Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Teachers in southern Thailand plan strike to protest violence

By SUTIN WANNABOVORN
Associated Press Writer

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP): Thousands of teachers in Thailand's south planned to walk off their jobs starting Thursday, saying the government has failed to protect them from Muslim rebels blamed for killing three of their colleagues in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, a policeman was gunned down Wednesday in violence that has killed more than 570 people in the troubled region since a simmering insurgency reignited early this year.

Teachers planned to stay off the job, forcing the closure of more than 1,000 public schools in three southern provinces, until the government puts an end to the bloodshed, said Bunsom Thongsriphai, president of the Teachers' Association of Pattani.

The strike announcement Wednesday was in response to the killing in recent weeks of three teachers. School officials have increasingly become targets because they are viewed as representatives of the Buddhist-dominated central government.

Also Wednesday, police Sgt. Somporn Chairakthong was killed by a motorcycle-mounted gunman while he was driving his own motorcycle to work in Pattani province, police Maj. Narit Kajeh said.

The violence has sparked a war of words between Thailand and neighboring Malaysia. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last week accused Malaysia of allowing the rebels to use its territory for military training. Malaysia has angrily denied the allegations.

Deputy Interior Minister Sutham Saengprathum on Wednesday reasserted that claim, saying his government had photographs showing the rebels undergoing military training in Malaysia's Kelantan state, and that several rebel leaders were also hiding there.

Sutham told Business Radio on Wednesday that while the Malaysian government didn't assist the insurgents, it also didn't feel obliged to take measures to repatriate them to Thailand.

"This is an open secret and everyone in the region knows where they are,'' Sutham said, adding that the photos of the training, which were taken by a Thai agent, would be used "for seeking cooperation with Malaysian counterparts.''

He said the rebels may be assisted by some authorities and members of Malaysia's opposition party.

In a sharp response from Malaysia, Deputy Defense Minister Zainal Abidin Zin said Wednesday that Thailand should hand over the evidence and questioned why it hadn't done so earlier.

Zainal said Thai leaders and security officials made no mention of the photos during several meetings with their Malaysian counterparts this year.

"We are puzzled about what is going on,'' Zainal said. "We have no problems in helping Thailand and have put more soldiers at the borders and beefed our intelligence ... we are doing all we can.''

Muslims in Thailand's south have long complained of discrimination within the predominantly Buddhist country and have risen up several times in modern history in attempts to forge a separate state.

The violence has been most intense in the provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala, where teachers on Wednesday agreed to a strike. Sanguan said that while nearly 100 teachers' representatives agreed on the closures, individual schools could still decide to keep their classrooms open.

Some teachers have also demanded the government provide them with bullet-proof jackets and two-way radios, said a teacher, Pairat Wihakarat.

The government had earlier allowed teachers to carry guns to school but Pairat said only about 40 percent of then could afford to buy them. "About 6,000 teachers have guns but more than 9,000 are still traveling unarmed.''

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