Muslim Killed, 13 Schools Burned In Southern Thailand

[Mid]

Muslim killed, 13 schools burned in southern Thailand

June 14, 2007 : Last updated 11:17 am (Thai local time)

YALA - A Muslim man was shot dead while insurgents set fire to 13 schools in Thailand's insurgency-torn south, police said Thursday.

The 44-year-old man was gunned down late Wednesday by militants in a drive-by shooting in Yala, one of three Muslim-majority provinces bordering Malaysia, police said.

In nearby Narathiwat, a soldier guarding a vocational college was injured early Thursday when a bomb exploded in front of the school.

Insurgents also torched 13 schools in nearly simultaneous arson attacks in Yala and Pattani provinces late Wednesday, police added.

The latest arson attacks brought the number of schools torched by rebels to 200, while 77 teachers have been killed in the three-year insurgency, according to education officials in the region.

Teachers and schools are often targeted by insurgents, who see them as trying to impose Buddhist Thai values on the Muslim and ethnic Malay region.

More than 2,200 people have been killed and thousands more wounded in separatist violence that erupted in the south in January 2004.

The violence has escalated despite peace-building measures by the military-installed government which came to power following a coup in September 2006.

The region was once an autonomous sultanate, until the region was annexed by mainly Buddhist Thailand a century ago. Separatist unrest has erupted there periodically ever since.

Agence France-Presse

horrendous ....................

if Thailand isn't able to do anything positive in the region ,

maybe ,

it's time to Give It Back .

[MiG16]

it's time to Give It Back .

give it back to who?

would also be interesting to see you find some stats on the 2000 or more killed....how many of those were non-muslims?

then contrast that with muslims who had been killed in the last 30 years as part of the alleged suppression aimed at them becuase of their religion?

I would be VERY interested to get this info......

[Mid]

1902 - Thailand (then called Siam) annexes the ancient Kingdom of Patani, a semi-autonomous Islamic Malay region.

sorry , I don't distinguish man by religion ,

all the dead were fellow humans , all of them .

[sbk]

From the Pattani Muslim guy my husband talked to he got the impression that the majority of the Muslims in the South do not want a separate state but do want greater economic help and more apparent governmental respect for Muslim culture. However, most of them are afraid of ending up the way the Muslim man in this story did if they talk against the separatists; dead.

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Schools torched in south Thailand

Last Updated: Thursday, 14 June 2007, 06:27 GMT 07:27 UK

Thirteen schools have been set on fire in southern Thailand, where teachers have increasingly become the targets of a bloody conflict.

The Thai authorities have blamed Muslim insurgents for a series of recent attacks on schools, as part of their separatist campaign.

The violence in the region has killed more than 2,200 people since 2004.

More than 200 schools have been torched and 77 teachers killed, according to education officials.

Classrooms unsafe

This appears to have been a co-ordinated attack - 13 schools set on fire almost simultaneously on Wednesday evening.

Hours later a bomb exploded in front of another school.

No group has yet claimed responsibility.

More than 200 schools have been torched in the last three years

[Mid]

From the Pattani Muslim guy my husband talked to he got the impression that the majority of the Muslims in the South do not want a separate state but do want greater economic help and more apparent governmental respect for Muslim culture. However, most of them are afraid of ending up the way the Muslim man in this story did if they talk against the separatists; dead.

acknowledge this ,

my original quote wasn't quoted in it's entirety ............

to wit ,

if Thailand isn't able to do anything positive in the region ,

maybe ,

it's time to Give It Back