Victims of south unrest register for compensation
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The Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC) yesterday started registering victims of unrest in the deep South.
The qualified registered victims will be entitled to remedial actions from the recently approved Bt2-billion budget.
The remedial actions will cover physical, emotional and spiritual rehabilitation. Victims’ Hajj expenses may also be reimbursed.
The budget will also be used to create job opportunities and improve security measures in the southern border provinces.
Maimed victims will receive legal assistance if they want to file lawsuits or initiate a fact-finding process.
A committee will determine the form of remedial action for the victims.
Preecha Wong-iam, 58, was among the victims showing up for extra remedial action yesterday.
On November 10, 2006, he was shot in the back and left partially paralysed. He said that although he received some financial help from authorities concerned, he had been struggling hard to make ends meet.
According to him, he has had to rent a room at Bt1,700 a month and to repay a loan at Bt2,170 a month. He has sought a Bt50,000 loan for a specially designed motorcycle that allows him to move around and earn a living as a locksmith.
“My family is in financial trouble,” he said.
A source at the Social Development and Human Security Ministry said Preecha had received Bt3,000 financial help per month in addition to the one-off compensation of Bt203,000 for him and Bt2,000 for his family. However, he may be entitled to extra remedial actions from the recently approved budget.
Office of National Buddhism director Nopparat Benjawattananan, meanwhile, disclosed that the Cabinet earlier this month also approved a Bt64.8-million budget for Buddhist monks based in the southern provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani, Songkhla and Satun.
“They will be given Bt2,500 extra per month each,” he said.
According to him, his office will also allocate a budget for the Buddhist monks’ monthly expenses in the southern provinces from now on. Due to the ongoing wave of violence in the South, some temples in the predominantly Muslims have found it hard to keep resident monks.
Presently, there are just 4,322 Buddhist monks in 825 temples in these five strife-plagued provinces.
