Southern army chief ordered to find Pattani school' arsonists

[webfact]

Southern army chief ordered to find arsonists
By Digital Content



BANGKOK, Oct 13 -- Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Udomdej Sitabutr has ordered 4th Army Region Commander Lt Gen Prakan Cholayuth to find the arsonists who set fire to six schools in the violence-plagued southern province of Pattani before dawn Sunday, an army spokesman said.

The spokesman said the army believed the arson of six schools should probably be attributed to the success of the government in arresting several key figures of insurgents and the seizure of a large amount of weapons in the past.

Police said earlier that five schools in Pattani’s Thung Yang Daeng district and one school in Mayo district were set on fire at about 2.30am.

The army commander is very concerned about the incidents and ordered Lt Gen Prakan to speedily evaluate damages and to help the affected people.

He called for the arrest of the culprits to proceed with the judicial process, said the spokesman.

Pattani Deputy Governor Sompoch Suwannarat said that he believed the arsonists intended to damage property rather than hurt officials.

He said representatives of the army, police and the administrative staff met Sunday evening to evaluate the situation again. (MCOT online news)


-- TNA 2014-10-13

[webfact]

SOUTH CRISIS
Army hunts for arsonists

BANGKOK: -- The army is hunting for arsonists who set fires on six schools in Pattani province on Sunday early morning.

Army Commander in Chief Gen Udomdej Sitabutr has assigned the fourth army region that oversees the southern region to find the culprits, an army spokesman said Monday.

The spokesman said the army believed the arson of six schools should probably be attributed to the success of the government in arresting several key figures of insurgents and the seizure of a large amount of weapons in the past.

A total of six schools in three districts of Pattani were burnt to the ground when the arsonists set fire on them at about 2.30am.

The army chief is very concerned about the incidents and ordered Lt Gen Prakan Chonlayuth, the commander, to speedily evaluate damages and to help the affected people.

He called for the arrest of the culprits to proceed with the judicial process, said the spokesman.

Pattani Deputy Governor Sompoch Suwannarat said that he believed the arsonists intended to damage property rather than hurt officials.

He said representatives of the army, police and the administrative staff met Sunday evening to evaluate the situation again.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Army-hunts-for-arsonists-30245353.html


-- The Nation 2014-10-13

[JOC]

Can't he "order" someone to arrest the real culprits on Koh Tao??

[NongKhaiKid]

The army have been assigned the task, why not the BIB with the ' exemplary professionalism ' and investigation to international standards as employed on Koh Tau ?

Oh, have i answered my own question ?

[Local Drunk]

The army have been assigned the task, why not the BIB with the ' exemplary professionalism ' and investigation to international standards as employed on Koh Tau ?

Oh, have i answered my own question ?

Exactly...

[Local Drunk]

Is there a fund established to rebuild these schools?

[marinpa]

Southern army chief ordered to find arsonists

By Digital Content

BANGKOK, Oct 13 -- Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Udomdej Sitabutr has ordered 4th Army Region Commander Lt Gen Prakan Cholayuth to find the arsonists who set fire to six schools in the violence-plagued southern province of Pattani before dawn Sunday, an army spokesman said.

-- TNA 2014-10-13

Find AN arsonist or find THE arsonist(s). So.... They don't need/want more than one.....

[webfact]

Army sets up Thung Yang Daeng defensive model to counter arson attack



BANGKOK: -- The Army has agreed to set up a defensive model to counter arson attack by equipping all schools in three trouble-plagued provinces with alarms and setting up three levels of civil defence volunteers in schools, villages, and tambon to protect schools, and to guard village routes.

The agreement was reached after southern separatists torched six schools in Pattani last night, causing extensive damages to school buildings.

In the meeting at the Army Operation Centre with local authorities in the South via video conference Monday, Army commander-in-chief Gen Udomdech Seetabutr instructed the Fourth Army commander Lt-Gen Prakarn Cholayuth to hunt down the separatists and not to allow such simultaneous arson attacks to repeat again with no defensive measures.

The meeting which was also attended by the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre agreed to use the arson attacks in Thung Yang Daeng as a defensive model to effectively counter attacks in the future.

Under this Thung Yang Daeng defensive model, remote control alarm system will be installed at all schools in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces.

Civil defence volunteers in three levels, village, school and tambon, will be tasked with defending, guarding and
watching the schools, and the routes in the villages.

The army chief also instructed authorities to quickly repair the damaged schools so they can open before the next educational semester. However if school is beyond repair, he instructed the pupils must be arranged to attend classes at other schools unaffected on a temporary basis.

The Education Ministry was asked to allocate budget to build new classrooms within six months.

The meeting was also briefed that the torching of six schools in Pattani province early Sunday morning was believed to be a retaliation by the separatists against recent military operations which resulted in the killing of a one core separatist leader and the seizure of several illegal items.

Pattani deputy governor Mr Sompote Suwannanrat, meanwhile, conducted a field inspection of the six torched schools in Mayor and Thung Yang Daeng districts. He said that the exact estimate of the damages could not be determined now but most of the buildings in the six schools were damaged beyond repairs.

The arson attacks were meant to destroy properties rather than hurting teachers of officials. Volunteers who guarded the schools were tied up before the separatists poured gasoline around the school buildings before setting it alight.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/army-sets-thung-yang-daeng-defensive-model-counter-arson-attack/


-- Thai PBS 2014-10-13

[Local Drunk]

"The arson attacks were meant to destroy properties rather than hurting teachers of officials. Volunteers who guarded the schools were tied up before the separatists poured gasoline around the school buildings before setting it alight."

Such polite little terrorists! I'm sincerely amazed by their magnanimous gestures. Altruistic terrorist don't come along every day you know. Is this perhaps the beginning of a Terrorists Code of Conduct?

[Bluespunk]

"Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Udomdej Sitabutr has ordered 4th Army Region Commander Lt Gen Prakan Cholayuth to find the arsonists who set fire to six schools"

He needs to be told to do this?

[Mango Bob]

Remains me of Central World, they may have been involved in what many TV detectives believe the reds did.

[Prbkk]

A dreadful thing. A peculiarly Thai logic on this matter in today's Bangkok Post report....in 1993, 36 schools were torched, yesterday 6 set alight. BP article's conclusion: things are getting better.

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

Burmese insurgents perhaps? Surely a Thai would never do it....

[Bluespunk]

Remains me of Central World, they may have been involved in what many TV detectives believe the reds did.

Nope.

Don't need to be a detective to work out who was behind that.

They'd be threatening to do it for a long time.

Then they did.

[ggt]

You need to "order" the Southern Commander to bring the arsonist to justice...I was under the impression that was already his job...

And while you are at it...order him to find a way to protect law abiding citizens, professionals, officials, and children which have been the target is Islamic thugs for many years now...

[sup3r1or]

Dont worry they will find him, get another confession out of someone.

[JAG]

Perhaps if they regarded the insurgency seriously, and deployed the considerable resources of the army to counter it, rather than leaving the job to untrained local volunteer groups, then the insurgents would find it more difficult to swan around torching schools and worse.

[Pib]

Anyone who has read Bangkok Post, The Nation, ThaiVisa, etc., news articles over the years regarding the unrest in the south has probably seen dozens of instances where someone "orders" or "assigns" someone else to fix the situation, hunt down and capture certain individuals, etc. Unfortunately, all these orders were mostly for media attention and hasn't resolved the southern unrest...not to imply it should be a simple problem to solve because it ain't.

[powerkick]

So why don't they install a sprinkler system in all schools? At least the buildings would be saved that way.

[bangon04]

"Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Udomdej Sitabutr has ordered 4th Army Region Commander Lt Gen Prakan Cholayuth to find the arsonists who set fire to six schools"

He needs to be told to do this?

Headline: "Army Chief orders soldiers to investigate and arrest arsonists because everyone know that the RTP is hopelessly incompetent and not up to the task"

at least they don't need to worry about this crime affecting tourist numbers...

[phanangpete]

They really don't know how to deal with it, they seem to react after the event, which is never going to stop it.

The terrorists seem to work at will, with little fear of being caught, killing school teachers in their hundreds is one of the most cowardly acts know to mankind!

How much insider info can they be getting, what incentives are they using to get the community to spill the beans, these bums are living amongst them, they have to know something.

Again, its down to, they are living in fear for their lives, cause these callous scum would have their heads off.

They have to ask for expert advice from Countries which are dealing with this, im sure they would be more than willing to help, cause thats what they need HELP !

Northern Ireland had thirty odd years of it , therefore the Uk would have a lot of experience to advise them.

Ill not go into, that there is an' acceptable level of violence', and to ask for help would be losing face, soooooooo sad Thailand.