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Scores of Thai Muslims Killed in Police Custody
BANGKOK, October 26 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Some 78 Muslim protestors were confirmed killed Tuesday, October26 , while in police detention, bringing the death toll from clashes that erupted in southern Thailand a day earlier to at least84 .
“After we brought people who were arrested into detention, we found that another 78 people were dead,” said Manit Suthaporn, deputy permanent secretary from the Thai justice ministry, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.
“According to the investigation of the dead bodies, they died because of suffocation.”
“After we brought people who were arrested into detention, we found that another 78 people were dead,” said Manit Suthaporn, deputy permanent secretary from the Thai justice ministry, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.
“According to the investigation of the dead bodies, they died because of suffocation.”
The official noted the 78 persons were found dead in addition to the six demonstrators killed after the Thai security forces broke up a protest outside a police station with tear gas and water cannon.
“We found no wound from guns or bullets on their bodies. We found only the wounds from the clash. We can confirm that they all died from suffocation,” the official said.
Some 1 , 000people were detained, according to Thai authorities, and up to 44 injured, including up to 14 Thai army or police.
On April28 , security forces clashed with Muslims in southern Thailand and opened fire killing at least 107 Muslim youth in the bloodiest day in the history of this troubled region.
The Monday clashes erupted after a crowd had gathered at the district police station in Takbai, Narathiwat, to protest against the detention of six men accused by the police of providing weapons to “Islamic militants”.
Police said they fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse the crowd. Some reports also said police used live ammunition.
Weak From Fasting
Thai officials claimed the Muslim protestors, who lost their lives while in police custody, died because their bodies were too weak from fasting.
“The bodies of people who were arrested were weak because of fasting. It caused them to be fatigued and when they came into crowded cars there was no air to breathe,” the official said.
“They came in and the situation was quite tense and very combative so the bodies couldn't take it and they passed away at the hospital mostly.”
He denied that the slain Muslims were killed by the Thai security forces.
“I vehemently deny the possibility that the government people had done something directly that caused the deaths of these people. It will not be true.”
Admitting police custody conditions could be blamed for the high death toll, Thai Army deputy commander Maj-Gen Sinchai Nujsathit told the BBC News Online that “we had more than1 , 300people packed into the six-wheel trucks” for a journey to Pattani province that took five hours.
Muslims Furious
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra flew into the troubled south late Monday after the protest was swiftly controlled by police and army forces. He praised the security forces for their swift action, but that was before the scary death toll emerged.
“They have done a great job,” he said, referring to security forces. “They (the protesters) really set out to cause trouble so we had to take drastic action against them,” he said.
The action was taken, only later it was revealed how drastic it was though.
It is not clear, however, whether the 84 Muslims killed so far would be the end chapter of this episode or just the start.
“I cannot say what [is] going to happen, but I believe that hell will break out,” a local Muslim leader was quoted by The Associated Press as saying.
Muslim leaders, on their part, accused Thai security forces of again using excessive reactions to the protest by Muslims, last of which was Monday police station protest in Narathiwat province. They further warned it could trigger a spiraling upsurge in violence.
“I am in shock,” Abdulraman Abdulsamad, chairman of the Islamic Council of Narathiwat, told The Associated Press.
“I cannot say what is going to happen, but I believe that hell will break out."
Thailand 's 5 million Muslims resent the state's refusal to recognize their language, culture and Malay ethnicity, and the region is poorer than much of the rest of the country.
Thai authorities have been accused of heavy-handed tactics to quell violence in the deprived south including unwarranted detentions and excessive interrogations.
Most of Thai Muslims live in the five southern provinces bordering Malaysia.
Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat are the only Muslim majority provinces in Thailand.
Muslims in these provinces have long complained of discrimination in jobs and education and business opportunities.
The South was a rich Malay kingdom until it was overrun by the Buddhist kingdom of Siam in the late16 th century when it declared its full independence from its earlier status of semi-independence under the rule of the Thai kingdoms of Sukhothai and Ayutthaya.
In 1909 , it was annexed by the Kingdom of Siam as part of a treaty negotiated with the British Empire.
Both Yala and Narathiwat were originally part of Pattani, but were split off and became provinces of their own.
There still exists a separatist movement in Pattani that at times erupts in violence like in the late1980 ’s when the Pattani United Liberation Front (PULO) fought against the Thai forces for a separate Muslim South.
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-10/26/article05.shtml
“We found no wound from guns or bullets on their bodies. We found only the wounds from the clash. We can confirm that they all died from suffocation,” the official said.
Some 1 , 000people were detained, according to Thai authorities, and up to 44 injured, including up to 14 Thai army or police.
On April28 , security forces clashed with Muslims in southern Thailand and opened fire killing at least 107 Muslim youth in the bloodiest day in the history of this troubled region.
The Monday clashes erupted after a crowd had gathered at the district police station in Takbai, Narathiwat, to protest against the detention of six men accused by the police of providing weapons to “Islamic militants”.
Police said they fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse the crowd. Some reports also said police used live ammunition.
Weak From Fasting
Thai officials claimed the Muslim protestors, who lost their lives while in police custody, died because their bodies were too weak from fasting.
“The bodies of people who were arrested were weak because of fasting. It caused them to be fatigued and when they came into crowded cars there was no air to breathe,” the official said.
“They came in and the situation was quite tense and very combative so the bodies couldn't take it and they passed away at the hospital mostly.”
He denied that the slain Muslims were killed by the Thai security forces.
“I vehemently deny the possibility that the government people had done something directly that caused the deaths of these people. It will not be true.”
Admitting police custody conditions could be blamed for the high death toll, Thai Army deputy commander Maj-Gen Sinchai Nujsathit told the BBC News Online that “we had more than1 , 300people packed into the six-wheel trucks” for a journey to Pattani province that took five hours.
Muslims Furious
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra flew into the troubled south late Monday after the protest was swiftly controlled by police and army forces. He praised the security forces for their swift action, but that was before the scary death toll emerged.
“They have done a great job,” he said, referring to security forces. “They (the protesters) really set out to cause trouble so we had to take drastic action against them,” he said.
The action was taken, only later it was revealed how drastic it was though.
It is not clear, however, whether the 84 Muslims killed so far would be the end chapter of this episode or just the start.
“I cannot say what [is] going to happen, but I believe that hell will break out,” a local Muslim leader was quoted by The Associated Press as saying.
Muslim leaders, on their part, accused Thai security forces of again using excessive reactions to the protest by Muslims, last of which was Monday police station protest in Narathiwat province. They further warned it could trigger a spiraling upsurge in violence.
“I am in shock,” Abdulraman Abdulsamad, chairman of the Islamic Council of Narathiwat, told The Associated Press.
“I cannot say what is going to happen, but I believe that hell will break out."
Thailand 's 5 million Muslims resent the state's refusal to recognize their language, culture and Malay ethnicity, and the region is poorer than much of the rest of the country.
Thai authorities have been accused of heavy-handed tactics to quell violence in the deprived south including unwarranted detentions and excessive interrogations.
Most of Thai Muslims live in the five southern provinces bordering Malaysia.
Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat are the only Muslim majority provinces in Thailand.
Muslims in these provinces have long complained of discrimination in jobs and education and business opportunities.
The South was a rich Malay kingdom until it was overrun by the Buddhist kingdom of Siam in the late16 th century when it declared its full independence from its earlier status of semi-independence under the rule of the Thai kingdoms of Sukhothai and Ayutthaya.
In 1909 , it was annexed by the Kingdom of Siam as part of a treaty negotiated with the British Empire.
Both Yala and Narathiwat were originally part of Pattani, but were split off and became provinces of their own.
There still exists a separatist movement in Pattani that at times erupts in violence like in the late1980 ’s when the Pattani United Liberation Front (PULO) fought against the Thai forces for a separate Muslim South.
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-10/26/article05.shtml
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These Thai muslim "youth" were protesting the fact that several of their brethren were arrested for giving hundreds of guns to Jihadi terrorists who wish to break away from Thailand to form an "Islamic" state. Thailand doesn't look kindly on treason, so the government responded. Good for them.
Amnesty International has urged the Thai government to impartially investigate the deaths of at least 84 protesters in the south of the country.
Seventy-eight people died after being arrested and loaded into army trucks following Monday's clashes with security forces, which left six dead.
...
Officials said almost all the dead suffocated as they were taken to an army barracks several hours away.
Dr Pornthip Rojanasunan, a forensic expert for the Justice Ministry, told the BBC that 80% of the victims died from smothering or suffocation and 20% from stress or convulsions.
Army deputy commander Maj-Gen Sinchai Nujsathit admitted that "we had more than 1,300 people packed into the six-wheel trucks" for a journey to Pattani province that took five hours.
"All deaths related to this incident... must be promptly, effectively and independently investigated," the London-based rights group said in a statement.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3957019.stm
Seventy-eight people died after being arrested and loaded into army trucks following Monday's clashes with security forces, which left six dead.
...
Officials said almost all the dead suffocated as they were taken to an army barracks several hours away.
Dr Pornthip Rojanasunan, a forensic expert for the Justice Ministry, told the BBC that 80% of the victims died from smothering or suffocation and 20% from stress or convulsions.
Army deputy commander Maj-Gen Sinchai Nujsathit admitted that "we had more than 1,300 people packed into the six-wheel trucks" for a journey to Pattani province that took five hours.
"All deaths related to this incident... must be promptly, effectively and independently investigated," the London-based rights group said in a statement.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3957019.stm
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra appeared to have little sympathy for the victims. Referring to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is now under way, he said: "This is typical. It's about bodies made weak from fasting. Nobody hurt them."
Though he has blamed bandits and drug runners in the past, he now pointed the finger at separatists.
...
The deaths occurred when the detainees were taken in trucks on a five-hour journey to a military barracks in Pattani Province, Maj. Gen. Sinchai Nutsatit said at a news conference.
He said more than 1,300 people had been packed into six-wheeled trucks, but did not say how many trucks had been involved.
An army spokesman, Akom Pongprom, confirmed the toll to reporters and said the cause was suffocation.
Thailand's most prominent forensic pathologist, Pornthip Rojansunan, said at a news conference in Pattani that 80 percent of the victims had died because they could not breathe, according to news agency reports.
"We didn't find any bodies with broken arms or legs, but two or three of them had broken necks, which may have occurred during transportation," she said.
Reporters were barred from the area and did not witness the loading of detainees into the trucks. Prisoners were earlier seen lying in rows on the ground, stripped of their shirts, with their hands tied behind their backs.
The volatility of Thailand's deep south was underscored by the relatively minor grievance that brought a furious crowd estimated at up to 2,000 into the streets in Narathiwat Province. Their demand was the release from police detention of six men arrested on suspicion of selling weapons to Muslim fighters.
Plans for a rally had apparently been under way and security officials had prepared for it, Siwa Saengmanee, a senior official of the Interior Ministry, told a Bangkok radio station. "If we had not set up roadblocks on various highways, there could have been 10,000 people there," he said.
Most of Thailand's Muslims, who make up about 10 percent of its largely Buddhist population of 63 million, live in the southern region, which for years has felt neglected and disparaged by the distant central government.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/international/asia/27thailandcnd.html
Though he has blamed bandits and drug runners in the past, he now pointed the finger at separatists.
...
The deaths occurred when the detainees were taken in trucks on a five-hour journey to a military barracks in Pattani Province, Maj. Gen. Sinchai Nutsatit said at a news conference.
He said more than 1,300 people had been packed into six-wheeled trucks, but did not say how many trucks had been involved.
An army spokesman, Akom Pongprom, confirmed the toll to reporters and said the cause was suffocation.
Thailand's most prominent forensic pathologist, Pornthip Rojansunan, said at a news conference in Pattani that 80 percent of the victims had died because they could not breathe, according to news agency reports.
"We didn't find any bodies with broken arms or legs, but two or three of them had broken necks, which may have occurred during transportation," she said.
Reporters were barred from the area and did not witness the loading of detainees into the trucks. Prisoners were earlier seen lying in rows on the ground, stripped of their shirts, with their hands tied behind their backs.
The volatility of Thailand's deep south was underscored by the relatively minor grievance that brought a furious crowd estimated at up to 2,000 into the streets in Narathiwat Province. Their demand was the release from police detention of six men arrested on suspicion of selling weapons to Muslim fighters.
Plans for a rally had apparently been under way and security officials had prepared for it, Siwa Saengmanee, a senior official of the Interior Ministry, told a Bangkok radio station. "If we had not set up roadblocks on various highways, there could have been 10,000 people there," he said.
Most of Thailand's Muslims, who make up about 10 percent of its largely Buddhist population of 63 million, live in the southern region, which for years has felt neglected and disparaged by the distant central government.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/international/asia/27thailandcnd.html
When muslims riot in arab or asian countries, they sure seem to die in large numbers quite quickly
IT may take weeks before Thailand and, beyond it, the rest of the world absorb the shock of the tragedy in which 78 Muslim detainees were suffocated while in police custody. There are, however, already signs that the Thai authorities plan to prevent any serious investigation of the incident. In what looked like a rather amateurish attempt at smoke-and-mirrors tricks, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told the Senate in Bangkok yesterday that the deaths had been caused by “a number of mistakes.” In what must be rated as the understatement of the year, Thaksin said the detainees had been crammed into four trucks because the police did not have enough vehicles available to transfer them. Authorities had to “pile them up on top of each other and they died,” he said. “It was a bit rough,” the Thai leader insisted, adding insult to injury. To make matters even worse he claimed that the detainees died “so quickly” because “they had become weakened by fasting during Ramadan.”
A bit rough? Weakened by fasting?
Thaksin would do well to remember that in the past year alone, more than 400 people have been killed in the same area where the ill-fated detainees came from. During the same period, an estimated22 , 000people have been imprisoned for varying lengths of time. Last Monday, the police arrested1 , 300people during a peaceful demonstration. During the arrests, the police shot and killed at least eight people and injured 76 others. Forensic experts from the Ministry of Justice in Bangkok have already established that several of those who died had broken necks. The photos of the victims posted by the Thai news agency clearly show some of them with facial scars that appear to have been caused by burning.
The tragedy should alert the world to what is going on in the Pattani province in southern Thailand. For the past three years, the Thai authorities have treated the province as an occupied territory in a war zone. Normal life has been disrupted in many localities in the province. Having one or more of their members taken away by the Thai police has broken many families. Large parts of the province have been declared “a forbidden zone” for both local and foreign journalists. And the government is currently building a wall — longer and higher than the one the Israelis are building in the West Bank — to seal off the province’s estimated2 . 5million Muslims as if they were lepers.
The high-handed way the Thai government has chosen to deal with radical elements is bound to anger the estimated six million Muslims who regard Thailand as home. A few years ago Thailand sought, and was granted, associate member status in the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The repressive policy adopted since then is in clear contradiction of Thailand’s moral and political obligations.
Thaksin needs to think again about how to cope with the consequences of this tragedy. The first step he might take would be to accept an international enquiry and to offer a firm pledge to find and punish those responsible.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=53572&d=28&m=10&y=2004
A bit rough? Weakened by fasting?
Thaksin would do well to remember that in the past year alone, more than 400 people have been killed in the same area where the ill-fated detainees came from. During the same period, an estimated22 , 000people have been imprisoned for varying lengths of time. Last Monday, the police arrested1 , 300people during a peaceful demonstration. During the arrests, the police shot and killed at least eight people and injured 76 others. Forensic experts from the Ministry of Justice in Bangkok have already established that several of those who died had broken necks. The photos of the victims posted by the Thai news agency clearly show some of them with facial scars that appear to have been caused by burning.
The tragedy should alert the world to what is going on in the Pattani province in southern Thailand. For the past three years, the Thai authorities have treated the province as an occupied territory in a war zone. Normal life has been disrupted in many localities in the province. Having one or more of their members taken away by the Thai police has broken many families. Large parts of the province have been declared “a forbidden zone” for both local and foreign journalists. And the government is currently building a wall — longer and higher than the one the Israelis are building in the West Bank — to seal off the province’s estimated2 . 5million Muslims as if they were lepers.
The high-handed way the Thai government has chosen to deal with radical elements is bound to anger the estimated six million Muslims who regard Thailand as home. A few years ago Thailand sought, and was granted, associate member status in the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The repressive policy adopted since then is in clear contradiction of Thailand’s moral and political obligations.
Thaksin needs to think again about how to cope with the consequences of this tragedy. The first step he might take would be to accept an international enquiry and to offer a firm pledge to find and punish those responsible.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=53572&d=28&m=10&y=2004
BANGKOK, October 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – International rights groups, world capitals and politicians demanded Wednesday, October27 , that an inquiry into the deaths of 84 Muslim protestors in police custody be “rigorous and independent”.
More
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-10/27/article04.shtml
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http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-10/27/article04.shtml
actually what happen in southern thailand and Takbai tragedy was plan by Thai authorities after get the instruction from US to kill all Muslim in Thailand.
This is one crime in a series of brutal crimes committed by Bangkok's racisit goverment against thai muslims. This brutal goverment has to choose between giving the muslim community their full and due rights and between a never-ending war. This is because Muslims do not compromise thier rights, dignity,and faith and muslims do not fear death. On the contrary, death for muslims means transition to everlasting joyful life in the hereafter.
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