Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07BANGKOK235
2007-01-11 10:52:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Bangkok
Cable title:  

SOUTHERN VIOLENCE: DEATH OF TEACHER FOCUSES PUBLIC

Tags:  PGOV PTER PINR KDEM KHUM TH 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO5398
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHBK #0235/01 0111052
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 111052Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY BANGKOK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3986
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BANGKOK 000235 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/MLS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/10/2017
TAGS: PGOV PTER PINR KDEM KHUM TH
SUBJECT: SOUTHERN VIOLENCE: DEATH OF TEACHER FOCUSES PUBLIC
OUTRAGE

Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR SUSAN M. SUTTON. REASON 1.4 (B,D)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BANGKOK 000235

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/MLS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/10/2017
TAGS: PGOV PTER PINR KDEM KHUM TH
SUBJECT: SOUTHERN VIOLENCE: DEATH OF TEACHER FOCUSES PUBLIC
OUTRAGE

Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR SUSAN M. SUTTON. REASON 1.4 (B,D)


1. (C) Summary. The death of a public school teacher working
in the South on January 8 has prompted emotional press
coverage and may be focusing wider national attention on the
violence in the southern provinces. Along with substantial
press reporting, the death of Juling Pangamoon has also drawn
high-level interest from the royal family and inspired
hundreds of teachers throughout the country to memorialize
her. While the impact on the Surayud government's southern
policy is not yet clear, this event could serve as a
dangerously polarizing issue for many Buddhists, and possibly
inspire public pressure for harsher security tactics in the
troubled provinces. End Summary.


A BUDDHIST MARTYR
--------------


2. (SBU) The death of Juling Pangamoon, 27, on January 8,
came nearly eight months after she was severely beaten by
several young men and fell into a coma in the southern
province of Narathiwat. The attack was reportedly in
response to the arrest of two suspected separatists in the
area. Following a small protest by villagers calling for the
police to release the suspects, up to ten young men entered
the Ban Kuching Reupah School and attacked Juling and a
coworker. According to press reports, Juling fought back and
received significant head injuries--her colleague submitted
to the young men and was less severely injured.


3. (C) The attack in May of 2006 immediately prompted wide
media coverage, portraying the young, idealistic Buddhist
Juling--who had studied in the South and volunteered to teach
there--as an inspired hero who selflessly sacrificed herself
for the good of the nation. Songs, portraits and poems were
composed for Juling and the national media covered every
change in her condition as front page news. Both the Queen
and the Crown Prince made it known that they had sent flowers
to her bedside and were monitoring her health.


4. (SBU) Following her death, Juling was given a royally
sponsored memorial service in Songkhla. Her body was then

placed in a flag-draped casket and flown by military aircraft
to her home town of Chiang Rai on January 9, where it was met
by a crowd estimated at 1000 people. Several VIPs, including
PM Surayud, have publicly said that they plan on attending
her funeral on January 15.


5. (C) While the violence in southern Thailand is a regular
fixture in Bangkok newspapers and media programs, it has not
been a topic that resonates for most Thai outside of that
region. For many people, especially in the rural heartland
of the Northeast, the separatist violence often appears as an
age-old struggle without a human face. Juling's death may be
changing this dynamic. The media coverage of her death and
funeral--along with the concomitant royal attention--is
providing a new, emotional focus for the majority-Buddhist
population. Hundreds of teachers in the Northeastern
provinces of Khon Kaen and Buriram held memorial services for
her this week and media message boards have become heated
repositories of Buddhist anger.

TARGETING EDUCATION
--------------


6. (C) As reported separately, teachers are often the most
evident and vulnerable symbols of central authority in the
southern provinces, and are frequently targeted as such,
prompting sporadic closing of the schools. Moreover, given
government efforts to use education as a tool to assimilate
the ethnic-Malay minority in the South, separatists have
focused their attacks on public teachers and school
administrators. Some of our contacts say that these efforts
are also designed to drive students away from the public
school system and into the scores of private Islamic schools,
which are allegedly used to indoctrinate and recruit new
militants.


7. (C) While press accounts have listed Juling as the 72nd
teacher to die since the resurgence of violence in January
2004, Ministry of Education statistics state that 60 teachers
have been killed, with another 62 wounded between January
2004 and December 25, 2006. Victims of some of the most
brutal attacks in recent months have been teachers; including
the slaying and burning of two educators in Yala on December

BANGKOK 00000235 002 OF 002


29, 2006, just meters from their schoolyard. In a sadly
ironic twist, local press reported that suspected militants,
in an attempt to kill a local health worker, accidentally
shot and killed the niece of exiled separatist leader Wan
Kadir on January 11; herself a local elementary school
teacher.


8. (C) Since the upsurge in violence in 2004, the central
government has struggled to protect teachers in the South
with Army escorts and weapons training. Partially in
reaction to Juling's death, on January 10 Prime Minister
Surayud held a meeting with southern teachers and security
officials to review new proposals to expand protective
efforts. Among these proposals would be permission for
teachers to openly carry firearms at all times; a poor
stopgap to a larger problem.

COMMENT
--------------


9. (C) Juling's death is a sad reminder of the failure of
the central government to provide basic security in the
South. It puts a human face on the suffering of the victims
of violence, and serves as a reminder that the interim
government has not made any significant progress towards
solving the security problems in the South.
BOYCE