Word: thais
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Jiranan Phedsri confesses that she has "one true friend." The 51-year-old Thai housewife strokes the object of her affection, caressing its cool curves. The recipient of the devout Buddhist's ardor? A .38-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol Jiranan carries wherever she goes in Thailand's troubled deep south, where a Muslim insurgency has resulted in roughly 4,000 deaths since it gained momentum in 2004. The handgun, though, isn't Jiranan's only trusted companion. As a volunteer in the Iron Ladies, an all-female civilian militia designed to protect Buddhists from Islamic extremists, she received military training...
...Buddhist monks and Muslim imams, as well as soldiers and police. Just a few years ago, neighbors of different religions used to mingle, but the carnage has frayed such bonds. "The communities have become alienated from each other," says Srisompob Jitpiromsri, who heads a think tank on the Thai south conflict at Prince of Songkla University in Pattani. "They both blame the other for being the real cause of the violence in the south." (See pictures of Thai people boxing their way out of poverty and prison...
...root causes of discontent in Thailand's south - on both sides of the sectarian divide. Buddhists complain that an environment where simply commuting to work exposes them to possible assassination is unacceptable. They feel that too few insurgents have been punished for their crimes and wonder why the Thai authorities have not done a better job infiltrating militant cells. In turn, Muslims resent what they see as an official attitude that regards members of their religion as potential terrorists who must be suppressed by draconian emergency laws. Perceived discrimination against Muslims has so penetrated large segments of the population that...
...list seeks to be the fix to your hunger pangs, pad thai desires, and pizza hankerings...
...least favorite dish, pad thai, will be temporarily discontinued and reworked to improve taste...