Narathiwat a few teachers killed today
Gunmen kill three teachers in midday
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif
Gunmen killed three elementary school teachers at midday Monday, marking another setback for the security agencies who vowed to step up protection for educators in the restive region where a public schools and teachers have come under increasing attacks.
In Narathiwat's Srisakorn district, Yupha Sengwat, 26, a substitute teachers, and Thipaporn Thansopha, 42, a permanent staff who had submitted a request for a transfer, were shot dead at point blank range while taking their lunch.
Police and witnesses said two gunmen walked calmly the teachers' break room at Ban Sakor Elementary School and unload their handguns, leaving the bodies of two female teachers riddled with bullets.
In another incident in Rangae district of the same province, Somai Laocharoensuk, 50, was gunned down by a gunman using AK47 assault rifle at midday during his lunch break.
Somai was just a kilometre away form the school in Tambon Bango Stoe when he was ambushed while driving his pickup truck. He died at the scene of the attack, police said.
All three victims were Buddhists teachers teaching in government schools that are situated in violenceprone communities where violence has become a daily occurrence.
Police blamed Muslim insurgents looking to carve out a separate homeland for the Malayspeaking community in the deep south.
Teachers and schools are often targeted because insurgents see them as the symbols of state's effort to impose Thai Buddhist culture on this predominantly ethnic Malay region. More than 2,200 have died in the region since January 2004.
The Nation
Another teacher shot dead in Narathiwat
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif
Narathiwat - Another teacher was shot dead by Muslim insurgents during the lunch break Monday, police said.
The teacher was shot and killed in front of Ban Jehke School in Ranage district while riding motorcycle to have lunch at 12:30 pm.
Following the shooting, the director of Education Zone 1 in Narathiwat announced the closure of all schools in sensitive areas.
The Nation
Narathiwat Schools close after teachers murdered
Schools close after teachers murdered
Narathiwat (TNA, Agencies)
Gunmen armed with handguns walked unchallenged into a school library in Narathiwat province on Monday, and emptied 11 rounds into two female Buddhist teachers, killing them on the spot - and then walked back out and escaped.
Not far away, two assailants shot dead male teacher Somai Raocharoensuk as he bought cigarettes at a store, 100 metres from his school in Rangae town.
The gunmen killed the two women at Bansako School at noon on Monday.
Yupa Sengwat, 27, a specially recruited temporary teacher employed by the government and Tippaporn Tatsanopat, 42, a permanent teacher, both died at scene.
"They got off a motorcycle, walked into the school and killed the teachers in the library while others went out for lunch," a police investigator told the Reuters news agency.
Police found 11 bullet casings from two pistols near the victims, who were in their 20 and 40s. They had multiple gunshot wounds to the head and torso, he said.
Education officials immediately ordered 50 schools in the troubled Ruesoh and Sri Sakhon districts of Narathiwat to close.
"We are afraid of more attacks on teachers," education ministry official Pairach Saengthong said. "How could there be more classes after such an audacious attack?"
According to a news report, police detained one suspect for questioning but his name has not been disclosed.
Violence in the three southern border provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat has claimed more than 2,300 since erupting in 2004.
Teachers shot dead in Narathiwat
Teachers shot dead in Narathiwat
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif
Nearly 100 public schools in the southernmost province of Narathiwat were closed yesterday after three teachers were brutally shot to death in Si Sakhon and Rangae districts.
Two women teachers were shot inside the library of Ban Sakoh School at about noon in front of students.
Two gunmen got off a motorbike and walked straight into the school library, where the two women were working. They fired 11mm and .357 pistols as some 100 children played in front of the library after their lunch.
Thippaporn Thassanopas, 42, and Yupha Sengwas, 26, were hit in the head, abdomen and legs. The two died instantly.
About an hour later, a male teacher was shot dead in a shop in Rangae district. So-mmai Laocharoensuk, 55, a teacher at Ban Jehke School, was hit six times by AK-47 fire in the head and body. An eyewitness said one of a group of six militants carried the rifle into the shop and opened fire on the teacher.
The murders of the three teachers prompted a reaction from nearly 100 schools in Si Sakhon, Rusoh and Rangae districts. All announced they would close indefinitely.
Colleagues of the three teachers visited hospitals to give support to the relatives.
Narathiwat Teachers' Federation president Sanguan Intarak said he had invited teachers in all 13 districts of the province to a meeting to discuss security and safety measures.
Teachers in the predominantly Muslim region have no confidence in security protection provided by the government and have asked for transfers out of the danger zone, he said.
He noted that more than 300 teachers had already submitted transfer requests.
The teachers' federation has suggested the authorities rate the risk factor in different areas and provide security measures for teachers in accordance with the risk, Sanguan said.
In high-risk areas, the authorities should provide intensive security, he added.
The government is struggling to contain the violence that has killed more than 2,000 since January 4, 2004.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said his government was ready to provide cooperation and exchange information on the movement of Indonesians in case any were involved in instigating or taking part in violence in the deep South.
Wirajuda was in Thailand yesterday for a meeting with Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram. He also met Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont to discuss bilateral cooperation, including the situation in the South. Thai authorities suspect that Indonesian and Cambodian Muslims might be involved in orchestrating violence in the region.
The Nation
Hunt under way for killer of teachers
SOUTHERN VIOLENCE / SCHOOL MURDERS
Hunt under way for killer of teachers
Security beef-up in 4 southern provinces
POST REPORTERS
A big manhunt was under way last night for a suspected militant who barged into a school library in Narathiwat's Si Sakhon district and shot dead two teachers during a lunch break yesterday.
The search, involving more than 100 police and security forces, followed the arrest of a 19-year-old suspect who admitted to being the driver of the get-away motorcycle, said police.
The motorcyclist, who was not identified, was arrested shortly after the Ban Sakor school shooting.
Teachers Yupa Sengwas and Tippaporn Tassanopas were collecting student data when the gunman stormed in and opened fire, said police.
Shortly afterwards, Sommai Laocharoensuk, 50, a teacher at Ban Jehgae school, was gunned down while having lunch at a food shop close to the school in Rangae district.
That shooting was followed by an attack on a school bus belonging to the Pattana Wittaya school in Yala's Yaha district. The guns wounded thirteen people, four of them critically.
Pairat Saengthong, director of Narathiwat's Education Zone 1, said schools at risk of attack within his jurisdiction will be closed until better security measures are in place.
The director of Pattana Wittaya school, Hayeeseng Tohtayong, said the school had resumed classes yesterday despite the the attack on the school bus.
Meanwhile, authorities beefed up security in the deep South in anticipation of more violence as the anniversary of the June 15 declaration of the Pattani state by Muslim separatists draws near.
Security forces in the three southernmost provinces and Songkhla have been put on 24-hour alert.
An intelligence report has it that some 42 members of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) have infiltrated the Thepha and Saba Yoi districts of Songkhla.
They were believed to be preparing to launch attacks to mark the founding anniversary of the Pattani state on Friday.
In Yala, Betong police chief Pol Col Songkiat Watakul said police and the military were working together to provide maximum security by setting up road checkpoints in at-risk areas.
Yala governor Theera Minthrasak yesterday vowed to look into the alleged misuse of the fiscal budget allocated to village defence volunteers in 363 villages.
He was responding to widespread criticism that the volunteer corps had failed to protect schools from arson attacks.
Mr Theera said at least two volunteers in Yala had not performed their duties well and he had urged that their defence volunteer budget be cut.
The Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) Region 4 was also considering the establishment of peace-keeping units at the tambon level to bolster security, said former Thai Rak Thai MP Surasak Manee.
Mr Surasak said he proposed the idea to Pol Maj-Gen Chamlong Khunsong, secretary-general of the agency, who welcomed the proposal.
Schools in Narathiwat are shuttered until next week
Schools in Narathiwat are shuttered until next week
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies1/You_Rock_Emoticon.gif
All schools in 13 districts of Narathiwat will continue suspending their classes until next week following brutal killings of three teachers in the province on Monday.
Sanguan Indrarak, president of Narathiwat Teachers' Federation, said that all classes in 300 schools in 13 districts in the province will be cancelled this week and will be resumed on June 18.
"We decided to cancel all classes for now as our morality and spirit have completely been down following the separate killings of our three teachers on Monday," Sanguan said.
He was speaking after attending an urgent meeting of senior teachers and educational administrators and chaired Khunying Kasama Worawan, secretary general of the Basic Education Commission.
Two Buddhist teachers were shot inside the library of Ban Sakoh School in Si Sakhon district in front of their students. In a separate attack, a male teacher was shot dead in a shop in Rangae district. He was hit six times by AK-47 fire in the head and body.
After the attacks, all schools in the province cancelled their classes.
What the teachers and students wanted at the soonest was the strengthening of security including more deployment of soldiers to each school. And we need 24-hour protection for schools that are located in risky areas," he said.
The Nation
Teachers demand total security
Teachers demand total security
Thai News Agency
The Southern Teachers Association has proposed that armed security personnel be stationed at every school in the four southern border provinces following the killing of three teachers in Narathiwat on Monday.
Association president Wicharn Athikaphun attended a meeting at the Ministry of Education Ministry in Bangkok on Tuesday, and afterward told a press conference that the killing of teachers Monday dampens teacher morale in the south.
The deaths illustrated that the insurgents can now reach any staff in any school with impunity, despite teachers taking every precaution and remaining careful and alert.
Before the semester started, teachers met with security officials, with the understanding that security would be improved. However, the existing measures are not effective, so teachers called for an additional four measures to improve the situation, he said.
Among four measures, they called for officials' aggressive operation to prevent attacks on teachers. They demand 2 to 5 security personnel on duty at each school from 7 am to 4 pm.
If local security personnel are inadequate for the protection of some 1,000 schools in Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and four districts of Songkhla, they require the government or the Council for National Security to deploy reinforcements.
Unarmed defense volunteers are guarding schools but they can't do much to protect teachers. Police and military personnel are needed to make schools a safety zone for teachers, Mr. Wicharn said.
Teachers also agree that the government can apply a reconciliatory approach to those who want to reconcile with the government, but said the authorities should respond in kind to those who adopt violence.
The Southern Teachers Association will raise the issue of attacks on teachers in Thailand's south at the Asean Council of Teachers to be held July 6-9 in Singapore.
The Asean forum, in which Thailand's neighbours including Malaysia and Indonesia will also join, may come up with an idea to quell violence in the deep south, said Wicharn. (TNA)
