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SOUTHERN VIOLENCE: Queen’s efforts chronicled
Published on July 13, 2005
New book to raise funds for victims
The Education Ministry will publish a book about Her Majesty the Queen and the unrest in the deep South.
The book is intended to express Her Majesty’s concerns for people in the southernmost provinces, to distribute accurate information on what has happened there, and to raise funds for education officials who have been victims of the ongoing violence.
“We plan to publish 30,000 copies in the first [print] run, which should be completed by the first week of next month,” Deputy Education Minister Rung Kaewdaeng said yesterday.
Her Majesty’s birthday anniversary falls on August 12.
Rung said Her Majesty was concerned for teachers, students and all people in the South and has initiated many royal projects there. Her Majesty’s concerns had grown after violence erupted in the deep South on January 4 last year, Rung said.
According to Rung, the book would have a special chapter devoted to Her Majesty’s biography. The book will have four main chapters.
The first chapter will feature photos of Her Majesty’s visits to people across the country, and contain details of projects she has initiated with an emphasis on those in the South.
The second chapter discusses the violence in the deep South, the number of government officials and people killed in the unrest, and interviews with the victims’ families. Her Majesty’s speeches about the situation in the South as well as her handwritten letters to a victim are also included in this chapter.
The third chapter emphasises the need for cooperation to restore peace.
The fourth chapter will be an appendix with a list of names of teachers injured or killed, with illustrations and other statistics about the violence in the South.
Rung said the official title for the book had not been decided yet, but it would probably be entitled “Tales from the Land”.
Education Ministry permanent secretary Khunying Kasama Varawarn na Ayutthaya said previous donations had established a fund of Bt7 million used to compensate injured or killed teachers. However, the fund’s coffers had diminished to Bt3 million.
“We may need more money as circumstances remain unpredictable,” she said.
Rung said the book would be given to donors in the first phase. After that, he said his ministry might consider selling the book to members of the public.
Meanwhile, two unknown assailants shot dead a clothes vendor in Pattani’s Yarang district while the vendor was riding home with his 67-year-old mother on the back.
Niyom Sakdakhoksakul, 30, was shot four times and died instantly. His mother, Yaowalak, sustained minor injuries when she fell from the motorcycle. The assailants had been riding a motorcycle and fled the scene following the shooting.
Police believed Niyom was the latest victim of the ongoing violence in the deep South. Another man was killed in the same district earlier yesterday.
In a related development, more than 2,000 teachers in the southernmost provinces have requested transfers as thousands of new graduates seek teaching jobs in the area.
“We won’t be short of teachers for students,” Wimon Jankaew, the director of Pattani’s Educational Area 1, said.
Supinda na Mahachai
The Nation |
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