Educators in the South live with fear every day

'Am I scared? Yes, I am very scared, but I have a family to take care of.' Bangkok Post, spoke to three teachers in the violence-torn South, where teachers are regularly killed.

Khru Doh

Doh (50) is a 'government employee' and not an 'official'. The non-civil servants usually work as teaching assistants, but because there is a shortage of teachers, they also teach alone. Because Doh has no civil service status, he is not entitled to military protection, he cannot apply for a transfer, and he cannot take out a government loan with soft terms. He earns less than a teacher with civil service status, but receives a monthly hazard allowance of 2.500 baht.

Doh works in a school in Pattani, which is in the so-called 'red zone'. Almost every day on the way he has to take to and from school, people are shot. To avoid risks, he travels outside peak hours, a 30-minute ride by motorcycle. Sometimes he leaves earlier, sometimes later. Why is he doing all this? 'The reason I keep doing it is only because I want the children to be able to study.'

Khru Ya

'Insurgents have a saying: 'Get Buddhists, gain merit'. They believe they go to heaven when they kill Buddhists.' Ya is a retired Muslim teacher in Pattani. He has seen his hometown change from a peaceful place that was culturally brilliant to one where everyday life is dominated by fear and sadness.

Master Ya lives and worked in an area that is heavily guarded and where, unlike other places, relatively few attacks take place. “We have about one bombing a month. Although the violence hardly affects me personally, many of my friends have been injured or killed.'

Every morning the teachers in Ya's area have to wait for a military truck to pick them up. Those who prefer to go to school in their own car must ride in the military convoy. After the school day begins with the raising of the flag, the soldiers leave. During the midday meal they return and in the evening they escort the staff back home.

Since violence erupted in 2004, 157 teachers, mostly Buddhists, have been killed as representatives of the hated government. The insurgents are known as in the ion (unaffiliated bandits) and jone gra jork (cowardly bandits).

“They target teachers because they are unarmed and easy to kill. That's why we call them jone gra jork. What they really want is to drive the soldiers out of the area so they can trade drugs unhindered.'

'People in my area are afraid to go to the police with information or even talk to officers. As the jone gra jork find out, that person is shot dead. So now we live in constant fear.'

Khru Pol

Master Pol exchanged a well-paid job at a private school in Yala for a job at a public school, 30 kilometers from his home in Betong. He obtained official status, which means that he and his family are now better off. For the first few months he drove from home to school and back every day. “But then I realized it was too dangerous because I was driving through dense jungle in a hilly area. Now I spend the night in a staff house during the week and on Monday and Friday soldiers pick up the teachers who go home for the weekend in a big truck.' When Pol has to go somewhere, he also gets a military escort.

"I've always felt safe with soldiers protecting me, but since two teachers were killed in broad daylight in their school by men disguised as soldiers, I don't trust anyone anymore." [On December 11, five men in uniform entered the Ban Bango school in Mayo, Pattani, in broad daylight and killed the principal and a teacher.]

“It's very dangerous where I am now. Like everyone else, I'm scared. I do not wanna die. I've been doing this job for a year now. When I have worked here for 2 years, I will ask for a transfer. Back to Besong, where it's safer.

Source: Bangkok Post; the names of the three teachers are not their real names