Thread: Thailand - Southern teachers to provide PM secret documents

Southern teachers to provide PM secret documents


Teachers in the deep South will provide the premier with solid evidence on the root causes of the separatist violence in the region and propose practical measures to help restore peace.

"The information and evidence the prime minister will be given have never been seen before. They include exclusive documents our teachers obtained both from inside and outside the country," Sanguan Indrarak, president of Teachers' Federation of Narathiwat, said Saturday.


"We believe that governments don't know what caused the problems, so they can't tackle the problems correctly," he said.

Teachers' representatives plan to hand over to Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont the evidence - including photos and documents - that they solicited from many sources. The meeting with the PM is set for Wednesday.

They will ask for a greater role for local people in solving the problems and a stepup in security levels to provide more safety for teachers and education officials.

Teachers and schools have become the new targets of the militants. Dozens of teachers have been gunned down and schools torched over the past few months. Many schools decided to suspend classes and refuse to resume them until the situation returns to normal.

Separately, a leading Muslim said police should not detain any suspect arrested in connection with the southern unrest at the police station in the suspect's community.

"Police should move suspects out of the area immediately after an arrest. Meanwhile, they should assign their officials to talk to the suspects' families in order to avoid any misunderstanding that could lead to clashes," said Nidir Waba, an adviser to the prime minister.

He was referring to several incidents in which villagers gathered in front of police stations and demanded the immediate release of suspects held inside. Some protests nearly turned ugly when the insurgents' supporters incited villagers to resort to violence in order to free the suspects.
The Nation