Thai Military Accused Of Role In Deaths Of Hundreds Of Burmese Boat People

[Pawpcorn]

THAI MILITARY ACCUSED OF ROLE IN DEATHS OF HUNDREDS OF BURMESE BOAT PEOPLE

by BangkokPost.com

The Foreign Ministry said on Saturday it was investigating the pushing of Burmese boat people out to sea by the Thai military, which human rights advocates and survivors say contributed to the deaths of hundreds of men.

The ministry said it was "investigating and verifying all the facts and surrounding circumstances".

But it added that while protecting the country's sea borders from illegal activities, including illegal immigration, "we are committed to maintaining our traditional adherence to humanitarian principles and the protection of human rights".

The United Nations refugee agency said it was concerned about the reports and urged the government to investigate.

"We request the Thai government take all measures necessary to ensure that the lives of Rohingya are not at risk and they are treated in accordance with humanitarian standards," Kitty McKinsey, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said.

Official Thai News Agency reported on Sunday that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva baked the foreign ministry statement but was cautious about getting embroiled in the building controversy.

"Thailand is ready to investigate allegations" that the Thai navy set hundreds of asylum seekers from the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority adrift at sea, said the premier.

But he referred only to the foreign ministry statement, which he said "clarified the facts as the government understands them at this time" and stated his government "will adhere to the principles of human rights in the investigation."

Mr Abhisit said he was willing in principle to meet with representatives of international human rights agencies on the issue but no date has yet been scheduled.

Local human rights groups who have interviewed survivors, say Rohingya refugees from Burma were held on the remote Koh Sai Daeng off southern Thailand in December, forced back on boats with their hands bound and set adrift with little food and water.

The promised investigation came as survivors and representatives of the Rohingyas, a Muslim minority, claimed yesterday that a further 200 refugees are missing and feared dead after being taken out to sea by Thai authorities and set adrift over the New Year.

There are also fears for 46 Burmese refugee-seekers who were taken into custody by Thai authorities on Friday. A boat carrying the Rohingyas was intercepted off an island in southern Thailand. They were handed over to the local military authorities, according to a source in the area. Local villagers were discouraged from approaching them, he said.

Survivors of the Dec 18 incident in which the Thai military is accused of setting adrift 412 Rohingyas after detaining them on Koh Sai Daeng told the Bangkok Post Sunday of their ordeal when contacted at a relief camp on the Andaman Islands.

Only 107 Burmese migrants survived, according to refugee workers who have been in contact with the group.(Continued below graphic)

Zaw Min said through an interpreter: "We were tied up and put into a boat without an engine... We were then towed into the high seas by a motor boat and set adrift."

The food and water ran out within a few days, said another survivor. "We were starving for nearly two weeks and feared we would never see dry land again," he added.

The boat drifted for more than 15 days in the Andaman Sea, before the Indian coastguard rescued the boat and took the refugee-seekers to a relief camp on an Andaman island. They were all severely dehydrated, according to a local medical official.

There were four dead bodies on board when the boat was beached. More than 300 perished, according to researchers with the Arakan Project, which monitors Rohingya movements. Most died when they jumped overboard and tried to make land.

The area is renowned for its rough seas and is shark-infested.

"Thai authorities obviously wanted us to die on the boat," Zaw Min said.

In another incident just before the New Year, the Thai authorities towed 600 Burmese migrants out to sea in four boats, according to Arakan Project researchers. One of the boats ended up back at Koh Sai Daeng, where some 80 refugees are still being held, according to local residents.

The second boat beached on a small island just off the Indonesian province of Aceh, where nearly 200 Burmese are still in police custody. The third boat was rescued by the Indian authorities near the Andaman Islands, and the 90 refugees transferred to hospital for treatment.

The fourth boat is still missing and more than 200 Burmese refugees on board are now feared dead.

"More than a thousand Burmese immigrants - who were held on Koh Sai Daeng [or Red Sand Island] - were cast adrift by the Thai military authorities in the past few weeks, in two separate incidents," a local Burmese resident in Ranong said.

Local immigration officials dismissed the allegations as fantasy.

"We never push them back to the sea," said Lieutenant-Colonel Tara Soranarak, an inspector in the Ranong immigration office.

The Thai military has also been accused of torture, after a Hong Kong newspaper on Thursday published photographs of dozens of refugees being detained and beaten on an Andaman Sea island in full view of holidaymakers.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday the government was ready to cooperate on any move to end doubt about the torture of Rohingya immigrants.

He said Thailand adhered to human rights and welcomed any investigation into the issue.

If confirmed, the expulsions reverse Thailand's policy of recent years to allow thousands of Burmese refugees, including Rohingyas, to land in Thai territory on their way to seek work in other territories, particularly in Malaysia. In many cases those migrants are turned over to human traffickers, or are press-ganged into working on building sites in Thailand's southern beach resorts or to work on Thai fishing boats.

The Rohingya are an ethnic Muslim minority, mostly stateless, who live in the west of Burma, bordering Bangladesh. They are mercilessly persecuted by the military authorities there.

Since the early '90s, tens of thousands have fled the repression and sought asylum and work abroad. Most flee to Bangladesh before heading for a third destination.

All the Burmese Muslims who have been detained and cast adrift originally set off from Cox's Bazaar, on Bangladesh's eastern coastline, which is also close to the border with Burma.

"All of them paid 10,000 baht to traffickers in Bangladesh for the journey to Thailand," said Chris Lewa, who heads the Arakan Project. It costs a further 18,000 to 23,000 baht for Thai traffickers to transport them from Thailand to Malaysia.

Privately, Thai officials have expressed concern that the Rohingya may be headed to join the rebellion in southern Thailand, where insurgents are seeking greater autonomy.

Last year more than 5,000 Burmese refugees fleeing in boats from Bangladesh and Burma were detained by Thai authorities. Many more have successfully managed the dangerous journey to Malaysia and Indonesia. In the past two years, thousands of Burmese Muslim migrants have been tempted to head to countries in Southeast Asia, after their safer route to Saudi Arabia was blocked when it became impossible to get Bangladeshi papers.

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EARLIER REPORT

by BangkokPost.com

The government on Saturday said it would order an investigation of alleged mistreatment of Rohingya illegal migrants exposed in the foreign press.

Navy chief Khamthon Phumhiran said there is no need for a special investigation because there is no truth to the allegations.

Adm Khamthon on Saturday showed the media photos taken during the arrest of the minority Burmese Rohingya, and dismissed reports that the navy towed them out to sea in boats with no engines and no food.

There is no need to set up a special committee to probe this matter, because there is evidence that the navy has treated them with humanitarian principles, he said.

But a statement by the foreign ministry said the government will investigate reports that illegal migrants were abandoned on a barge and set adrift, where hundreds may have drowned.

The statement said Thailand will reassess the overall situation of illegal immigration in light of the incident. It pledged to work with neighbours "to better address the problem."

The Navy was adamant. On the picture on the BBC website, which showed scores of Rohingyas lying face down on a beach on Koh Sai Daeng island off Ranong province, Adm Khamthorn explained that it might be taken by a tourist who did not know the protocol of the army.

He said asylum seekers are made to lie down on the sand as a precaution to prevent them causing harm to security personnel who were outnumbered.

They were later given shelter, food and water, he said.

"Thai officials are currently investigating and verifying all the facts and surrounding circumstances," according to the foreign ministery statement.

"In accordance with our immigration laws, we are committed to maintaining our traditional adherence to humanitarian principles and the protection of human rights."

The Koh Sai Daeng incident involved migrants including both Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals, who were trying to land in Thailand to proceed by land to Malaysia for seasonal work.

Washington-based Refugees International and Bangkok-based advocacy group Arakan Project say that several other boats containing as many as 1,000 migrants have been intercepted since last month by the Thai navy and forced back out to sea.

Chris Lewa, coordinator of the Arakan Project, said she interviewed at least two survivors, who were on the boat that ended up near India’s Andaman Islands.

The survivors were detained on a remote Thai island early last month, where they were beaten, tied up and given little food, Lewa said, recounting the survivor’s accounts. They were then intimidated into boarding a barge, she said.

“They tied the legs of some of them and threw four overboard,” she said.

Survivors said Thai sailors left them with only two barrels of water and four bags of rice, Lewa said. (With agency reports)

[sriracha john]

The eighteenth thread (or thereabouts) on same topic:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Similans-Tou...st-t235696.html

[Tywais]

See link above //Closed//