Violence Forces Thai Teachers To Carry Guns

Violence forces Thai teachers to carry guns

BANGKOK — Thai teachers in the violence-racked south are packing more than just textbooks as they head for classes every day. Guns have now been added to their "to pack" list.

Fearing they could become the next victim in the ongoing violence in the south, hundreds of teachers are arming themselves with guns and taking shooting lessons, The Nation reported yesterday.

Mr Pairat Wihakarat, chairman of the Pattani Teachers' Federation, was quoted as saying that more than half of the 600 staff in the Khok Pho district alone had submitted applications for firearm permits.

A pistol costs about 30,000 baht ($1,300). A new teacher earns less than 20,000 baht a month.

Southern Thailand's bloody unrest raged on over the weekend with an army officer and a local official slain by unidentified gunmen, police said yesterday.

Sergeant Major Pisith Sriraksa, 55, was walking with his daughter when he was gunned down by men on a motorcycle in Yala, one of three Muslim-majority provinces in the south where violence had flared earlier this year, AFP reported.

Two hours later in the neighbouring Jana district in Songkhla, an assistant village headman was shot to death. This brought the total number of deaths so far to at least 46 in two months of violence.

--Agencies 2004-03-01