Word: thais
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...feel," announces Mayakoh Cheyara, 47, the school principal. "I can see just by looking at your faces. But we all have to be strong." An older boy leads a short prayer in Arabic-all Ban Bukoh's 200 pupils are Muslims-and the national anthem is played. "Thais love peace, but aren't afraid to fight," the children sing as the Thai flag is raised between fire-scorched trees. The words can't mean much-some of the children are fresh out of kindergarten. But even the youngest among them must be dimly aware that a conflict is raging...
...stretched thin and taking a pounding. There are about 20,000 troops deployed in a conflict area half the size of Israel, and they-like their beleaguered American counterparts in Iraq-are outmaneuvered by a ruthless and elusive enemy that shelters amid a Muslim population largely hostile to Thai security forces. Two roadside bombings in May alone killed a total of 22 soldiers; their well-drilled killers executed some of the wounded survivors by shooting them in the head or strangling them. Last month, junta leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin publicly admitted that the fighting in the south had reached crisis...
...militants, razing classrooms and slaughtering teachers is a justified strategy. Besides their anger-and that of many ordinary Thai Muslims-at what they perceive to be the marginalization of the south (the region is among Thailand's poorest), the insurgents have long despised government schools, whether Buddhist or Muslim. The rebels see them as representative of a Thai state they believe suppresses the culture, language and religion of Malay Muslims, who make up the majority of people in the southern provinces of this otherwise overwhelmingly Buddhist nation. Resistance to Bangkok's assimilation policies-banning Muslim headscarves, closing schools not conforming...
...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...
...SPORTS $162 million Amount bid by ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to buy Britain's Manchester City soccer club $1.95 billion Total amount of Thaksin's fortune frozen pending an investigation into his finances; Thai authorities said they would freeze an additional $148 million in assets after the bid's acceptance was announced on June...