For the "Wimmin 'n Guns" file
When Muslim wives, mothers and children recently mounted a demonstration in insurgency-wracked southern Thailand, the army sent a 27-year-old woman named Mariya into the crowd to chat, glean information and check whether any men were hiding out among the protesters.
Mariya is a Muslim and one of 140 female rangers recruited by the military in a search for nonlethal ways to curb the three-year insurgency that has claimed more than 2,000 lives. A former registrar at a local government office in Pattani, one of the three provinces where the insurgency is raging, she said she joined up because she disagrees with the insurgents' aims. "It is impossible to separate from Thailand. We were born in this land; we have to be Thais," she said.
Natchaphat Kongchuen is a Buddhist. Dressed in black fatigues and combat boots, she said she quit her job as a receptionist at a police station in the southern town of Yala and enlisted as a ranger after her father, a military officer, was killed in an ambush last year. "I wanted to take part in solving the country's problems after my dad died," Natchaphat said.
More at the link. There's a pic, and a bigger version's here. There's another pic here. Awwww. Both are from foreign Yahoo versions, but the captions are in English. This article and the pics were in the local paper this morning. |