Narathiwat, Thailand
The Thai air force dropped 100 million paper birds over the southern provinces this week as a goodwill gesture toward the region’s Muslim population. The “peace bombs,” made by Buddhist schoolchildren and carrying written messages of friendship, were the idea of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is running for re-election in a few months. Violence has been almost continual in the south since October, when 78 Muslim demonstrators suffocated to death in police vans. The gesture did not appease Muslim officials in the south, who said it was an “insult” for residents to have to pick up tons of litter.
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