Teachers still targets in South

The unrest in Thailand’s deep South has taken the lives of 162 teachers during the past decade.

This month, one teacher has been killed and four wounded in bloody attacks in the southernmost provinces. In the most recent of these attacks, Atikom Tiwong was killed while travelling from his school to his home in Pattani’s Yarang district on Monday evening.
“The deadly attack has seriously affected the morale of local teachers,” the chairman of the Federation of Teachers in Three Southern Border Provinces, Boonsom Thongsriprai, said yesterday.
He said the incident also reflected the many problems in the southernmost region and the need to provide better protection to teachers.
“Clearly, teachers remain a prime target [for attacks],” Boonsom said.
Police said gunmen on a moving pickup opened fire on Atikom – a teacher at the Ban Prachan School – while he was riding his motorcycle back to his home. Before the gunmen fled the scene, they spread leaflets announcing the attack was carried out in retaliation against state officials.
In the wake of the attack, the Ban Prachan School has suspended classes to mourn Atikom’s death and to give some time for his colleagues and students to recover from the shock.
Some 11 nearby schools have also closed down temporarily, as their teachers plan to attend Atikom’s funeral and meetings with the Federation of Teachers in Three Southern Border Provinces.
Civil Society Council of Southernmost Thailand chairman Prasit Meksuwan believed the violence in the deep South had intensified lately because some insurgents were trying to pressure the Thai authorities to accept the five demands made by the BRN (Barisan Revolusi Nasional).
Since March, the BRN and Thai authorities have engaged in a peace dialogue. While the Thai authorities have pressed for an end to the violence in Thailand’s southernmost provinces, the BRN’s demands include the unconditional release of inmates arrested in security cases.
Prasit said insurgents would likely carry out more attacks on targets that could be expected to arouse an outpouring of demands from teachers, religious leaders, policemen, soldiers and businessmen, in order to step up the pressure on officials.
Meanwhile, security officials have arrested three suspects in connection with the fatal attack on four policemen in Narathiwat’s Rusoh district.
Last Friday, four policemen were shot dead while out on patrol.
An informed source said four men were involved in the attack on police.
“Recordings from a closed-circuit television system showed what happened. Two of the gunmen did not cover their faces,” the source said.
It added that more than 10 guns were used in last Friday’s shooting.
“And five of these guns have been used in carrying out several other attacks in Narathiwat and Yala,” it said.