Unrest In Thai South Kills Four, Sparks School Closures

[webfact]

Unrest in Thai south kills four, sparks school closures

NARATHIWAT (AFP) -- Suspected Islamic militants have killed four people in Thailand's restive south, police said Tuesday, including a teacher whose death sparked calls for a region-wide closure of schools.

The 54-year-old was shot dead as he travelled to work in Narathiwat province on Tuesday with his wife, who was injured. He was the 134th teacher killed since 2004 in the violence-plagued region.

The Narathiwat Association of Teachers called for all schools in the province to close for three days to allow the authorities to tighten security.

"We don't want any more teachers to die because they do not have protection," said Boonsom Thongsriplai, head of the association.

Some of Narathiwat's more than 400 state-run schools are believed to have closed already and more are expected to shut from Wednesday.

Teachers working in state schools are frequently targeted because they are seen as a symbol of government authority in the south, where insurgents view the schools system as an effort by Bangkok to impose Buddhist culture.

But the Islamic militants, whose exact goals are unclear, have targeted both Buddhists and Muslims in a six-year insurgency that has left more than 4,300 people dead in the Muslim-majority region.

In separate attacks on Monday in Pattani province, a 52-year-old Muslim villager was shot dead while leaving his house, while a janitor, aged 55, was gunned down on his way to guard a school.

Another shooting killed a 51-year-old Muslim woman as she walked to her local mosque for evening prayer in Yala province on Monday.

On the same day in Yala, two blasts wounded six people including a soldier, while a roadside bomb in another part of the province injured three soldiers on foot patrol.

In other attacks in Narathiwat province, three Muslim villagers were wounded by shots fired at their pickup truck on Monday.

A 73-year-old rubber plantation owner was also seriously hurt in the region on Tuesday after he stepped on a landmine thought to have been planted by militants.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2010-09-07

[webfact]

Teachers in 326 Narathiwat schools threaten to suspend classes

Narathiwat - The Narathiwat Teachers Federation resolved Tuesday to suspend classes after two teachers were killed by Muslim insurgents in the morning.

Sanguan Intharak, the chairman of the federation, said his organization resolved to have teachers in all 326 schools stop teaching until the security measures for teaches have improved.

However, the federation has yet to decide when teachers will stop teaching, Sanguan said.

The federation decided to take action after a couple, who were teachers of two schools, were gunned down. The husband died at the scene while the wife died later at a hospital.

-- The Nation 2010-09-07

[sirchai]

I know that this website isn't there to spread hate or racism. How can you really protect all teachers? Are teachers maybe teaching in the wrong language? What's the fuc_king point of killing innocent people?

They burned down lots of schools in the past.

They want to have the southern part of Thailand.

They don't like Christians or Buddhists.

They kill and call it "holy war'.

I just call it brainless. Stop killing innocent people. Hate is producing hate. Thailand was always so cool to allow all types of religions. It reached a point to think about if Muslims shouldn't be allowed in the South of Thailand, because of their violence.

To be honest, not all are self made warriors, but how could anybody differentiate who's' 'good' or 'bad'?

Fact is that the killings have to stop. Full stop.

[overhaul38]

The world is slowly coming to realize that there are serious divides that defy negotiations and accommodation.

You know you are on terrible grounds when you are faced with a group that will kill themselves to kill you.

They kill innocents to instill fear and bring you to the negotiating table to grant them power so they will stop killing.

History shows that you cannot win by appeasing a group with this mentality. They will not accept any other group

or religion and will only accept total victory at whatever cost.

[asiawatcher]

If Islam cannot integrate in the south simply go back across the border where you came from. Thailand is Buddhist fortunately and if your 'religion of peace' can't stop hiding behind extremists, then leave or soon you can bet the Thai's will say "enough" and all hel_l will break loose and a lot of the passive Thai's who have been sitting idle will no longer do so. What you reap so will you sow. Times up.

[surangw]

Maybe they just want to be left alone to practice bacha baziafghan as part of their culture ?

[Renbe]

It is a horrible situation. Nothing can be won by killing innocent people. It will only lead to more violence and more killings. Separation from Thailand is in my opinion impossible, no Thai government will ever bow for this kind of violent blackmail. It is indeed striking that a religion that claims to be a religion of peace, manages to kill so many people in so many places around the world.

[webfact]

SOUTH CRISIS

All Narathiwat schools close doors after two teachers killed

By The Nation

All 365 schools across the southernmost province of Narathiwat will close for three days from today, as teachers demand that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva pay more attention to the violence in the deep South following the fatal shooting of two of their colleagues yesterday.

Assailants on a motorcycle fired an M16 assault rifle at the teachers - Wilas Promphan, 54, and his wife Khomkham, 52 - at 6am while they were on their way to a fresh market.

Wilas was killed instantly and Khomkham died later at a local hospital.

Their deaths raised the number of teachers killed in the deep South to 135 since violence flared up in the predominantly Muslim region early in 2004.

"We have agreed to close all schools for a while," Narathiwat Teachers Confederation chairman Sanguan Intarak announced after a meeting of teachers held in response to the latest slayings.

He said the latest attack against teachers had dented the morale of all local teaching staff.

The violence erupted in the region more than six years ago but successive governments have failed to find a way to contain it. The current government seems to pay even less attention to the problem, Sanguan said.

"Unless Prime Minister Abhisit comes down to the South, the teachers' confederation will not cremate the two teachers," he said.

Narathiwat Governor Thanon Vejjakornkanont said agencies needed to find measures urgently to protect the lives of teachers in the troubled region.

"We may need a new security plan," he said. "I am told the schools [in Narathiwat] will be closed for three days."

Violence continues to take place in the region on an almost daily basis, but nobody claims responsibility for the attacks.

In another incident, 36yearold Saree Bueraheng, assistant to a village headman, was severely wounded late on Monday when an unknown number of gunmen in a pickup fired on his vehicle.

On Sunday night, a series of arson attacks took place at many locations in Narathiwat. Suspected insurgents fired on a local administration office and set fire to mobile telephone transmission towers and public phone booths across six districts of the violenceplagued province, but there were no reports of casualties.

In response to this week's violence, rangers, troops and marines jointly raided an insurgents' camp on a mountain in Narathiwat's Rangae district yesterday morning.

However, no arrests were made as the camp was deserted by the time the authorities arrived at 9.30am. The camp was hidden on a mountain about 2 kilometres from Buajae village in Tambon Bongor.

Five makeshift houses were found at the camp and officials seized M16 ammunition, fertiliser and equipment for assembling bombs.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Pattani province, a school janitor was shot dead early yesterday, police said.

Mahama Saleh, 55, janitor of Chamao Samton School in Sai Buri district's Tambon Traobon, was found dead in front of the school.

Police said he was shot in the back, apparently by insurgents who had staked out the school.

-- The Nation 2010-09-08

[shawndoc]

If Islam cannot integrate in the south simply go back across the border where you came from.

Except its not about religion, its about ethnicity. And they didn't come across the border into Thailand, they've always been there. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattani_%28region%29) You have a group of people who consider themselves to be Malay or Pattani, who view the Thai as occupiers. They don't want religious freedom, they want to either have the land given back to Malaysia or to form their own independent country (depending on which group you're dealing with). These separatists attack not just Buddhists but also other Muslim's who they feel don't support their cause.

It has more in common with the Basque separatist movement in Spain than it does Al Qaeda.

Edited September 8, 2010 by shawndoc

[mccw]

From what I've read Islam seems to of been founded on the back of violence, the wars uniting the Arab lands and all that, total glorification of violence and holly war ; which infact is no differrent to any other group striving to acheive power over another. Those In the west saying Islam is a religion pf peace are just kidding themselves; in most countries it's the mullhas who are instigating and preaching violence and intollerrance and standing in the way of their own peoples wishes for greater freedom.

[reason1]

wassalam

[mccw]

I tend to agree that such people cannot be reasoned with and the only way to solve the problem is through devastating force. Same with the red shirts or the IRA; once you cross the line and start bombing civillians then you've forfieted any claim to human rights and any means to crush them is justified. It's an absolute discrace to have these terrorist murderers sat in stormont; I hope Thailand never gives in to terrorism like britian did. Shameful!

[rubl]

If Islam cannot integrate in the south simply go back across the border where you came from.

Except its not about religion, its about ethnicity. And they didn't come across the border into Thailand, they've always been there. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattani_%28region%29) You have a group of people who consider themselves to be Malay or Pattani, who view the Thai as occupiers. They don't want religious freedom, they want to either have the land given back to Malaysia or to form their own independent country (depending on which group you're dealing with). These separatists attack not just Buddhists but also other Muslim's who they feel don't support their cause.

It has more in common with the Basque separatist movement in Spain than it does Al Qaeda.

IMHO it doesn't justify the violence. Beheadings of people, torching schools, bombs.