back.
"In a couple of days, the dream came true," Ms Nisapariya says. "I received a phone call from him. We made an appointment and the fourth army chief finally flew by a helicopter to personally take my husband at our house in Narathiwat's Bacho district."
Ms Nisapariya expresses great thanks to Lt Gen Piyawat, crediting him for letting her family now enjoy a normal life. Her children, ages eight and 11, have already returned to school.
Mr Harong was eventually acquitted, imbuing him with a sense of confidence that he could do anything with the rest of his life.
He says that he wants other people like him to join the project.
"This project has brought the smiles back to my family," Mr Harong says.
IN THE CLEAR
Hakim Bueraheng, a 38-year-old electronics technician from Muang district of Yala, was one of nine suspects accused of planting a bomb in Narathiwat in 2005. In the same year, he was arrested and jailed at Narathiwat provincial prison.
He spent three years and six months defending his case in Narathiwat provincial court. He was eventually acquitted in 2009 due to a lack of evidence.
But life outside of prison has not been so easy, explains Mr Hakim.
"Even though I'm cleared of the criminal charges, I'm branded as 'dangerous' and have been placed on a blacklist of people who are being closely monitored by authorities,'' he said.
Mr Hakim, the father of two children, said he realised this when he was stopped and questioned at a police checkpoint while riding his motorcycle in Muang district of Yala last year.
He eventually showed the police a card indicating he had been acquitted in the bomb case after which they let him go.
on guard: A soldier patrols a road by Phimolchai market in Yala's Muang district. A motorcycle bomb exploded at the market on Jan 22 , killing three.
Incidents like this nudged Mr Hakim to search for ways he could return his life to normal. He found about the Bring People Home project of the Fourth Army Region and reached out.
He told the general that he wanted the province to remove his name from an insurgent blacklist.
A few months after reaching out, he is now undergoing training in agriculture and dairy farming to start making a living.
Mr Hakim says he wants to teach and encourage young generations to get into the trade as well.
After joining the project, Mr Hakim notices that people seem more comfortable when around him.
Asked if Bring People Home could help ease violence and reduce the loss of lives in the Deep South in the future, Mr Hakim said he believed that it could indeed make matters better.
He describes it as one small step authorities can take in tackling a complex problem.
ONGOING CONFLICT
Since the deep South insurgency was launched with an attack on a Narathiwat military camp in 2004 in which authorities were attacked and firearms seized, current and past governments have made repeated efforts to solve the crisis to no avail.
Insurgents have used a range of tactics to incite fear among residents -- arson, bombings, stabbings, kidnappings, hijackings, shootings, suicide attacks and beheadings among them.
These have taken place across Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala and four districts of Songkhla -- namely Chana, Thepha, Na Thawi and Saba Yoi.
The violence has claimed 7,737 lives between 2004 and Feb 22 this year, as well as injured 12,020 people, according to a report from the Internal Security Operations Command Region 4 Forward.
Human rights commissioner Angkhana Neelapaijit praised the government's programme that has fully helped victims of violence and their families recover from the violent incidents.
However, she noted that the government has lagged in its efforts to ease conflict and reduce the number of violent attacks in the deep South.
She said the recent attack against Thai Buddhists in Narathiwat on the night of Feb 23, as well as the explosion at Phimolchai market in Yala on Jan 22 killing three people and injuring 34 people, shows that the government has fallen short in its efforts in the interfaith process to create understanding between Thai Buddhists and Thai Muslims.
Ms Angkhana says it is important for the government to show locals in the deep South that they are serious and sincere in their efforts to solve the violence.
"The interfaith process is difficult work and needs to be carried out continually," she said.
"Those who engage in it must have courage, sincerity and sacrifice in dealing with the problem.
"I give moral support to the fourth army chief to do the job of solving the deep South's problems to bring about peace and unity to the region."
Waedueramae Mamingji, Pattani Provincial Islamic Committee chairman, says it is undeniable that the 14 years of violence in the region have slowed development and economic growth.
"All state agencies in charge of solving the southern problems must work harder and have access to the people's needs and understandings to get cooperation from locals -- then, one day unity and peace will eventually return to the region,'' Mr Waedueramae said.
back to business: Phimolchai Market in Yala's Muang district, where life has resumed after a bombing. PHOTOS: PATIPAT JANTHONG