Soldier

Precious few travelers venture to the Thai town of Pattani these days.

Located in Thailand’s deep south near the border with Malaysia, Pattani was the site of a major Japanese landing in the first days of World War II; from here they pushed down the Malay Peninsula to capture Singapore.  More recently (since 2004) the small town has been a focal point in an insurgency which has claimed, on average, two to three lives per day.  The motives for the violence are complex, but a significant factor is the discrimination local Muslims feel they receive under the Thai government.  Thailand is an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, but the four provinces in Thailand’s deep south are predominately Muslim.

In the days surrounding my own visit in September 2007, several passengers on a bus were shot, a military truck was hit by a roadside bomb, a teacher and farmer were gunned down, and a judicial official was assassinated.  But as in other conflict zones, life goes on in the midst of the uncertainty.  On an afternoon walk through the town, I came across these two smiling Thai soldiers heading out on patrol.  I was struck by their facial expressions…and their mode of transport.

I was struck by this soldier's eyes.  It was late November 2006 and I was photographing a protest in the West Bank village of Bil'in, where Palestinians, along with Israeli and international activists, were protesting the route of Israel's Separation Barrier.  The barrier had separated the Palestinian village from more than half of its land, and the protest, carried out each Friday afternoon, was a largely nonviolent response to this confiscation.  During these demonstrations (which continue still today) a palpable and sometimes frightening tension filled the air.  The stress, of course, is handled differently by each person.

The soldier pictured here is an Israeli who had likely been tasked many times before with keeping the protestors from crossing the barrier, and in the three hours I saw him he never seemed fully present.  As much as one can know another through mere observation, I thought he was gentle and kind.  His watering eyes, his forced smile, his entire body language  indicated that he didn't like what was happening to this village.  And so the conflict this day was not only taking place in the fields of Bil'in; it was also occurring in the heart and mind of a soldier.