In Pictures: Thailand's embattled schools - In Pictures - Al Jazeera English

In Pictures: Thailand's embattled schools - In Pictures - Al Jazeera English

 

 

Pattani, Thailand - From the inside, the elementary school in Pakaharang district, near the city of Pattani in southern Thailand, looks like any normal educational institution. Children play in the courtyard or study in the classrooms.

But outside, soldiers guard the main entrance and surroundings, especially when children arrive at or leave the school. In Thailand's deep south, where a conflict between the government and a Muslim separatist movement has killed nearly 6,000
people since 2004, being a teacher is a high-risk job. The separatists
believe the government education system is oppressing Thailand's
Muslims, who make up a majority in the southernmost provinces but are a
small minority in a country where Buddhists make up more than 90 percent
of the population.

The insurgency has targeted educational personnel in government-run schools, and 169 teachers have been killed since January 2004. One
of them was the only Buddhist teacher at Pakaharang school, who was
shot dead in 2007 on a bridge close to the school. Pakaharang has been
marked by the authorities as a "red zone", due to the high number of
insurgency attacks in the area.

Violence has increased in the southern
provinces of Thailand over the past few weeks. The last attack aimed at
teachers occurred in January, when two policemen working to protect
teachers were killed by a roadside bomb in Pattani province.

Peace talks planned between the
government and rebels have stalled, in large part because of the unrest
and mass demonstrations that have roiled Bangkok, Thailand's capital,
for the past several months.  

Students at Pakaharang school, a public school in Pattani province that
has been attacked several times by the insurgency. Pattani is one of the
three southern provinces of Thailand affected by a deadly Muslim
separatist insurgency that erupted in January 2004.