Schools in South set to reopen on Monday
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Schools in the insurgency-hit southern border area will be reopened on Monday as teachers are satisfied with the increased security measures for them.
The decision was reached at a meeting of teacher representatives in the Muslim-majority provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala.
Schools in the three provinces have been closed intermittently following a spate of deadly insurgent attacks on schoolteachers in the area, who were brutally gunned down.
Boonsom Thongsriprai, chief of the Federation of Teachers in Three Southern Border Provinces, who discussed the matter with the authorities yesterday, said the teachers wanted to be provided with strict security measures.
Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung will meet Chularatchamontri Aziz Pitakkhumpol, the spiritual leader of Muslims in Thailand, next month to discuss the violence in the southern region.
Chalerm said he would ask Aziz during their meeting scheduled for January 7 to record a speech in an attempt to help restore understanding and confidence among the Thai-Muslim communities in the South.
His request to meet the spiritual leader follows in an increase in violence in the three southernmost provinces over the past weeks, in which fatal attacks have claimed the lives of many people, including teachers and civilians.
Chalerm said he assigned the governors of Songkhla, Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani to organise a meeting of kamnans and village chiefs and asked for their cooperation in solving the problems.
The governors would be asked to collect data on what they needed and did not need and convey this information to him so that he could forward it to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
He would also ask the Foreign Ministry to inform Muslim countries throughout the world about the brutal attacks by insurgents in Thailand, Chalerm said, adding he would travel to Malaysia and if possible, Indonesia, to discuss the southern problems. He declined to reveal details.
Meanwhile, six rangers were wounded when their armoured personnel carrier ran over an explosive device hidden by insurgents under a road in Joh I Rong district of Narathiwat.
An initial police investigation showed that the vehicle carrying the rangers was travelling on a road in the district when insurgents triggered a bomb. The front of the vehicle plunged into a hole caused by the explosion.
After the explosion, insurgents hiding on the roadside opened fire on the rangers. The exchange of gunfire lasted about 15 minutes before the insurgents managed to flee the scene.
Meanwhile, Lertkiat Wongpotiphan, deputy secretary-general of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre, met some 500 local Thai-Muslim leaders who gathered to pray for peace at Tanyongmas Mosque in Narathiwat’s Rangae district.
The leaders jointly declared their commitment to reject all unrest and violence, especially recent acts that claimed the lives of people, including an 11-month-old child.
At the meeting, Colonel Chalermchai Sutthinuan, commander of the 45th Ranger unit, announced that anyone who could provide information about the recent attack on a teashop would receive Bt100,000.
