Insurgency targeting of teachers causes south Thailand school closures

Wednesday, February 8, 2006

With an increase in the number of insurgent attacks targeting teachers, many schools in Thailand's southern province of Yala have closed. The country's interior minister, Kongsak Wanthana, has given assurances that security measures will be strengthened and teachers will be able to return to work.

School closures were initially sparked with the shooting of four teachers at Ban Lue Mu school in Yala late last week. These had been teachers awaiting a military escort home, a fifth teacher was shot on his way home. Approximately 250 primary schools in Yala province were closed as teachers were afraid to go to work. The three southernmost provinces have problems in ensuring adequate educational cover as many teachers in the violence-torn area have sought transfers elsewhere in the country.

Attacks on those viewed as supporting the government have seen a recent increase in the area, with insurgents mounting attacks on motorcycles during the day in addition to remotely detonated bomb attacks. Since the start of February, the death toll exceeds one person per day. Generally identified as having started in early 2004, the insurgency in the predominantly Muslim provinces that border Malaysia are reported to have resulted in a death toll exceeding 1,000.

Sources

TNA. "Security up for teachers in the south" — Bangkok Post, February 8, 2006
"Three defence volunteers killed in Yala market" — ThaiDay, February 7, 2006
"YALA VIOLENCE: Teachers take a week off after five colleagues shot" — The Nation (Thailand), February 7, 2006
"Eight killed in the South" — ThaiDay, February 3, 2006

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License