Asela Dorotae was only 12 years old when insurgents killed her father in front of her.

They were travelling in Thailand's southern Yala province when a group of men stopped their motorbike, and pushed him to the roadside. With a bad leg, he couldn't run away.

"So they shot him," said Asela. "Then afterwards they stabbed him."

She said she waited at the scene for two to three hours until soldiers arrived. But the soldiers told her the gunmen didn't leave any evidence and could not be traced. That was two years ago. Two of her uncles have also been killed.

"I miss him all the time," said the bright-eyed girl, remembering how her father used to help her with schoolwork.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in Muslim separatist unrest in Thailand's far south which flared up in early 2004.

Children routinely bear witness to - and are victims of - terrifying levels of violence. These include decapitations, drive-by shootings, slaying of ambushed bus passengers and torching of bodies, according to a new report by U.N. children's fund UNICEF.

Militants claim the government discriminates against minority Muslims, who live mainly in the southern provinces, speak Malay and have more in common with neighbouring Malaysia than with Buddhist Thais.

The insurgents appear to target both Buddhists and Muslims associated with the Thai state, such as police, soldiers, government officials and teachers.

Victims have included at least 92 educational staff and 30 children. UNICEF says hundreds of schools have also been damaged or destroyed and many are now guarded by armed volunteers.

Everyday fears

Beside Asela sits 16-year-old Sahadam Waeyusoh from Pattani province, who, on his way to school one day, witnessed fighting between the military and insurgents in which many people died. For the next two days, he refused to go to school.

Asela and Sahadam - both Thai Muslims - are among tens of thousands of children who have been affected by the conflict, says UNICEF.

The two teenagers were in Bangkok on Thursday for the launch of UNICEF's report Everyday Fears: A study of children's perceptions of living in the southern border area of Thailand, which was compiled from interviews with around 2,400 children and over 700 adults in the south.

The survey was carried out for UNICEF by Thai non-government organisation (NGO) Knowing Children and its three partner organisations in the south.

Most of those interviewed said the greatest danger in their lives was the unrest, and their responses indicated that almost every aspect of life carried risks and restrictions.

The survey said many children did not even have a sense that their homes were safe - one third of both child and adult respondents said the unrest had increased violence within their families.

The repeated disruptions to their schooling were also resented. As one 15-year-old girl wrote in an essay: "My school used to have many beautiful things and also kind teachers. It is also a big school and I am glad to study here. But my school was burned down and I helped put out the fire."

Other children expressed their fears in drawings, where insurgents were usually depicted as male figures, dressed in fashionable clothes who carried weapons and used drugs.

Asela now stays in Yala city at the office of Luk Riang, a local NGO for children, which is closer to her secondary school. She only goes home to her mother and two siblings at weekends.

Her primary school days were hard, she said, because the teachers hardly came to school for fear of attack. It is easier now, but transport is still a problem.

"Sometimes there are trees along the way - they cut the trees to block the road," Asela said. "Or there are nails on the street and leaflets telling children not to go to school."

Ray of hope

Nonetheless, the report said not one child expressed negative views about other religions, nor did any of them refer to religion as a cause of the unrest.

"At first I have a feeling of revenge," said Asela, whose friends include Christians and Buddhists. However, after joining the study and meeting many other children in the same situation, she said she realised revenge was a never-ending cycle.

She described Yala as a beautiful province and remembered a time when there was harmony among neighbours. An event in one house used to bring the whole village together, "but now, each family is separated because they don't trust each other", she said.

"Even NGOs no longer visit us. I want the violence to end and peace to return," Asela added.

Asela, who wants to work for an NGO when she grows up, said it was important that children in her province get full-time education, not just two to three hours a day.

"I believe that if the children become educated, they won't become violent." she said. "I really believe that after they learn, they will become peaceful."

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