| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
advertisement | ||
Monday July 24, 3:09 PMThai teacher killed in Muslim south classroomBANGKOK (Reuters) - Two men in student uniforms burst into a classroom full of young children in Thailand's rebellious Muslim south on Monday and shot dead a Buddhist teacher, police said.It was one of the most dramatic shooting of teachers, targets of militants as symbols of the largely Buddhist government in far away Bangkok, in a two-year separatist insurgency in which more than 1,300 people have been killed. The murder prompted at least 20 village schools in the same district of Narathiwat province to close indefinitely, a provincial education official said. "How could they have the courage to teach after their colleague was shot dead while he was teaching a class," Pairat Saengthong said. "We have village guards to patrol the school, but they are not given guns to protect us," Pairat said. Police ruled out personal conflict as a motive for killing 46-year-old Prasarn Makchoo, who died instantly with chalk in his hand after one of the two men shot him with a pistol in front of a primary class. "He has taught at this school for 20 years and has no fight with anyone. This is the work of insurgents," police Colonel Bunlue Chawet said. The two gunmen escaped on motorcyles driven by colleagues who waited outside the school, police said. At least 30 teachers have been killed in almost daily gun and bomb attacks in the largely Muslim, ethnic Malay south since the latest insurgency began. Other victims include soldiers, civil servants -- Muslims and Buddhists alike -- and monks. The government has tried many means to end the violence and win the hearts and minds of the 1.8 million people in the region bordering Malaysia, from brute force to bombing the region with millions of paper "peace" birds by Air Force warplanes. |
|||
|
Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of Reuters Limited
|