Justpeace Blog

By Amy Kazmin in Bangkok

Financial Times, London January 28 2004

Thailand Wednesday closed about 1,000 schools in its violence-hit, Muslim-majority southern provinces, as Buddhist monks who have been targeted in several recent attacks began to evacuate the area for safety.

Tension and fear in the south, home to most of Thailand's estimated 6m Muslims, have risen sharply over the past week owing to escalating violence, including the murder of several police officers and three Buddhist monks.

The killings of the monks, who are revered by Thailand's Buddhist majority, are seen by analysts as deeply provocative acts apparently aimed at fomenting religious conflict between communities that have long co-existed peacefully, despite recurring political tensions between Muslims and Thai government officials.

"It its obviously an attempt to by someone to stir up confrontation and drive a wedge between two communities," said Kevin Hewison, director of the Southeast Asia Research Center at City University in Hong Kong.

In recent days, a Muslim religious teacher and a Muslim rubber plantation worker were also abducted, dragged from their homes by hooded men. The manner of their abduction was similar to a local Muslim official who was kidnapped two weeks ago, and found dead three days later.

Thailand's troubled southern provinces have been simmering under martial law since early January, when a group of armed men raided an army base, killing six soldiers and seizing at least 100 assault rifles, and 20 government schools were simultaneously burnt to the ground.

After initially blaming the raid on bandits, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the attack was the handiwork of a resurgent Muslim separatist movement. Since then, Thai soldiers have conducted combed independent Muslim schools and interrogated religious teachers, searching for clerics who might be inspiring militancy.

The region's more than 100 independent Muslim schools also face mounting pressure to submit to regular government supervision, and integrate secular subjects into their largely religious curriculum. Bangkok's demands have drawn ire from some Muslim principals, who complain of exorbitant fees for traditional Muslim schools to obtain official school licenses.

The government's decision to close the schools for a week came after two students in Narathiwat were seriously injured by machete wielding attackers on Tuesday, and a teacher claimed to have received a letter from Muslim separatists, threatening more attacks.

Mr Thaksin plans to send more soldiers to restore order.