Hope for peace ... the Opposition Leader, Abhisit Vejjajiva, has been invited to attend a forum on the southern conflict.

Hope for peace ... the Opposition Leader, Abhisit Vejjajiva, has been invited to attend a forum on the southern conflict. Photo: AFP

BANGKOK: A mass defection of insurgents has raised hopes of an end to a largely forgotten war in Thailand's south, even as the latest violence at the weekend left four people dead, including three soldiers.

More than 5000 people have been killed and thousands injured in Thailand's four southernmost provinces, bordering Malaysia, since predominantly ethnic Malay Muslim insurgents ignited conflict against the Thai Buddhist state there in 2004.

Only weeks after deadly attacks in the region that marked the end of Ramadan, a secret Thai army strategy to encourage defections among the insurgents appears to be working, with 93 people who had been charged with offences connected with the conflict turning themselves in to authorities last week.

Charges against 72 of them have since been dropped.

Thai army officials say they expect many more insurgents to surrender in the coming days, lured by promises that arrest warrants and charges against them would be revoked.

The Thai Army's regional commander, Udomchai Thammasarorach, said his ''bring the people home'' policy had persuaded militants and their sympathisers ''to give up their separatist cause and return to their families''.

Several militants wanted for attacks were among the defectors, some of whom told the Thai media they were tired of fighting.

While many hardcore militants remain at large, the Thai government has set aside bitter political rivalry to invite the Opposition Leader, Abhisit Vejjajiva, to attend a forum on the southern conflict tomorrow.

The southern provinces are a stronghold of Mr Abhisit's Democrat Party.

The secretary-general of the Saudi Arabia-based Muslim World League, Abdullah bin Abdul Mohsin al-Turki, has also arrived in Bangkok hoping to help end the conflict.

While insisting the human rights of Muslims around the world should always be given top priority, Mr Turki said ''people also have to give co-operation to restore peace in the country''.

The Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, has promised his country will intensify efforts to help end the conflict, including setting up more checkpoints along Malaysia's porous border with the Thai provinces.

In a wave of co-ordinated attacks on August 31, Thai flags were burnt and Malaysian flags raised in their place. The attacks marked the anniversary of the 1989 founding of an umbrella separatist group as well as the anniversary of Malaysia's independence from British rule.

However, it is unclear why the insurgents raised the Malaysian flags. They have previously said they want a separate state, but never that they want to be part of Malaysia.

The conflict has escalated this year to include ever larger bombings of businesses, including hotels frequented by foreigners, in a seemingly endless cycle of violence that has raged with little international publicity.

Fifty-two victims of the violence have been beheaded since 2004 while murderous gangs have targeted people in drive-by shootings, ambushes of military groups and the burning of schools and other state-owned buildings.

In one of the latest attacks three soldiers and a housekeeper travelling in a ute on Saturday were attacked by gunmen in a district of Yala province. Their bodies were burnt inside the vehicle.