n the weekends now, the military firing range in Yala is crowded with teachers -- in shifts of 50 -- trying out their pistols, an essential new accessory in a place where teaching school has become one of the most dangerous professions.
In an escalating campaign of violence here in the largely Muslim south of mostly Buddhist Thailand, government-run schools and the teachers who work in them have become particular targets of bombs and gunmen.
In the past year and a half, dozens of schools have been damaged or destroyed by arson. The local teachers union said 18 teachers had been killed in that period in the three most dangerous southern provinces, an average of one a month. Some give higher figures.
ILLUSTRATION: MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
A long-simmering separatist movement in this former Malay sultanate lies at the heart of the violence, hand in hand with resentment at discrimination against Muslims and attempts at forced assimilation by the government.
In addition, military and police feuds, criminal syndicates, political vendettas, smugglers, drug runners and bandits all account for many killings in this untamed region.
A harsh, militarized approach by the government has generated its own spiraling dynamic of violence and revenge. Experts say that there is no evidence yet of direct involvement by foreign Islamist groups, but that fertile ground is being created for them.
More than 700 people have died since the level of violence rose sharply in January last year, including nearly 200 in two mass killings by the military that have caused widespread resentment here.
Teachers are the prize for gunmen, a symbol of the reach of the distant government in Thailand and the high-profile members of their communities.
Just 10 percent of Thailand's population of 63 million is Muslim, with most of them clustered here in the south, where they live side by side with Buddhists. The teachers who have been killed include people of both religions.
Hundreds of teachers, perhaps thousands, have asked for transfers out of the region, and school officials say it is increasingly difficult to find anyone willing to replace them, even with the offer of hazardous-duty pay.
The government said recently that it would transfer any teachers who asked to leave and replace them with nonprofessional volunteers.
Duangporn Visinchai, 49, is the principal of Baan Trang School in the countryside just outside Yala, in one of the most dangerous areas in the south.
She carries her pistol with her everywhere now, even inside her little schoolhouse, where her walkie-talkie crackles throughout the day with police chatter.
In the classrooms, the voices of children can be heard shouting out their lessons. Along the country roads outside, in the bright morning sunshine, soldiers with automatic weapons guard the entrances to schools.
"A bomb this morning in Narathiwat, 9am, four soldiers hurt," said her son, Somtam, 23, who also teaches here at Baan Trang School, reading out a bulletin sent to his mobile telephone one recent morning.
Reports like this are coming more often now, and every time, there is a new jolt of fear.
"It's every day. People die every day. This is the situation we live in," Duangporn said.
As a result, she said, "we are all living with weapons."
On the weekends, she too can be found at the firing range, getting the hang of her new .22-caliber pistol.
The Education Department said recently that it was buying used pistols and expediting permits so that teachers could arm themselves. Free flak jackets are available to 3,000 teachers in the most dangerous areas, Reuters reported last week.
At the range, soldiers offer instructions in gun-handling and in the fundamentals of being a teacher in southern Thailand.
"Pay attention to your surroundings, make it a habit," Duangporn quoted her instructor as saying.
"When you are driving, keep looking around. If a motorcycle comes close to your car, speed up. If your instinct tells you something is wrong, turn your car into them, attack them before they attack you," she said.
On school days, car pools gather at 8am at the old Esso station in Yala and then head out to join guarded convoys into the countryside.
The teachers are in track suits, loose clothes and sneakers, ready to run if they have to.
"This is the teacher's life," Duangporn said, as she did several times through the day.
"We don't go anywhere alone. If I have to leave school during the day, I can call a military officer to escort me," she said.
Some teachers have been killed when they decided to run an errand without a military escort. Both teachers and their escorts have been wounded together by roadside bombs.
When the school day is over at 3pm and the military guards withdraw, nobody lingers, neither teachers nor children. Extracurricular activities have disappeared, along with much of the daily life of the south.
"When the sun sets, everything gets dark in the village and everyone shuts the doors and windows," said Prim Daengkeaw, another teacher at Baan Trang.
"It's frightening just to go to the market. People around here are getting killed, just ordinary people, like workers going to and from work," Prim said.
The whole rhythm of life is changing in the south, Duangporn said.
"Everything happens in daylight. At night, everybody stays home," she said.
People have stopped inviting each other for dinner. Traditional evening funeral ceremonies have been moved to the afternoon.
The economy is collapsing as well. Wholesale buyers no longer come to the fruit and fish markets or to buy fabric and clothing.
The government is subsidizing part of the economy by buying local produce.
According to a local newspaper, as many as 10,000 workers could lose their jobs as the military shuts down rock quarry operations in order to prevent the theft of explosives.
As more schools are burned and more teachers are killed, as more receive death threats and more colleagues flee, teachers here say even their guarded classrooms no longer feel safe.
"Whenever someone we don't know comes to our school, parents or whoever, we keep our eye on them," said Wacharin Suthipithak, 50, who teaches at Baan Lahal Yamu School, just down the road from Duangporn's school.
"We don't know who is who. I'm scared, I'm really scared. It's really too brutal. We used to have such a great life, a happy life," Wacharin said.
At least seven people have been killed on the country road that passes the two schools, although none so far has been a teacher. That, too, as Duangporn might say, is part of a teacher's life.
When they see a body as they drive to school, she said, they stop for a moment to see whether it is someone they know, and then drive on.
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