Attack On Chinese Boats In Mekong River Kills 11

[webfact]

GOLDEN TRIANGLE

China suspends shipping after 13 slain

THE NATION

China suspended ships going through the Golden Triangle yesterday after attacks by suspected drug traffickers on two Chinese cargo ships left 13 people dead or missing on the Mekong River.

The bodies of 12 crew members were found near Chiang Rai on Friday and Saturday after the ships were hijacked Wednesday, the China Daily reported. Another body was found in the same area early yesterday, China's Xinhua news agency said.

Most of the victims had been bound and blindfolded with adhesive tape and shot, the China Daily reported. The crew included two female cooks, it said.

The Golden Triangle region, where the borders of Burma, Laos and Thailand meet, is notorious for the production and trafficking of heroin and other illicit drugs.

Thai authorities seized both boats after a gun battle with the hijackers and found cargo that included speed pills worth Bt100 million, garlic, apples and fuel.

Thai Army officials reportedly said a gang run by suspected ethnic Shan drug trafficker Nor Kham was believed to be behind the attacks. It said the gang demands protection money from ships it hijacks on the Mekong and kills crew members who refuse to cooperate.

The boats were used to smuggle drugs from Burma to Thailand, the police said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told a daily news conference yesterday China had suspended shipping from Yunnan down the Mekong and had sent a team to help investigate the killings. He said China had appealed to Thailand to boost security on the river.

He put the number of dead at 11 crew, with another two missing.

In April, three Chinese boats and 34 crew members were taken hostage by pirates along the Mekong in Burma but were safely rescued within days.

In related news, Thai Narcotics Suppression Police yesterday announced two separate drug busts, in which they seized some 900,000 "ya ba" methamphetamine tablets.

-- The Nation 2011-10-11

[soylentgreen]

Attached is some more detail of the Myanamar Junta's relationship with drug dealing and extortion on the Mekong River border areas.

HandinGlove.pdf

[chaoyang]

I live in Beijing and this is big news here -- but it's interesting to see how the emphasis and "spin" are changing. Yesterday it was the lead story on state media, with understandable outrage that Chinese nationals had been killed. This morning it was the last item on China Central TV, with a news crawl saying "11 Chinese sailors killed by Thai drug gang."

China now recognizes it needs to control its usual breast-beating over the wrongs that have been done to it because:

* It is unclear whether the hijacked ships were themselves somehow involved in the drug trade.

* The incident originated and likely happened in the waters of its client state Burma, not Thailand.

* As outlined in the long post above, the perpetrators may well be ethnic Chinese.

[webfact]

13 bodies found after China boat raid: Thai official

BANGKOK, October 11, 2011 (AFP) - Thai authorities on Tuesday said the bodies of 13 people had been recovered after a raid last week on two Chinese cargo boats on the Mekong thought to have been carried out by a notorious drug gang.

The dead included women and a teenager, said Sermsak Srisant, district chief of Chiang Saen in northern Thailand, near the borders with Laos and Myanmar, in the so-called "Golden Triangle" area known for narcotics smuggling.

Authorities were trying to ascertain whether all 13, who had each suffered gunshot wounds, were members of the boats' crews, he said. One body was found on a ship while the rest were retrieved from the river.

"We believe these two cargo boats were attacked by a drug group who were active in the Golden Triangle," Sermsak told AFP, adding that 920,000 amphetamine tablets were discovered on the boats.

Sermsak said the gang could have hijacked the boats further north on the river, between Myanmar and Laos, and attempted to force the crew to carry illicit cargo, but that a shootout appeared to have broken out.

Drug kingpin "Nor Kham", who is wanted by the Myanmar authorities, was believed to have been behind the attack, he said.

China's ministry of foreign affairs said it was suspending shipping on the Mekong on Monday in response to the attack on the cargo ships "Hua Ping" and "Yu Xing 8" on October 5.

Some Chinese ship operators have asked their Chinese crew to return to China overland from Thailand despite pending deliveries.

Olivier Evrard, anthropologist at the French Institute of Research for Development (IRD), said the Mekong in the Golden Triangle has long been "an area of fluvial piracy".

He said continuing piracy in the area was explained by a "low degree of political control" and a "high volume of commercial flux".

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2011-10-11

[chaoyang]

Chinese media are reporting that 9 Thai soldiers have "turned themselves in" for the killings.

This is looks even more like a drug-related execution. The Chinese are surprisingly muted -- could it be that these two ships were smuggling large amounts and the Thai special forces decided to cut the flow closer to the source?

[chaoyang]

From China Daily newspaper:

KUNMING - Six people suspected of taking part in an attack last year on the Mekong River thatleft 13 Chinese sailors dead went on trial on Thursday in a court in southwest China's YunnanProvince.

The trial of Naw Kham, head of an armed drug gang from Myanmar, along with five other gangmembers, started at 9:35 a.m. at the Intermediate People's Court of Kunming City, capital ofYunnan.

Present at the court were relatives of the 13 Chinese victims, embassy personnel of the relatedcountries, Chinese legislators, political advisors, experts and representatives of local residentsand media.

The six suspects, all foreigners, were charged with intentional homicide, drug trafficking,kidnapping and ship hijacking.

The crime ring was busted earlier this year in a joint operation by police from China, Laos,Myanmar and Thailand after the brutal murders of Chinese sailors' triggered an outcry in Chinalast year.

Full story: http://www.chinadail...nt_15769851.htm

So what happened to the 'Thai soldiers story'?

Edited September 20, 2012 by chaoyang

[RubbaJohnny]

Chinese fail to say alleged suspects etc

As someone who has lived there these will be show trials confessions genuine or not.

There are many unanswered questions.

[MESmith]

China executes four foreign nationals convicted of Mekong river murders

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/01/china-execute-mekong-river-murders

[rockderk]

So Naw Kham and some other border fiends have been snuffed out by the Chinese. One Laotian national, one Thai and one from the land of nowhere [stateless]. You can see video of them being led about prior to execution on any number of websites. But strangely absent is anything concrete regarding the 9 Thai soldiers, including 2 officers about to stand trial in China for murdering Chinese sailors in the same incident. I wonder if the papers will dare to touch it.

[EyesWideOpen]

So Naw Kham and some other border fiends have been snuffed out by the Chinese. One Laotian national, one Thai and one from the land of nowhere [stateless]. You can see video of them being led about prior to execution on any number of websites. But strangely absent is anything concrete regarding the 9 Thai soldiers, including 2 officers about to stand trial in China for murdering Chinese sailors in the same incident. I wonder if the papers will dare to touch it.

I saw that article as well. But you are right, no mention of the Thai soldiers involved...