Muslims in Thailand grieve deaths in army custody

[AYOUB]

By Noppawan Bunluesilp

 

PATTANI, Thailand, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Grieving relatives in Thailand sought loved ones among the dead on Wednesday after almost 80 Muslims suffocated to death while being transported by trucks to army barracks after a violent demonstration.

 

Only six people were previously believed to have been killed and 20 wounded when troops and police opened fire to quell a riot outside a police station on Monday in the restive, Muslim-majority region.

 

The huge leap in the toll, and the manner of the deaths, are expected to fuel tension in Thailand's three southernmost provinces where 440 people have now died in a wave of violence since January.

 

The justice ministry said 78 people died of suffocation, making it the bloodiest day in the Buddhist kingdom since April 28, when troops and police shot dead 106 machete-wielding militants, also in the south.

 

General Sirichai Thunyasiri, who heads the southern peacekeeping command, said authorities were "deeply sorry".

 

"Many people died and we are ready to provide assistance to their next of kin," Sirichai Thunyasiri told Thai television.

 

A small crowd of Muslims gathered outside the army barracks as darkness fell on Tuesday, begging soldiers for news of relatives they feared dead.

 

"I don't know if my husband's alive or not," wept Piwarat Arwae, 38. "He took our two kids to school and must have dropped by at the protest on the way back. He never came home."

 

Some bodies were later handed over to relatives who held prayers. More bodies were due to be released on Wednesday.

 

Officials said some of the protesters were under the influence of drugs or were frail because of fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

 

"This is typical," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Tuesday when asked about reports of scores dead. "It's about bodies made weak from fasting. Nobody hurt them."

 

ALARMING QUESTIONS

 

Monday's victims were among hundreds of Muslim men arrested after a 1,500-strong rally was dispersed outside a police station in neighbouring Narathiwat province.

 

"We have never seen this sort of torture in Thai history before. It is just like gassing them," Ahmad Somboon Bualuang, an Islamic scholar from the Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani province, said on Tuesday.

 

The deaths appear to have occurred while the detainees, who were stripped semi-naked after their arrest, were being taken by truck to barracks in Pattani, a journey that took five hours.

 

Human rights groups said the deaths in military custody raised alarming questions in a country where they say civil rights are under threat by an increasingly intolerant government.

 

One of Thailand's 11 National Human Rights Commissioners appeared less concerned.

 

"These people are rebels, separatists with some help from foreigners. This part of the country has belonged to Thailand since our grandparents. We can't allow separation," Pradit Charoenthaitawee told Reuters.

 

Security officials justified Monday's use of force, saying they feared the police compound would be attacked by the crowd, which was demanding the release of six villagers accused of handing over government-issue shotguns to Islamic militants.

 

Troops and police fired live rounds, as well as water cannon and teargas, to end the six-hour standoff. Shots were also fired from the crowd, officials said.

 

Security outposts have been common targets in the 10-month unrest that looks increasingly like a revived separatist movement in the deep south, home to most of Thailand's Muslims, who make up 10 percent of the mainly Buddhist nation's 63 million people.

 

With an election looming, Thaksin is under pressure to resolve the trouble that analysts fear could create a fertile breeding ground for militant networks such as Southeast Asia's al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah.

 

"It's all building up to the point where we're in serious danger of what is so far a rather serious law and order issue turning into a broader insurgency," said Steve Wilford of Control Risks Group in Singapore.

 

(Additional reporting by Ed Cropley, Nopporn Wong-Anan and Sasithorn Simaporn)

 

 

[LANDER]

"This is typical," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Tuesday when asked about reports of scores dead. "It's about bodies made weak from fasting. Nobody hurt them."

This guy must be a moron, since when did fasting lead to death in a 5 hour stretch?

 

 

If Allah wills it, these mujahids will one day have their sovereign state and I hope the same for the rebels in southern Philippines. Needless to say the UN will not be giving as much attention to these cases as they had to the christian minority of East Timor.

[- Femme -]

^^^Agree. Trying to divert the blame from themselves and place it squarely on the victims...who can't defend themselves. Pathetic :rolleyes: . And sad .

 

May Allah forgive them and reward them. Amen.