Mailmen fear for their lives

Leave uniforms at home, vary routes

WASSANA NANUAM

People in the deep South, please forgive your postmen if they are late and are not wearing their uniforms. They are trying to save their lives.

Postmen in the southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat have reported that they have been followed and sometimes attacked. They must vary their routines. They have stopped delivering mail at their usual times and changed their routes.

They have effectively become plainclothed officers by abandoning their uniforms in favour of civilian dress.

Of course, postmen in the region still ride their motorcycles with stuffed mailbags and parcels hung on both sides of the pillion. But they do not wear blue outfits and jackets any longer. They now wear coloured shirts and caps.

Sofri Suthasartsakul, 36, does not hesitate at all to make such changes, as a week ago he reported that he had been followed by teenagers on a motorcycle while he was on duty. He informed police of the stalking and sought police patrols to ensure his safety.

He said he would like police to escort him when he was delivering mail. But he was afraid that he would become an easy target in the company of a policeman, and besides, there are not enough policemen to provide protection to all postmen.

``So I asked police only to patrol the areas where I will deliver mail,'' he said.

He insisted that he had neither any known enemies nor personal conflicts but that he had been followed for days so regularly that he had to sought protection from police.

``I must quit my old schedules of deliveries. Today I may go on one road to serve those houses and another day I will go to another route. I will deliver all mail eventually but they may not be on schedule. If I kept old routines, I could be ambushed or attacked. Now I must watch my back,'' Mr Sofri said.

Nucha Thiengsuk, chief of Thailand Post's Pattani branch, confirmed the non-routine practices. The 59-year-old chief who has worked for postal services in Pattani for nearly three decades said targets of insurgents had changed from police and soldiers, when he had started his career, to all kinds of government officials including postmen these days.

Since early this year three postmen in Rueso district, Narathiwat, and Yaring and Kapho districts, Pattani, have been killed. As a result, the post office in Kapho has been closed. Another postman in Nong Chik district, Pattani, was followed by teenage motorcyclists. The postman had to hide in a village.