Thailand Allows School Teachers To Carry Guns

[george]

Thailand allows teachers in south to carry guns

BANGKOK - Thailand gave permission to teachers in its troubled Muslim south yesterday to carry guns in classrooms to help allay safety fears sparked by four months of attacks on schools and public buildings.

Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula said: 'I've ordered all three provincial governors to respond to requests by civil servants, including teachers, for pistol-carrying permits promptly because they need them for self-defence.'

More than 70 people have been killed in the three southern provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani this year in attacks blamed on Islamic separatists.

Teachers, who are mostly Buddhists, have been prime targets along with monks, policemen and village chiefs. Dozens of schools have also been set on fire.

Schools are easy targets since they are often located in remote hilly areas.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the Education Ministry would try to ensure protection for the teachers and look for replacements for those who wanted to get out, reported the Bangkok Post.

Defence officials said troops would guard all schools in the three provinces. Southern Thailand's new school year is due to start next Monday, but many teachers have asked for a delay because they are scared.

Meanwhile, a bomb blew up a Yala police booth yesterday as experts were trying to defuse it, police said. No one was injured.

-- Reuters, AP 2004-04-28

[thaimee]

Beloved working Thai teachers please defend your being, in this a most out of character move for our other beloved Muslim faith's. Perpetrators must be driven to ruin.

Killing innocent's will not resolve old problems unsolved. Foreigners and Ethnic minorities alike, must await a new government before any real chance of voicing opinion can be taken Seriously.

The obvious action or defence is to shoot or be killed. Have we not observed innocent's being slayed while working an honest week. Shame, Shameless infidels.

What is not warranted is a 'Holy War'. These actions should not be tolerated! This is Thailand which is predominantly Buddhist!

Thaimee.

[NedKelly]

...........but Ajaan.........'I dont know where Iran is on the map, jing jing'.........'you should know'......bang bang !!

[kurgen]

Teachers carrying guns !!!!

in my day we got caned

[castelleone]

what is Thailand now up to? Shootouts in classrooms? I don`t believe it.

[astral]

Great idea.

The next thing we know all the kids will have them, and shooting matches will ensue, just like the good ol' US of A, home of the gun culture!!

[Pogo]

The next thing we know all the kids will have them, and shooting matches will ensue, just like the good ol' US of A, home of the gun culture!!

All Michelonian citizens now have full authority to carry guns at all times. License can be obtained at http://www.michelonia.com

The weapons must be handguns only and can not be able to shoot more than 10ml of water per second. The weapon can not be carried loaded except during the Michelonian Sonkran festival.

[englishoak]

Going the wrong way

[meadish_sweetball]

Well, I guess the gun-toting yankees are rubbing their hands now that another country has been enlightened enough to follow their divinely inspired path of "self-defense".

More guns = more safety. more safety = more freedom. More freedom = more meat on my plate. God bless us all, but me the most.

Ain't that right, Billy-Bob? Now get that god-###### cow outta the kitchin'´and quit yer bitchin, Norma-Ray-Bessie-Rob. We've got a world to subdue.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Beloved working Thai teachers please defend your being, in this a most out of character move for our other beloved Muslim faith's. Perpetrators must be driven to ruin.

Killing innocent's will not resolve old problems unsolved. Foreigners and Ethnic minorities alike, must await a new government before any real chance of voicing opinion can be taken Seriously.

The obvious action or defence is to shoot or be killed. Have we not observed innocent's being slayed while working an honest week. Shame, Shameless infidels.

What is not warranted is a 'Holy War'. These actions should not be tolerated! This is Thailand which is predominantly Buddhist!

Thaimee.

Shame. Shameless Muslim Terrorists that started all this killing.

[meadish_sweetball]

Shame. Shameless Muslim Terrorists that started all this killing.

Yes, shame on the terrorists. I'm not justifying their actions. The slashing of a buddhist monk was so over the top that it is beyond words - and a blatant provocation against the Thai national values package as well.

Then again - there would be a lot fewer of these Southern kids running around with machetes and guns if the precious Illuminati of the Mighty Smog had tried to listen and understand the viewpoints of the muslims in the South as well. There are good enough examples from the past of Thai leaders choosing a balanced way of dealing with insurgency (Prem), but sadly enough also the opposite (Sarit and company).

Implementing development schemes based on taking out interest, which is in direct conflict with sharia law, is but one move sure to alienate the muslim population.

They need to get the Imam and village leaders to the negotiation tables, sit down and LISTEN to their suggestions, and strike compromises. Only after this bloodshed, it may be too late to do so.

If the government want to keep annexed territory (albeit a long time ago), which used to be governed autonomously by people of a different cultural and religious background, then they should learn how to DEAL with that background as well. Cross-cultural communications or peace and conflict studies does not seem to have been taught at the various universities where today's governement members went.

[KevinN]

HORSESHIT; There is no appeasement of the ragheads, Give them the south end of Thailand and they will attack again and want the middle, The JIHAD will go on until everyone left alive is muslim,,kinda reminds me of history in school when we studied the catholic inquisition.

If they aren't killing infidels and Christians they are killing each other, all sects kill all other sects,so what you got. They are just a kill crazy bunch of terrorist bastards and the only way to settle them down is with bullets and ropes.

[meadish_sweetball]

Well Kevin, since you proved your point so eloquently and consolidated it by an unsurmountable pile of valid evidence, you have now made me understand the nature of Islam as well. Thank you. No, really. Thank you.

[Yohan]

Thailand allows teachers in south to carry guns

Teachers, who are mostly Buddhists, have been prime targets along with monks, policemen and village chiefs. Dozens of schools have also been set on fire.

I made many postings in the general section about Thai Muslims, I am visiting this area since about 30 years....

Why are teachers mostly Buddhists?

Why are policemen mostly Buddhists?

Why are village chiefs mostly Buddhists?

This in an area, where up to 82 percent of the population is not ethnic Thai, do not speak Thai as their native language and are not Buddhist, but Muslims....

Johann

[Yohan]

What is not warranted is a 'Holy War'. These actions should not be tolerated! This is Thailand which is predominantly Buddhist!Thaimee.

Shame. Shameless Muslim Terrorists that started all this killing.  

This area of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat is not predominantly Buddhist....only about 15 percent of the people living there are Buddhists...

And the killing was started in the 16th century when Thailand was invading the South - but was not successful.....

Chakri dynasty of Rama I brought slavery and poverty to the South, and the khlongs in Bangkok around the Rattanakosin, the Palace of the King, were digged all by Pattani Muslim slaves of South Thailand.

Unbelieveable cruel torture of the Thai forces against Moslems was observed and reported by the British presence in Malaysia at that time. And of course, up to today, many Muslims in the South do consider the present King of Thailand as their symbol of poverty and slavery, a symbol of war and hate......

They do not see any reason indeed, how Buddhism can be called a peaceful religion....

These are the facts, borders were corrected 1909 and 1945, and Muslim areas were given to Thailand, despite the Muslim provinces were fighting in the WWII on the British side, and not on the Thai side.....

South Thailand was always a place of unrest....

sad, but true....

it is however wrong to blame only the Moslems.....they did not attack the Thais, the Thais were always attacking the Muslim areas, invading their lands, destoying everything, took people in slavery and took away their status as an independent country.

This is Thailand which is predominantly Buddhist!

A part of the Muslim areas were given to Thailand after WWII..and it is not predominantly Buddhist....the other part was integrated into Malay Federation.

Now mostly the teachers, soldiers, policemen, railway-workers, judges and other government officials and their families are Thai and Buddhist.....they were sent in from the North and Central Thailand .....they are not considered to be the locals ....

Many Chinese living there too, who are Christians and also related to the other side of the border to Kedah in Malaysia...(Hokkien Chinese for example)

also some Indians and other minorities....

Nobody likes the Thais in the South, and this is a problem for all 1.5 million people in that Southern border region.

Personal freedom for South Thai Muslims came 1905, when slavery was abolished. Slaves from the South were released in Bangkok and other places in Thailand...

Johann