4,500-baht employment project (the second of a three-part series)
It is an open fact that a substantial portion of the budget earmarked every year since 2005 to fund the so-called 4,500-baht employment project in the deep South has been spent on hiring security guards to protect government offices and villages against potential attacks by insurgents.
These poorly-trained and lightly-armed security guards (most of them issued with shotguns which are no match for M16 or AK47 assault rifles used by the insurgents) are seen as an auxiliary force of the government by the insurgents and, as such, they have become a target for frequent attacks.
Although there is official record of how many of these security guards known officially as Chor Ror Bor (village protection unit) or Por Ror Mor (Friends of Officials Volunteer to Protect Towns) have been killed or injured since the launch of the 4,500 employment project in 2005, the followings are some of the violent incidents involving the guards which should the dangers of the job.
On June 8, 2009. Suspected insurgents shot and seriously wounded Mr Santisumet Poomipattharayarnkoon, an employee of the employment project as he was guarding a heath station in Ban Kor Lor Tanyong in Nong Chik district of Pattani.
On February 11, 2009. Two security guards, Mr Suchart Alideemun amd Mr Donormae Paetsala, were shot and serious injured as they were providing protection to teachers on a road in Tambon Kok Po, Kok Po district of Pattani.
On December 28, 2008. The body of a security guard, Mr Abdul Halem Maso, was found dumped in the backyard of a heath station in Ban Talor Koryor in Muang district of Yala.
On December 12, 2008. Three security guards were shot dead by suspected insurgents as they were on guard at a school in Tambon Arsong, Raman district of Yala. They were all Muslim men and employed under the 4,500-baht employment scheme.
On June 26, 2008. A Muslim man who worked as a security guard at a school was shot dead by suspected insurgents as he was riding a motorcycle back home from school in Tambon Bana, Muang district of Pattani.
A Por Ror Mor guard explained that there are five guards in his team assigned to guard a school in Pattani. On daily basis, two of them are posted at the school and the other two to guard a road leading to the school with the fifth one taking a day’s break on rotation basis.
The guard said that their job was a risky as that posed to the security forces but they lacked job security, no risk allowance nor fringe benefits besides the 4,500 baht monthly pay.
He admitted the news about his colleagues got killed or wounded had been very discouraging and worrying. He said that every time a stranger showed up at school, his hands would reflectively grab his gun and his eyes would zero in on the stranger unblinkingly until he left the school.
Another security guard who spoke on condition of anonymity complained that every time a guard was assigned to join a patrol with the security forces he would be put on the front and would be the first to take the blow if anything went wrong.
"If there is a bomb explosion, the guards will be the first to die. Never mind the welfare or the compensation because it has never been mentioned. 4,500 baht a month is the only amount of money we are supposed to receive. It does not worth the risk but it is still better than nothing," he said.
Colonel Thakorn Niamrin, an officer attached to the Fourth Army Region’s forward command, insisted that the military has never ignored the security guards or their families in case the guards were killed or injured.
As for the guards’ security, he said that it had been a standard rule that the guards must travel in group so that they could protect one another.
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Related story : 4,500 bath employment project (the first of a three-part series)
http://www.south.isranews.org/english-article/770--4500-baht-employment-project-the-first-of-a-three-part-series.html