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Teachers in Thailand under fire -- and learning to shoot back
"When you pull the trigger, you've got to keep steady," the instructor sternly told the elementary school teachers. "If your hand is shaking you can't shoot." Teachers have one of the deadliest jobs in southern Thailand, with 44 killed by the bombs and bullets of an Islamic insurgency since 2004. So the teachers are learning how to shoot back.The Chulabhorn naval base, on the Gulf of Thailand in Narathiwat province, opened its heavily guarded gates on a recent Sunday to a training course for 100 public school teachers, mostly Buddhist men and women who say bringing a gun to school has become essential. "You'd never see a teacher anywhere else in Thailand carrying a gun," said Sanguan Jintarat, head of the Teachers' Association that oversees the 15,000 teachers in the villages and towns of the restive south. "But, we need them, or we'll die." That teachers -- not to mention Buddhist monks, bank tellers and motorcycle mechanics -- have become targets in the insurgency illustrates how badly law and order has degenerated in southern Thailand since the violence flared in January 2004. At first insurgents targeted mainly civil servants, soldiers and police officers. Attacks then spread to businesses that serve soldiers: restaurants, outdoor markets, garages. And now come attacks that seem to have no rationale at all, such as the murder last month of an elephant trainer who was shot seven times by gunmen who had lined up with children to buy tickets for a show. More than 1,700 people have been killed across Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat -- the only Muslim-majority provinces in this otherwise peaceful, tourist-friendly Buddhist country. Among them was a teacher gunned down at his blackboard in July as his 4th graders watched in shock, and a Buddhist art teacher clubbed by a village mob in May until her skull shattered. Teachers may be targets, officials say, because they are symbols of the central government's authority, or be taken hostage to be traded for captured insurgents, or because the militants want to do away with secular schools, sending the message that only Islamic schools -- which have been spared violence -- are safe. But almost everything about this insurgency is a mystery. It isn't clear whether the militants want a separate Islamic state in what was a Malay sultanate where insurgent violence has waxed and waned over the past century. No goals are stated, no responsibility is claimed for attacks, and no allegiance to foreign Islamic groups is declared. Authorities insist the uprising is purely domestic, but have been unable to arrest any leaders. They have flooded the area with 20,000 troops, but some local officials compare the predicament to that of the U.S. military in Iraq. Lately militants have unleashed a wave of coordinated bombings every few weeks that kill sparingly but suggest a new level of sophistication and determination. Less than two weeks ago 22 banks were bombed simultaneously, dealing a potentially devastating blow to the local economy. "Of course teachers should not be carrying guns, but they need to protect themselves," said Srisompob Jitipirmosri, a political science professor at Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani province who tracks the violence. His studies show that nearly 300 schools and teachers have been targeted -- mostly arson, bomb attacks and shooting at guarded teacher convoys going to and from school. Aree Aatomphrasangsa, a 50-year-old elementary school principal, says she owns two shotguns but has a problem -- they don't fit in her purse. "I want a smaller gun -- a revolver," said Aree, pulling out earplugs as she walked off the military shooting range with a tray of blanks. Her school is in the Sisakorn district of Narathiwat province, in an area dubbed the "Red Zone" -- a classification reserved for the most dangerous districts. "A revolver is easy to carry and shoot," explained Aree, a slight, bespectacled woman with a ponytail. "When I drive, I can hold the steering wheel with one hand and use the other hand to shoot." Nearby, Supat Sunanthakantharot, the shooting instructor, offered beginners a "short cut" -- hold the gun in two hands, don't shoot and blink at the same time, don't be afraid of the bang. "Focus. And remember, a gun can only protect you if you use it when you need it," said Supat, as he passed around a crate of pistols for the teachers to try. At least one teacher in Yala province is known to have escaped by shooting back after an attacker fired at him as he was driving to school in March, said Thawach Saehum, a teachers' association official. Strict gun laws have been relaxed for teachers, who are eligible for a special permit to carry weapons in the three provinces. But bureaucracy and high demand delay the processing of applications by months. Thousands of teachers and school principals now carry guns -- many without permits -- and hundreds are wait-listed for gun training, said Sanguan, the teachers' association head. The armed forces offer teachers .9mm Steyr pistols for 18,000 baht ($480), about a quarter of the street price. While some worry that a teacher's gun could make him or her more of a target, or end up in a student's hands, the crisis is so acute that there is little debate about arming teachers. Shooting courses started in late 2004 but have taken on new urgency since the shocking murder of the 4th-grade teacher July 24 at the Ban Bue Reng primary school in a Narathiwat village. Prasarn Martchu, a 46-year-old Buddhist, was standing at his blackboard teaching a morning Thai-language class when a gunman walked in disguised as a student, fired twice and escaped while the two armed guards on duty were scared off by the gunfire, according to school officials. At the dilapidated school, principal Adul Jehyeng now has a guard with a shotgun at his office door, but he isn't reassured. "We're terrified," he said. "We need soldiers not security guards here. We need a new fence, one that nobody can climb over. We need better protection." Posted by: ryuge 2006-09-10 |
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