Good morning,

Human Rights Watch has expressed concern over the continued murder and violence in the South of Thailand, especially that aimed at the state education system and its teachers:

Thailand: Education in the South Engulfed in Fear

Teachers Targeted in Spiral of Reprisal Killings and Violence

(New York, June 14, 2007) – A new surge of violent attacks on teachers and schools by separatist militants has seriously disrupted education in Thailand’s southern border provinces, Human Rights Watch said today.

Officials in Narathiwat province have been forced to close more than 300 government schools in all 13 districts this week after insurgents killed three teachers on June 11. Two gunmen walked into the library of Ban Sakoh school in Si Sakhon district around noon and shot two female teachers, Thippaporn Thassanopas, 42, and Yupha Sengwas, 26, in the head, abdomen and legs. They died instantly in front of some 100 children, who were playing in front of the library after lunch. Both teachers received warnings before they were killed.  

Approximately an hour later, a male teacher was shot dead in a grocery store in Ra Ngae district. Sommai Laocharoensuk, 55, a teacher at Ban Jehke School, was hit six times by AK-47 fire in the head and body. An eyewitness said six gunmen walked into the shop and opened fire on Sommai, who was registering the names of children to be enrolled in his school.  
 
Human Rights Watch said it believed those responsible were separatist militants because of a long pattern of similar attacks on government schools and teachers, along with continuing public threats.  
 
“Insurgents are terrorizing teachers and schools, which they consider symbols of the Thai state,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “These attacks are grave crimes and cannot be justified by any cause.”  
 
On June 13, militants burned down 11 schools in Yala province’s Raman district, apparently in retaliation for the June 12 murder of Abdulraman Sama, 60, a respected Muslim religious teacher. More than 500 Muslim women and children blocked a highway in front of a mosque in Raman district in protest of his killing, accusing government security forces of responsibility. Fears of further reprisal attacks on schools have led to the closure of 60 other schools today.  

The full story is available at: http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2007/06/14/thaila16189.htm.

Yesterday, a bomb exploded at a football match in Pattani, wounding 14 police officers who were providing security, five seriously (http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=119451). Another bomb wounded a soldier, twelve schools were burned to the ground and hundreds remain closed (http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=29931). The Education Ministry has decided to supply censorship software to schools to prevent children from looking at ‘lewd sites’ (http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/15Jun2007_news03.php). There does not seem to be a plan to prevent the children having to watch their teachers gunned down in front of them in the classroom.

Confidence in the junta’s ability to manage the economy continues to plummet, with business leaders (those not busy moving their investments to Vietnam) commenting on contracting investment figures and very poor consumption figures, notwithstanding junta attempts to pump up the economy (http://www.bangkokpost.com/Business/15Jun2007_biz34.php).

Not only that but the whole country is in danger of being washed away into the sea, according to the World Bank (http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/15Jun2007_news05.php), owing to too much development in vulnerable areas.

My review of Ma Ma Lay’s Not Out of Hate has been published at Bookideas (http://www.bookideas.com/reviews/index.cfm?fuseaction=displayReview&id=3804) and I have new editorial pieces published five times a week at ASEAN Affairs (http://www.aseanaffairs.com).

Back on Monday.