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SOUTHERN TURMOIL : Rajabhats postpone graduation
Published on June 26, 2005
Violence intensifies amid government’s ‘mixed signals’
The escalating southern violence has forced five Rajabhat universities to call off their joint commencement ceremony set for this week in Yala.
More than 10,000 recent graduates were previously scheduled to receive college degrees from a member of the Royal Family from tomorrow through Wednesday, Professor Kraisorn Srithairath, rector of Rajabhat Yala University, said yesterday.
A new date has yet to be arranged, he said.
In the morning, rubber tapper Pairat Saengao, 44, was shot 12 times and left for dead at a plantation in Yala’s Yaha district.
In nearby Songkhla province, former police sergeant Wuthichai Yorsompet, 56, was shot dead late on Friday. His body was found early yesterday, police said.
The latest acts of violence follow the near-decapitations of a Buddhist couple in Yala on Friday, and the murder of a school principal in Narathiwat.
Authorities have said the 18-month insurgency has turned increasingly brutal over the last month, with seven beheadings or attempted beheadings compared to three in the previous 17 months.
Interior Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya vowed to find the killers of school principal Kobkul Runsava, 47.
At least 21 teachers and other school staff have been among the 700 people killed since the violence erupted last year.
Ammar Siamwalla, a leading economist and member of the National Reconciliation Commis-sion, said the government had been sending out conflicting signals to Muslims in the South. He pointed to the deaths of more than 78 Tak Bai demonstrators while under the custody of police and soldiers, which coincided with promises to treat everyone justly.
These demonstrators were treated as “less than human, as if they were buffaloes or cattle”, Ammar told a seminar.
Former Mahachon Party leader Anek Laothamatas said the Malay-speaking region should have more control over the governing of communities. Local customs and the language should also be officially permitted and accepted by the state.
The government has not ac-cused any specific groups of being behind the unrest, and neither have any organisations claimed responsibility for the attacks.
In addition to insurgencies, violence in the region takes the form of smuggling and organised crime as well as corruption by politicians and security forces.
The Nation
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