VZCZCXRO5398
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHBK #0235/01 0111052
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 111052Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY BANGKOK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3986
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BANGKOK 000235 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/MLS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/10/2017 
TAGS: PGOV PTER PINR KDEM KHUM TH
SUBJECT: SOUTHERN VIOLENCE: DEATH OF TEACHER FOCUSES PUBLIC 
OUTRAGE 
 
Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR SUSAN M. SUTTON. REASON 1.4 (B,D) 
 
¶1. (C) Summary.  The death of a public school teacher working 
in the South on January 8 has prompted emotional press 
coverage and may be focusing wider national attention on the 
violence in the southern provinces.  Along with substantial 
press reporting, the death of Juling Pangamoon has also drawn 
high-level interest from the royal family and inspired 
hundreds of teachers throughout the country to memorialize 
her.  While the impact on the Surayud government's southern 
policy is not yet clear, this event could serve as a 
dangerously polarizing issue for many Buddhists, and possibly 
inspire public pressure for harsher security tactics in the 
troubled provinces.  End Summary. 
 
 
A BUDDHIST MARTYR 
----------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The death of Juling Pangamoon, 27, on January 8, 
came nearly eight months after she was severely beaten by 
several young men and fell into a coma in the southern 
province of Narathiwat.  The attack was reportedly in 
response to the arrest of two suspected separatists in the 
area.  Following a small protest by villagers calling for the 
police to release the suspects, up to ten young men entered 
the Ban Kuching Reupah School and attacked Juling and a 
coworker.  According to press reports, Juling fought back and 
received significant head injuries--her colleague submitted 
to the young men and was less severely injured. 
 
¶3. (C) The attack in May of 2006 immediately prompted wide 
media coverage, portraying the young, idealistic Buddhist 
Juling--who had studied in the South and volunteered to teach 
there--as an inspired hero who selflessly sacrificed herself 
for the good of the nation.  Songs, portraits and poems were 
composed for Juling and the national media covered every 
change in her condition as front page news.  Both the Queen 
and the Crown Prince made it known that they had sent flowers 
to her bedside and were monitoring her health. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Following her death, Juling was given a royally 
sponsored memorial service in Songkhla.  Her body was then 
placed in a flag-draped casket and flown by military aircraft 
to her home town of Chiang Rai on January 9, where it was met 
by a crowd estimated at 1000 people.  Several VIPs, including 
PM Surayud, have publicly said that they plan on attending 
her funeral on January 15. 
 
¶5. (C) While the violence in southern Thailand is a regular 
fixture in Bangkok newspapers and media programs, it has not 
been a topic that resonates for most Thai outside of that 
region.  For many people, especially in the rural heartland 
of the Northeast, the separatist violence often appears as an 
age-old struggle without a human face.  Juling's death may be 
changing this dynamic.  The media coverage of her death and 
funeral--along with the concomitant royal attention--is 
providing a new, emotional focus for the majority-Buddhist 
population.  Hundreds of teachers in the Northeastern 
provinces of Khon Kaen and Buriram held memorial services for 
her this week and media message boards have become heated 
repositories of Buddhist anger. 
 
TARGETING EDUCATION 
------------------- 
 
¶6. (C) As reported separately, teachers are often the most 
evident and vulnerable symbols of central authority in the 
southern provinces, and are frequently targeted as such, 
prompting sporadic closing of the schools.  Moreover, given 
government efforts to use education as a tool to assimilate 
the ethnic-Malay minority in the South, separatists have 
focused their attacks on public teachers and school 
administrators.  Some of our contacts say that these efforts 
are also designed to drive students away from the public 
school system and into the scores of private Islamic schools, 
which are allegedly used to indoctrinate and recruit new 
militants. 
 
¶7. (C) While press accounts have listed Juling as the 72nd 
teacher to die since the resurgence of violence in January 
2004, Ministry of Education statistics state that 60 teachers 
have been killed, with another 62 wounded between January 
2004 and December 25, 2006.  Victims of some of the most 
brutal attacks in recent months have been teachers; including 
the slaying and burning of two educators in Yala on December 
 
BANGKOK 00000235  002 OF 002 
 
 
29, 2006, just meters from their schoolyard.  In a sadly 
ironic twist, local press reported that suspected militants, 
in an attempt to kill a local health worker, accidentally 
shot and killed the niece of exiled separatist leader Wan 
Kadir on January 11; herself a local elementary school 
teacher. 
 
¶8. (C) Since the upsurge in violence in 2004, the central 
government has struggled to protect teachers in the South 
with Army escorts and weapons training.  Partially in 
reaction to Juling's death, on January 10 Prime Minister 
Surayud  held a meeting with southern teachers and security 
officials to review new proposals to expand protective 
efforts.  Among these proposals would be permission for 
teachers to openly carry firearms at all times; a poor 
stopgap to a larger problem. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶9. (C)  Juling's death is a sad reminder of the failure of 
the central government to provide basic security in the 
South.  It puts a human face on the suffering of the victims 
of violence, and serves as a reminder that the interim 
government has not made any significant progress towards 
solving the security problems in the South. 
BOYCE