RoP in South Thailand

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Brutality and fear in southern Thailand. (Hat tip: RadicalRon.)

Thailand has become somewhat inured to the daily violence that has claimed more than 1,300 lives over the past two years, a startling death toll in a country that is still much better known for its beaches and massage parlors than its homegrown terrorism.

But the beating of Jooling Pangamoon, who taught art at the elementary school, shocked the country, both because of its brutality and because witnesses say the group that abducted Jooling was led by women.

The beating confirmed a disturbing trend: whereas the victims of the insurgency three years ago were almost exclusively soldiers and police officers, they nowadays are including more and more civilians - Buddhist monks, bystanders, teachers and government officials - according to Srisompob Jitpiromsri, a political science professor at Prince Songkla University in the southern city of Pattani. He counts a total of 3,546 violent incidents in 2004 and 2005.

Thawach Saehum, head of a teachers’ association, says 46 teachers have been killed and 28 wounded since 2004, when violence flared dramatically. He and many teachers now carry handguns to protect themselves, he said.

“The teachers are the last symbol of the government’s presence in the villages,” Thawach said, adding that most other government officers are too afraid to set foot outside of the main towns, especially at night.

Jooling was one of the few Buddhists working in this picturesque but isolated area. She was dragged from her classroom on May 19 and clubbed until her skull was shattered. Villagers say it was an act of revenge, retaliation for the arrest of two suspected insurgents who were chased into Kucing Lepas by the police and apprehended.

Today, Jooling lies in a provincial hospital, near death, suffering from head wounds that doctors compare to a severe car accident. Twenty Muslim women, some of them mothers with infants, are in police custody, accused of conspiring in Jooling’s beating.

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Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT
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