Thak Bai Victim Count Rises

[guran]

New statistics according to PULO.

Tak Bai Tragedy 25 Oct 2004

Bodies killed by gun found on the ground: 6 persons

Killed in the evening during the transportation to the military camp in Pattani: 78 persons

Died in the hospital: 1 person

Pushed into the river and killed: c:a 35 persons

Bodies found in the river 29 oct 2004: 18 persons

Under Thai military custody: 1,298 persons

Injured: 730 persons

Missing: 255 persons

[guran]

According to The Nation the final death toll could be as high as 125.

The Nation

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Death toll ‘could be far higher’

The number of protesters shot dead during the bloody crackdown in Tak Bai could be far greater than the six the government has reported, according to senators who just returned from a fact-finding mission to the South.

According to witnesses living near the Tak Bai police station, security forces loaded three Army trucks with 14 or 15 bodies each at the protest site, said Senator Nirand Pitakwatchara.

The 14 senators who made the trip also said that many of the more than 1,300 people being held in military camps might have been innocent bystanders who were not involved in the protest in front of the police station on Monday.

If eyewitness accounts are true, the actual number of deaths from the suppression and subsequent botched transport of detainees could be as high as 125, rather than the 85 so far reported by authorities. He said a thorough investigation of the matter was in order.

“This is the other side of the ‘facts’ we found on our trip,” he said. “We have to set up a non-partisan investigation to verify this information.”

The senators on Thursday went to the protest site in Tak Bai, the Ingkhayuthaborihan military camp in Pattani and the Senanarong camp in Hat Yai, where the arrested were first held.

Most the detainees who were still at the crowded Ingkhayuthaborihan camp on Thursday were in bad condition. None of them had been allowed to shower since they were arrested on Monday, senator Kraisak Chonhavan said.

“Many of them lay on top of dead bodies in the trucks,” he said. “Imagine them staying in detention without a shower for several days. They have not been allowed to contact their families. I had to lend them my phone.”

At least 40 of the detainees were under 18 years old, Senator Nirand said. The youngest was a 14 year-old secondary-school student. By law anybody under 18 must be detained separately from adults, he said.

The senators found one 18-year-old badly bruised and with swollen limbs as a result of being placed on the bed of an army truck with four people lying on top of him during a six-hour ride from Tak Bai to the army camp in Pattani.

Nirand speculated that two-thirds of the 1,300 people in detention could be innocent. He and his fellow senators found that many of the detainees in the Ingkhayuthaborihan camp they had talked to were just passers-by. Some were workers coming back from jobs in Malaysia.

“I think the security forces rounded up people on the street so that they got a decent number of people in their arrest report to support the claim that the demonstration was a serious, well-organised movement,” Nirand said.

While security forces dispersed and arrested demonstrators, another group set up several check points between the protest site and the T-junction leading to Narathiwat town and Sungai Kolok district to round up motorists, the senators said.

About 100 women and children were among those arrested at the protest site and on the street. They were released the next day about 10 kilometres away from Tak Bai.

These people had their motorcycles and pickups confiscated along with their mobile phones, wallets, ATM cards, ID cards, gold necklaces and money. Some detainees said they had more than Bt10,000 in their wallets.

The senators said they were shocked to learn that the Ingkhayuthaborihan camp had only one doctor and about eight nurses to take care of the injured.

The doctor told the senators that he found a dead body in the first truck carrying the detainees to the camp around 6pm. Despite the grim discovery, nobody called the other trucks to tell them to change the way the detainees were arranged.

The senators asked army commanders at the camp if they sent out orders to the trucks arriving later to rearrange the detainees to avoid further deaths after finding a dead body in the first truck.

“The answer we got was very disturbing. There was no order given that could have spared the lives of those in the other trucks,” Senator Chermsak Pinthong said.

The rest of the trucks, which arrived between 6pm and about midnight, had two to three dead each. The highest number of dead found in a truck was 23. In all, 78 people perished in about 25 trucks, most of them from suffocation and convulsions, according to forensic expert Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand.

The camp doctor also noted that one dead person in a truck had died from gunshot wounds, which contradicts Porntip ’s earlier assertion that none of the 78 dead detainees in the trucks had been killed by weapons, Nirand said.

Nantiya Tangwisutijit

The Nation

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[p1p]

guran, thank you for the interesting posts above. I would like to comment, but I feel that my position as moderator meand I must post a warning instead.

Like the United States election, there are strongly opposing views where discussion of religion, terrorism or politics are involved, and it seems many who hold those views are incapable of seeing beyond their own, blinkered, backsides. Those who believe only in black, or white, can not understand the concept of shades of gray and their constant pushing of their views accomplishes nothing rather than to increase the heat, make things turn nasty and turn the debate into an unpleasant fight.

I am afraid I, or another moderator, will step in and close any thread that we assess is going nowhere, or in the wrong direction. So, please be moderate in your posts and debate, do not fight your side.

You are forewarned....

[HarryHacker]

Its a great pity to see Thailand turning the clock back 20 years or so.....this is dreadful, not only for the families concerned but it will also hurt the Thai economy, less tourists and exporters will suffer also.

I have no doubt that the racist members of this forum see no harm in the Army being given permission to kill the Muslims, but this is the short end of the wedge, believe me, this is not over yet.

[sriracha john]

A very sad time in Thailand's history that gets sadder by the day as more and more of the truth is revealed. May reason and justice prevail.

[wrksysact]

Thanks for posting that Guran! I had no idea that sort of thing was going on!

Very informative...