Human rights group calls for end to killing of Thai teachers
Human Rights Watch on Monday called on Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand to stop killing teachers, of whom 157 have been slain in the violencewracked region since 2004.
Insurgents in southern Thailand who execute teachers show utter depravity and disregard for humanity," said Brad Adams, Asia director of the New York-based group.
Suspected separatists gunned down two teachers this month in Pattani, prompting 1,300 schools to go on strike Thursday and Friday in the three southernmost provinces Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala. The schools reopened on Monday.
"These attacks harm not only teachers and schools, but the Muslim students, their families, and the broader Muslim community the insurgents claim to represent," Adams said.
Altogether 157 teachers have been killed in the far south since January 2004, when militants stole more than 300 rifles from an army depot, sparkling a crackdown on the region's long-simmering separatist movement that led to an escalation in violence.
More than 5,300 people have been killed in the majority-Muslim region over the past eight years, despite a huge military presence.
The Malay-speaking population feels closer cultural and religious ties to neighbouring Malaysia than to mainly Buddhist Thailand.
Successive governments have far failed to staunch the violence in the provinces, which are under emergency law.
"Teachers are courageously risking their lives to ensure children's access to education in southern Thailand," Adams said.
"But the government is still stuck in a cycle of ineffectual responses to the deadly threats teachers and students are facing every day."
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