Muslim men to be 're-educated'
Pattani defence volunteers take part in an annual training exercise yesterday. Violence has increased in the deep South and defence volunteers have been asked to work alongside soldiers to provide security in the area.
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Narathiwat governor Pracha Therat has announced that 65 Muslims from the deep South who are believed to be militant sympathisers will be sent to re-education camps in a bid to change their attitude towards the government.
"They are not militants or suspects but have turned themselves in to the authorities to clear their names and take part in re-education programmes," the governor told reporters.The group is currently being held in a military camp and will be sent to camps in the central provinces of Ratchaburi, Kanchanaburi and Chachoengsao, he said. They are mostly young men from Narathiwat's Si Sakhon, Rangae, Bacho, Muang, Chanae, Joh I Rong, Yi-ngor and Tak Bai. "They will be instructed in proper perspectives and attitudes as well as being presented with Islamic teachings which will provide them with more appropriate guidelines for their lives," Pracha said. The re-education programme is among the measures being taken by the government to prevent local residents from orchestrating violence in the region. The violent activity in the deep South continued yesterday with one teacher in Pattani injured after being shot, police said. Suthisak Malisuwan, 42 a teacher at Santiwithaya school, was shot in Pattani's Yarang district while driving to school in the morning. One of two men on a motorbike fired five bullets at the teacher as he was about to enter the school, police said. The teacher was later admitted to hospital in Pattani.
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