Human rights group Amnesty International has accused the Thai government of being responsible for at least 34 cases of torture in the three southernmost provinces of Thailand. The group claims that at least four people were killed by torture during the government's crackdown on the Islamic insurgency movement in the south of Thailand from March 2007 to May 2008. Survivors and relatives of those who died told Amnesty International that the most commonly used methods of torture were electric shock and suffocation by placing plastic bags over the victims' heads. More than 3,300 people have died as a result of the insurgency in southern Thailand, which erupted in January 2004.