Just another statistic?
By Waeleemoh Puzu
To most of us in this country, Mrs Narumon Pramotepaibul was just another faceless victim of the senseless violence in the restive deep South which has, until this April, claimed more than 4,000 lives of both government officials and civilians.
But to the staff of the southern news desk of the Isra news agency, the 52-year old owner of a grocery shop in village No 1 of Tambon Panareh, Panareh district of Pattani was more than just a statistic. She was a source of the news desk and her sad life following the death of her husband, killed by suspected insurgents, was featured on the Isra website on October 28, 2007.
A native of Nonthaburi province, Mrs Narumon moved to settle with her husband in Panareh district where they set up a grocery shop about 20 years ago. The couple had a happy life and could speak the Yawi local dialect fluently.
Their peaceful life was shattered one day in December 2006 when gunmen, suspected to be insurgents, walked into their shop and shot her husband dead.
In her interview with the Isra news desk three years ago, Mrs Narumon gave an account on that fateful day. “It was about 10 a.m. in the morning when everyone was busy. My husband was in front of the shop and, suddenly, there were loud explosions of gunshots. I immediately rushed out of the shop only to find my husband lying on the floor in a pool of blood. He died instantly,” said Mrs Narumon.
The woman said she thought her husband was killed by the insurgents because they left behind a leaflet. She admitted that she felt very sorry for her husband’s death but she refused to leave the district for other safer places.
“I will continue to spend the rest of may life here and I will not go anywhere although I have a house in Nonthaburi because I don’t want to start a new life again,” she told Isra news agency.
Besides owning a shophouse, Mrs Narumon also worked as an employee of a government-sponsored job creation programme and was given 4,500 baht a month. The programme was meant to help women who lost their husbands or families whose breadwinners were killed by suspected insurgents.
While still alive, Mrs Narumon appealed to the authorities to treat affected families, both Muslims and Buddhists alike, in the same fashion as families of officials killed by suspected insurgents. She once complained that a family of a slain official received financial help almost three times of what an affected family of a killed civilian was given.
Too bad though she did not have a chance to see whether her appeal would ever materialize. On July 31, she was shot dead right in her grocery shop by suspected insurgents in the same manner that her husband died four years ago.
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Caption : Mrs Narumon Pramotepaibul while interviewed with the Isra news desk three years ago.