Thai police find graves at second migrant jungle camp

[catterwell]

The second camp was made up of four sleeping quarters, two kitchens and two toilets. Five small graves were found but no dead bodies were exhumed and the digging was ordered suspended as rescue workers from the Mitraparb Samakkhi Foundation pulled out of the camp.

Why did the rescue workers pull out?

[cookee68]

I would not be surprised if there were many camps and graves like this in the Thai jungles

[Usual Suspect]

The traffickers that make these camps up on those hills better make a damn good job of camoflaging them...

...because those U.S. cameras are now gonna be zooming-in from above with each pass-over that area.

[casindonet]

As predicted, it is a big hoo-ha now but business as usual after a couple of months....too much money + powerful people involved

Edited May 5, 2015 by casindonet

[webfact]

HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Five graves discovered at 2nd migrant camp in South
THE NATION
AGENCIES



Prayut vows tough action against local officials found linked to human trafficking, drugs or crime

BANGKOK: -- PRIME MINISTER Prayut Chan-o-cha has warned of tough action against state officials linked to human trafficking, a government spokesman said yesterday.

The warning came as five more graves were found at another jungle camp for migrants in an area bordering Malaysia.

The prime minister has instructed local administrators, as well as police and military officers to carefully scan their areas of responsibility to see if there is any human trafficking or other illegal activity, such as forest encroachment, drug trade, or severe crimes, deputy government spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd said yesterday.

Local administrators of all levels - villages, tambons and districts - were ordered to comb their areas of jurisdiction to see if there was any illegal camp to hold migrants.

He said responsible officials would be moved out of their areas of jurisdiction, as punishment, if more cases of human trafficking were found.

"If there is any serious incident like one in Sadao district of Songkhla again, the officials involved will be moved out of their areas. It's because they failed to enforce the law," the spokesman said.

He was referring to the discovery of a mass gravesite in Sadao district's Padang Besar border area, where 26 bodies of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh were discovered recently near a jungle camp believed to be used for detaining illegal migrants.

"Any official found to accept bribes or make personal gains will face criminal as well as disciplinary actions," Sansern said.

He added that officials believed to turn a blind eye to such illegal activity would be moved out of their area and severe disciplinary action would be taken against them.

"The government must use strong medicine against all forms of crime," the spokesman said. "This is to get rid of the deep-rooted evil from Thailand."

Investigators probing human trafficking in the area have discovered five more graves at a second jungle camp believed to hold the remains of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, police said yesterday.

No bodies were found in the graves.

The camp was uncovered just a kilometre from a similar "holding area" on a steep hillside near the Malaysian border, where forensic teams found 26 bodies over the weekend - all but one buried in shallow graves.

"We found the second camp [Monday] evening," national police spokesman Lt-General Prawut Thavornsiri told reporters, saying it was near the first camp.

Police and rescue workers found eight deserted makeshift huts believed to have been used by migrants. They destroyed the newly-built huts in order to prevent them from being used by traffickers.

Separately, in the southern province of Phang-nga, governor Prayoon Ratanaseni and provincial police chief General Chalit Kaewyarat led a team of local officials to inspect an area used as a jungle camp for Rohingya in Takua Pa district. They found a skeleton, believed to be of a Rohingya woman, buried in a Muslim funeral style.

Meanwhile, national police chief General Somyot Poompunmoung yesterday issued an order to transfer 15 police officers in the South out of their areas of jurisdiction, in connection with the probe into the trafficking scandal.

The officers included Satun police chief Maj-General Sunthorn Chalermkiat, and seven more police colonels, most of them from Padang Besar station, whose jurisdiction covers the area where the mass graves were found.

In Ranong, which borders Myanmar in the Andaman Sea, Rohingya who have settled in Thailand for over 20 years disclosed that four unpopulated islands located between the two countires were used by human traffickers to hide illegal migrants before bringing them onto the mainland at Ranong.

The Rohingyas, who spoke on condition of anonymity, identified the islands as Yipoon, Kangkao, Kam and Noppaket. They were among those who hid on the islands or knew someone who did.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Five-graves-discovered-at-2nd-migrant-camp-in-Sout-30259392.html


-- The Nation 2015-05-06

[NongKhaiKid]

BBC World News is saying that the Thai authorities have long PROMISED to take action but have done nothing until now.

Big choice for LoS, an open, full and transparent investigation no matter who is implicated and how much loss of face is involved OR ... ?

[ksamuiguy]

The Malays and just as complisit if not more so.

Crimes agianst humanity come to mind if nothing is done.

That all we need, to much shit going on now with out this.

It's like pealing an onion, something new hidden under each layer.

[rametindallas]

"We found the second camp yesterday evening," national police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri told reporters, saying the location was close to the first camp which lay 25 kilometres (16 miles) west of Padang Besar in Thailand's southern Songkhla province.

This guy is lying as the earlier story on the 'discovery' of the first camp (with mass graves) stated: "Police had apparently been tipped off to the presence of such camps long before last week's grisly discovery, yet they chose not to take any action or investigate further." http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/822614-fresh-horror-haunts-thailands-tip-upgrade-bid/ Job #1: CYA, Job #2: Make as much money as you can, in any way you can, as long as you pass some to your superiors, and Job #3: If you can't make money from some criminal activity you discover and they are not politically connected, it is OK to behave as a policeman and arrest the miscreants who can then make their own deal with either the prosecutor or the court. Sorry, but I've become quite cynical about the RTP.

"We also found five graves but cannot yet confirm whether any bodies are in them. Authorities will look into this," he (national police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri) added.

Well, they aren't graves if there aren't any bodies in them, duh! Whose nephew is this guy that he is a national police spokesman? Please tell me he was horribly misquoted/mistranslated.

The police are nearly as revolting as the Human Traffickers.

[Thaddeus]

The police are nearly as revolting as the Human Traffickers.

They condone it, they take bribes to turn a blind eye, then lie when caught out.

Plus, the traffickers have one skill set, but if there is anything nasty going on here, there will be a tight brown uniform involved in some way.

I would say they are worse.

Edited May 6, 2015 by Thaddeus

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

I recall them finding a shipping container in the ocean full of dead bodies (maybe as many as 50) a few years ago. As far as I know nothing ever happened about that either. Let's see if anything gets done here.

[Baerboxer]

BBC World News is saying that the Thai authorities have long PROMISED to take action but have done nothing until now.

Big choice for LoS, an open, full and transparent investigation no matter who is implicated and how much loss of face is involved OR ... ?

That's interesting. I wonder if Mr. Head of the BBC will diligently follow this up and investigate why the Thaksin proxy parties that have been in power for most of this century failed to take any real action? Or why Tarit, as Head of the DSI declined to take cases involving Rohingya when brought to his attention during the puppet Yingluck regime?

I don't think so somehow. He'll gloss over all that.

[Suffinator]

PRIME MINISTER Prayut Chan-o-cha has warned of tough action against state officials linked to human trafficking, a government spokesman said yesterday.

Describe exactly what 'tough action' consists of. Of course we know what that means ... transfer to an inactive post.

The only real action is going to be their attempts to cover this up, explain it away, create another crisis in order to divert attention. They are good at all of these but useless of tackling the actual problem ... and all due to the amount of money that flows.

I read a report this morning that they found a young woman in one grave that was approximately 8 months pregnant ... what type of person does it take to murder a woman and her unborn child for money? The answer is a Thai for they have no soul. I'm not religious but I do hope there is a hell and that those involved have a very special place there to burn.

[Lupatria]

This all makes me wonder at the Thai Navy's next move against the Phuket news team who relayed the report about its involvement in trafficking...

But, it does make scriptwriters' jobs so much easier - they don't have to make it up.

Bob A. Relaxed in Lampang

The Thai Navy gets help. The Chinese are coming and they bring a huge present:

[maidee]

they better stop digging or they might find many more that might damage thailands image