NARATHIWAT, Aug 17 – Thailand’s Southern Border Administrative Center (SBPAC) on Friday began compensating victims of the country’s ongoing violence in the south.
In Narathiwat, 468 people affected by the violence, which flared up in southern border provinces since 2004, received money awards today in compensation money.
Wichien Chantaranothai, deputy secretary-general of SBPAC, and Apinan Suenuthawong, governor of Narathiwat, together presented the money as part of the Thai government’s rehabilitation of the victims of southern violence, conducted at the Provincial Islamic Committee Office in Narathiwat.
About 2,520 people are eligible to receive compensation totalling 152 million baht. For each case, the injured have received 30,000 baht compensation and persons who became handicapped in an insurgency-related incident received 120,000 baht each.
Compensation money was presented to 468 cases on Friday.
In Yala, Police Colonel Tawee Sodsong, Secretary-General of the SBPAC presented the compensation to relatives of persons affected in three major incidents of violence in 2004, in which losses partly incurred due to actions by officials representing the state.
Cash awards were paid to families of 442 persons killed in the incidents. The government’s Southern Border Center verified the information in all cases before endorsing the cash award.
