6,000 traumatised children in far South
POST REPORTERS
The provincial court in Narathiwat yesterday issued arrest warrants for four suspected militants believed to have shot and killed four railway employees on the Sungai Kolok-Yala train on Saturday, police said.
Pol Col Chan Wimonsri, deputy chief of Narathiwat police, said the wanted men are Harem Janeh, Duerapa Jeh-uma, Amran Ming and Asueming Samae.
Mr Harem and Mr Duerapa were also connected to the death of teacher Juling Pongkunmul, who was brutally beaten by villagers on May 19, 2006, and died after almost eight months in a coma.
Mr Amran and Mr Asueming were found to be linked to the insurgent network in Rangae and nearby districts.
In Pattani, a core leader of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil militant group with a one-million-baht bounty on his head was arrested during a raid in Nong Chik district on Tuesday, along with two other suspected militants.
District chief Sanan Pong-aksorn said ringleader Abdulloh Satae and Muhammud-ameen Hayeedue-rame were apprehended inside a house where they took refuge in tambon Kohpoh. Arrest warrants were out for both men.
Police held the houseowner Hama Meena for questioning.
Royal Thai Army Aviation investigators in Lop Buri reported yesterday the helicopter crash in the South on June 20 was the result of a rotor malfunction caused by poor maintenance.
The crash in Bannang Sata district of Yala killed the 10 soldiers and forensic specialists aboard.
In Songkhla, Petchdao Tohmeena, director of the mental health centre overseeing Narathiwat, Pattani, Songkhla and Yala, said children suffering from serious mental health problems caused by the violence in the deep South would need years to recover.
The centre estimated 6,000 children and teenagers, 2,561 of them orphans, in the four provinces have been affected psychologically since the unrest flared anew in January 2004.
"Children growing up in intense situation, with bombings and gunfights on a daily basis, surely have very traumatic lives. It takes a long time to heal and monitor their symptoms, at least until they finish university level," she told a national mental health crisis conference.
Mental trauma among southern children and teenagers is expressed graphically through their paintings, she said. Younger people chose to draw headless bodies, blood and bombings.
Some wanted to own guns, believing this could protect themselves and their families from the violence.
Teenagers suffering mental trauma could be easily persuaded to get involved with drugs and violence if family members and adults in communities neglected the problem, she said.
Instruction in mental health first aid should be given to religious and community leaders as they were close to the people. Similar methods were applied in war-torn countries and should be put into use in the South.
"What young children in the southernmost provinces need most is adults' love and protection to ensure that they will be safe," she said.
"However, it is very difficult under the circumstances. Parents themselves, and even the teachers, also live in fear."
Prev
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Next
