Word: abuza
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...Terrorizing teachers is central to driving minority Buddhists from the region-a "de facto ethnic cleansing," according to Zachary Abuza, an American academic who specializes in militant Islam in Southeast Asia and who is writing a book on the conflict in the Thai south. "Teachers are very vulnerable, and targeting schools is a very effective tactic," says Abuza. "If you can't send your kids there with any degree of safety, you're going to leave." Terrorizing state schools also forces more parents to send their children to private Islamic schools, where "hundreds of young militants have been recruited...
...troops will now "blunt the tactical edge of the New People's Army." But the N.P.A.'s nationwide reach makes it a tougher foe. "The military has always seen the N.P.A. as a much larger threat because it operates in nearly every province across the archipelago," says Zachary Abuza, a Southeast Asia security analyst who teaches at Simmons College in Boston. "The government will always have to divert resources to deal with it. The N.P.A. won't go away anytime soon...
...well as three coup attempts involving government troops. Some see her declaration of war against the N.P.A. as a concession to the military top brass, which she desperately needs to stay in line. "The military, rather than Arroyo, is pushing the political agenda," says Southeast Asia security expert Abuza. "Arroyo wants to keep the military on her good side. She's always concerned that it will at some point withdraw support...
...right to worry: both Marcos and Arroyo's predecessor, Joseph Estrada, were toppled by popular protests after the army withdrew support for them. Yet Arroyo's reliance on the armed forces could backfire. "There's a lot of concern from Filipinos about their democracy being rolled back," says Abuza. "These military-driven policies certainly play into those perceptions." Ermita counters: "Don't forget that the commander-in-chief is a civilian, and that there is a chain of command which is strictly followed. You cannot militarize the country because this is a democracy, not a military government...
...until they get it right, as was the case with the World Trade Center." From "Richard Reid the shoe bomber to the arrest by Philippine police last year of Islamic extremists in Manila who had manufactured explosives they managed to get into toothpaste tubes, the pattern is there," concurs Abuza. "They will keep trying. And we don't know the chemical composition of this latest attempt, but if they have come up with something that is stable and easily disguised we could really have a problem...