Thailand Recloses Most Schools In Muslim South

[george]

Thailand recloses most schools in Muslim south

BANGKOK - Thailand will close most of the 900 schools in its largely Muslim south for the second time this year after threats from unidentified groups, education officials said on Wednesday.

Shortly after the announcement that schools in the region would be closed for the rest of the week, another policeman was critically wounded by two shots in the head while driving to a market in Pattani province bordering Malaysia, police said.

"They have met and decided schools are not yet safe, so they will close and wait and see how the situation evolves," senior Education Ministry official Kasama Varawan told Reuters.

Kasama said a school in Narathiwat province closed on Tuesday after it received a letter threatening to plant a bomb there and another school closed on Wednesday for the same reason.

Just last month, all schools in the three southernmost provinces where Muslim separatists fought a low-key insurgency in the 1970s and 1980s were closed for a week after a series of bomb threats at schools and against lives of teachers.

Violence surged again in January in the region where most of predominantly Buddhist Thailand's six million Muslims live when gunmen raided an army camp, stole more than 100 guns, most of them M-16s, and set 21 schools in Narathiwat province on fire.

A massive security operation has failed to catch the gunmen, but since then, several Buddhist monks and police and civil servants of both religions have been killed by machete-wielding attackers or gunmen riding pillion on motorcycles.

The government has blamed local mafias for the spate of violence, but some security officials believe those behind the attacks may have links to Jemaah Islamiah, widely regarded as the Southeast Asian branch of al Qaeda.

Tanat Promsri, head of school managers in Pattani, told reporters on Wednesday teachers would meet officials to talk about security for schools, teachers and students before they resume teaching.

--Reuters 2004-02-18