Teachers targeted in Thailand's deadly insurgency
PATTANI, Thailand (AFP) — She was late and driving a motorcycle on her way to school on the fateful morning of December 21, 2006.
Two young men, trailing behind the 34-year-old Buddhist maths teacher, suddenly sped up and shot her in the head twice.
Her lifeless body lay just a few miles away from her school, which like all public schools in southern Thailand has become a prime target for militants fighting a separatist insurgency in this Muslim-majority region.
"Luckily, students did not see the dead body. They were already in classrooms," said the school's deputy principal, who only gave his nickname Wee Takeh, for fear of attack by militants.
The shooting prompted seven other Buddhist colleagues to flee Pattani, one of three provinces hit by the insurgency, leaving 52-year-old Wee Takeh the only Buddhist teacher at this elementary school.
"I did not want to go anywhere because I grew up here. But I am very afraid of militants. Outsiders don't understand my fears. Whenever I drive, I always make sure no one is following me," said the bespectacled teacher.
Thailand is overwhelming Buddhist, with Muslims making up just four percent of the national population.
But along the southern border with Malaysia, the proportions are reversed, with Muslims accounting for 90 percent of the region's 1.7 million residents.
Many are ethnic Malays whose language and culture are closer Muslim-majority Malaysia than Thailand.
Separatist violence has flared periodically ever since Thailand annexed the region a century ago. The unrest reignited in early 2004, killing more than 3,000 in almost daily shootings and bomb attacks.
Rebels' main targets include soldiers, policemen, officials, Buddhists and Muslims seen as collaborating with Thai authorities.
But the attacks on teachers have taken an especially heavy toll, crippling the region's educational system and often provoking national outpourings of grief.
Militants have killed 75 teachers and burned down 297 public school buildings since early 2004, according to a regional educational office in Yala.
The statistics belie the brutality of the attacks.
One Buddhist teacher was shot in his parked car and then burned alive inside it.
Another was killed when four rebels dressed in school uniforms, walked into a classroom and shot him dead at point-blank range in front of his terrified students.
Even more horrifying, a man's severed head was mounted on the gate to a middle school last year, with the heads of two other victims left on a nearby bridge and a road.
Armed soldiers now escort teachers to and from school, and stand guard on campus during classes.
But these units are also targets for attack. Eight soldiers in one such convoy were killed in an ambush in January, and roadside bombs frequently explode as their vehicles pass.
Sunai Phasuk, a Thai consultant for Human Rights Watch, said militants target schools because they see them as an "imposer of Buddhism, Thai culture and Thai language" on Muslim children.
"For militants, public schools are the most visible symbol of Thailand. They even threaten Muslim parents, saying 'if you continue to send your children to public schools, we will come to kill you,'" Sunai said.
For Wee Takeh, the ongoing violence and deadly attacks are a mind-numbing puzzle.
"Buddhists and Muslims used to live in peace in Pattani. But so many people have been killed and I don't understand why militants killed good and innocent people," said the teacher, who asked that the name of his school not be published.
"I don't talk to my students about the violence in the south. They already know too well about the situation," he said.
At another primary school in Pattani, deputy principal Chek Satopa discovered on a May morning last year that its classrooms had been reduced to ashes, with charred computers and desks still smoldering.
"I was so angry. Students have to study in the kitchen or outside," said the soft-spoken Muslim, who teaches mathematics.
"Since authorities have yet to arrest suspects for the arson attack, I don't know whom to be angry at," Chek said as he pointed out the skeleton of a two-storey concrete classroom being built on the site of the burned building.
After the arson attack, the three Buddhist teachers at the school left Pattani. A few months later, the three beheadings happened nearby, leaving teachers afraid even to attend classes, said Waeropeeah Mamat.
"But I went there with big smiles. I just smiled and smiled and did not want children to think about the horrible things," said Waeropeeah, wearing a blue headscarf and matching Muslim dress.
Her female colleague, Ruhanee Arong, said she had often thought about quitting the job because of security concerns but decided to stay on for now for the sake of the children.
"Schools are easy targets for militants and I am afraid to go to school," said the 32-year-old third-grade Muslim teacher.
"But I continue to teach because if I leave, who will teach my students?" Ruhanee said.
