UNICEF calls for end to violence against children in Thai far South

BANGKOK, December 12 (TNA) - UNICEF Thailand has called for an immediate end to violence against children in the Thai far South, after an 11-month-old baby girl was among those killed in a shootout at a tea shop in Ra-ngae district of Narathiwat province on Tuesday. A representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Thailand, Pichai Ratchapantari, condemned the attack as a regrettably unreasonable and unacceptable act and called for all relevant parties to do all means possible to end such violence against children and to make sure that all children are protected. The UNICEF representative acknowledged every time that a child in the troubled southernmost Thai region is killed or injured, or whenever his/her family member is hurt or killed or whenever his/her school or a teacher is attacked, the child will face even more suffering and, thus, the only solution is the end to such violence in the Thai far South to ensure that basic rights of all the southern border youths will be fully protected. According to UNICEF figures, there have been over 5,000 fatalities since insurgency plagued the Thai deep South in early 2004, more than 50 of them were child victims and 340 others were children wounded by violent attacks. (TNA)