December 14, 2012
BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand pledged Friday to tighten security for teachers in its restive south as a leaflet campaign threatened further violence against educators amid widespread school closures over safety fears.
Two teachers were shot dead on Tuesday in the latest in a spate of attacks on educators. Lessons have been halted at around 1,200 schools this week in the Muslim-majority south, where nine years of unrest have cost thousands of lives.
Education Minister Phongthep Thepkanjana told reporters that "officials must intensify security measures" for teachers, often targeted by militants who see the education system as an effort by Bangkok to impose Buddhist culture.
Leaflets threatening further violence against educators, timed to coincide with a visit to the region on Thursday by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, have also raised the stakes, said Phongthep.
"We have to seriously beef up security for teachers," he said, adding that authorities hoped increased safety measures for some 20,000 teachers in the region would enable schools to reopen on Monday.
The leaflets, which were not signed by any group, read "The war is not yet over, don't count the teachers' corpses yet", said Sanguan Intarak of the local teachers' association.
He said they were believed to have been distributed in Songkhla province, which borders the restive region, because security is lighter in the area.
Near daily attacks -- including shootings, bombings and even beheadings -- mean violence is a part of life for many in Thailand's southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala.
More than 5,300 people, both Buddhist and Muslim, have been killed since the unrest reignited in 2004, according to Deep South Watch which monitors the unrest.
The violence has left 157 educators dead and the United Nations this week said it had claimed the lives of more than 50 children.
Tuesday's violence saw a headmistress and teacher shot dead at a school in Pattani, while a separate attack at a teashop in Narathiwat left five dead, including a baby girl.
Last week in Narathiwat a 32-year-old teacher was killed by gunmen as she left school on Monday and another teacher was shot and wounded the following day.
In the latest attack in the region, Narathiwat police said six soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb attack in the province early Friday.
