Arsonists Hit Five Schools In Yala

[george]

Arsonists hit five schools in restive southern Thailand

BANGKOK: -- Arsonists set fire to five schools and an unused police checkpoint in southern Thailand causing minor damage, police said Saturday, in the latest round of violence to hit the troubled Muslim-dominated region.

Villagers and firefighters extinguished the blazes late Friday before they got out of control, police Maj. Gen. Tani Twidsi told The Associated Press by telephone.

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks on four schools in Yala province, another in Narathiwat province and a checkpoint in Pattani.

The fires were the latest in a recent string of attacks on state-owned targets in Thailand's Muslim-majority southernmost provinces.

The most serious incident took place on Jan. 4 when attackers raided an army camp in Narathiwat, killing four soldiers and stealing more than 300 assault weapons from its armory.

Almost simultaneously, 21 state schools nearby were set on fire, suggesting a coordinated attack. Since the beginning of the year, about 50 people - mostly security personnel but including Buddhist monks, hospital workers and teachers - have been killed in hit-and-run assaults.

Many of those targeted have been linked to the central government.

While the identity of those behind the violence remains uncertain, government officials in the predominantly Buddhist country have blamed Muslim separatists with possible links to regional and international terror networks.

An Islamic separatist movement in the region was put down in the late 1980s, but a fresh cycle of violence began in 2001 with attacks on policemen.

Police recently arrested 10 men in connection with the armory raid, but official efforts to suppress the violence have increased tension in the Muslim community.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, speaking Saturday in his weekly national radio address, urged stronger efforts to track down the perpetrators, who he said have "evil hearts.''

"I think everyone (trying to resolve this problem) must feel discouraged, but we have to keep working on this. Everything must be peaceful,'' he said.

Thaksin renewed his call for Muslim community leaders to help restore peace.

Muslim elders have not been enthusiastic about the government's efforts to stop the violence, which they have called heavy-handed.

-- AP 2004-03-06