More protests against selective compensation package
The government’s new compensation package for victims of southern violence perpetrated by state authorities appears to cause widespread resentment and confusion among families of victims who are excluded from the financial help.
Core members of teachers’ and peoples’ networks met at the CS Pattani Hotel in Pattani’s Muang district on Sunday February 19 to discuss the government’s new compensation package which they alleged to be unfair and selective.
The package offers financial compensation up to 7.5 million baht for families of victims wrongfully killed or disabled by state authorities as of October 1, 2011. Families of victims of the Tak Bai, Krue Se and Al Furgon violent incidents are also eligible for the compensation package.
A total of 108 people, including one official were killed in the Krue Se incident on April 28, 2004. In the Tak Bai incident, 85 Malay Muslims died of suffocation after they were forced to lie face down on military trucks as they were transported from Tak Bai to Inkhayuth Boriharn camp in Nong Chik district of Pattani. Ten Malay Muslims were killed and 12 injured when gunmen sprayed automatic gunfire into the Al Furgon mosque in Cho Airong district of Narathiwat on June 8, 2009.
The meeting of teachers and people affected by the violence concluded that the compensation package was unfair and tended to cause more problems because many affected people felt that they were left out.
They planned to submit a complaint letter to Lt-Gen Udomchai Thammasaroratcha, commander of the Fourth Army Region, and Pol Col Thawee Sodsong, secretary-general of Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre to seek justice. It was reliably reported that more than 300 teachers had signed the petition letter.
One female schoolteacher in Jana district of Songkhla told the Isra news agency that her husband, also a teacher, was shot and seriously wounded on December 12, 2006. The wounded man was hospitalized for 71 days before he was discharged from the hospital. But he died last year as a result of the wounds.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the female schoolteacher disclosed that her family was given only 250,000 baht in compensation and has never received any financial help since her husband died last year.
As a teacher, she said that she could not come out to seek justice from the state for the family. She added that she was not allowed a business leave by her superior in order to attend meetings organized by affected people to voice their grievances.
A resident of Betong district, Yala, said he received only 300,000 baht in compensation from the government for his gunshot wounds which needed to be operated on. After the incident, he said he was afraid of his life and decided to move out of the Deep South. He said he sold his 50 rai of land at just 500,000 baht and his house in Betong for only 300,000 baht.
"I felt I was not treated fairly. In the Krue Se incident, several of the dead victims were provocative as they attacked security forces first prompting the government to retaliate. And yet their families are to receive 7.5 million baht in compensation from the government," said the unidentified resident.
He also pointed out at the Al Furgon victims who are to receive the special compensation although it is yet to be determined whether the fatal attack on the worshippers at the mosque was actually perpetrated by state officials.
He suggested that all victims of the violence in the restive deep South should be equally compensated in order not to cause hard feelings among those who are excluded from the compensation package.
As for victims of the Krue Se incident, it was reported families of the dead victims might not get up to 7.5 million baht compensation because some committee members responsible for the compensation felt that several victims themselves were perpetrators of violence.
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Caption :Al Furgon mosque in Cho Airong district of Narathiwat