Most Yala schools to reopen
Ninety per cent of schools in Yala will reopen today after more than a week's closure due to fears for teachers' safety.
The remaining schools are mostly in violence-prone zones and will stay closed as the teachers are still frightened by the murders of dozens of colleagues, Yala Teachers Federation president Sanya Suwannapho said yesterday.All schools in the southern province were closed after the director of the Ban Bado elementary school, Chamnong Chupatpong, and teacher Manoe Sonkaew were shot dead and their bodies set on fire by suspected militants on December 28. Sanya said several Buddhist teachers in the area, particularly four at Ban Bado elementary school, were still terrified by the incident and dared not go to work. All of them have applied for transfer to the local education administrative office. "In my view, if the government continues to use only a reconciliation strategy without decisively containing the insurgency, teachers will continue to be victims of the violence," Sanya said. He said he would submit details on the situation to Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont on Wednesday. Teachers are common targets in the ongoing violence in the three southernmost provinces, where more than 1,900 people have been killed since January 2004. Authorities say the new generation of militants have effectively shattered the fabric of the local community by singling out monks and teachers as targets, besides security officials and their informants. Elsewhere in the region, a roadside bomb went off in Narathiwat's Bacho district without causing any casualties.
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