Strong Criticism on Front Page of The Nation

[Guest]

On the front page of today's The Nation:

 

COMMENT: Body count spirals during PM's reign

Published on October 27, 2004

 

It was yet another black day for Thaksin Shinawatra's premiership. When more than 80 Thais perished at the hands of Thai troops in the deep South on Monday - six in the clash between protesters and security forces and 78 reportedly from suffocation after being rounded up and put in the back of military trucks - everything else that has marred his highly controversial reign now pales in comparison.

 

His contempt for human rights has resulted in a scattering of personal tragedies, masked by the proclaimed success of the war on drugs. But now this flawed trait of his leadership is threatening to plunge the country into the bitterest and most detrimental divide between the people and the state.

 

Barring criminal scenarios like beatings or other forms of torture, this is a major tragedy. But it could have been prevented if only the victims had been treated more humanely. Thaksin may not have been directly responsible for them being crammed into military trucks like pigs headed for slaughterhouses, but the troops' demonstration of hatred and disregard for humanitarianism simply reflected how the country is being governed. Granted, the southern situation is far from normal, but it cries out for extreme sensitivity, not the opposite.

 

How the government handled the aftermath is equally scandalous. No words of apology. No clear explanation from top government officials about the circumstances leading to the deaths. A shocked nation and distraught families were left to rely on vague press briefings by a forensic expert and some senior military officials.

 

The 78 young men died on Monday night, but the government acted as if nothing happened, and the press briefings only took place late yesterday afternoon after rumours spread like wildfire.

 

The Narathiwat tragedy will inflame criticism that the government's hawkish approach may have been at least partially responsible for the aggravated southern situation. With innocent people killed by militants virtually every day, tough policies are required. But nothing justified the deaths of most - if not all - victims of the Narathiwat carnage.

 

What happened in the province provides a cruel picture of the nation's future: the deep South will continue to burn. All the efforts - utmost or misguided, sincere or political - are now in danger of going down the drain. We have found ourselves in the most precarious state yet as far as the troubled region is concerned. No longer is our problem about coping with cells of bandits playing hide and seek with the authorities. Somehow, the people have been pitted against the state, and communal violence is threatening to escalate.

 

Prime Minister Thaksin has pinpointed possible causes of the turbulence and reshuffled the top men in charge. It's time he took a long hard look at himself.

[imperial]

Amen

[Guest]

the images shown on TV here do also speak for themselves - a disgrace!

[Guest]

Quite surprises how much attention this is getting in the foreign press........ anyway he is the latest published here in Canada

 

Thai PM acknowledges 'mistakes' led to deaths of 78 Muslim protesters

 

October 27, 2004 - 11:30

 

BO THONG, Thailand (AP) - Thailand's prime minister expressed regret Wednesday over the deaths of 78 Muslim detainees who suffocated or were crushed while crammed into army trucks after a riot, but insisted his security forces acted appropriately to quell the rioting.

 

Hundreds of grieving relatives flocked to a military camp to claim the bodies, and outraged Islamic leaders warned the deaths could worsen sectarian violence in the Muslim-dominated south of predominantly Buddhist Thailand. More than 400 people have been killed this year in a revival of a long-simmering insurgency.

 

Human rights groups urged the government to investigate the deaths.

 

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra acknowledged "there were some mistakes," and that authorities lacked enough trucks to properly transport the nearly 1,300 people arrested in Monday's riot in southern Narathiwat province because it was a public holiday.

 

Authorities had to "pile them up on top of each other, and they died," he said.

 

Gen. Sirichai Thunyasiri, commander of a task force on security in the region, said the military used only four trucks to transport the detainees, and that they spent more than six hours in the vehicles before arriving at an army camp in a neighbouring province.

 

"We are sorry for that, sorry they met an untimely death," Thaksin told the Senate, which had demanded an explanation for the deaths.

 

But Thaksin insisted the military had used "the soft approach," and that soldiers "did not fire a single round into the crowd."

 

However, at least seven other people also died in the protest, apparently shot by security forces, making the overall death toll 85.

 

Senator Kraisak Choonhavan urged Thaksin to apologize publicly, saying the prime minister had "praised the military for doing a good job and making people die."

 

"The human rights groups should not sit idle - they should to try to get rid of this government," Kraisak told parliament.

 

Thaksin and other officials sought to partly blame the deaths on the detainees' weakness due to dawn-to-dusk fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, saying they died of dehydration or suffocation.

 

But a forensic scientist with the Justice Ministry had said two or three of the detainees had broken necks.

 

Relatives wept Wednesday as a police spokesman read out names of the dead outside the Inkayuth-Borihan army camp in Pattani province.

 

Muslim resident Wadamae Hajehding, 62, travelled to the army camp in hopes of finding that his 23-year-old son was not among the dead.

 

He said Thailand's security forces were "too cruel."

 

"They treat us worse than animals," he said.

 

The detainees were among about 2,000 people who clashed with security forces outside a police station in Narathiwat on Monday while demanding the release of six Muslim suspects.

 

Police and soldiers fired water cannons and tear gas, then shot into the air to try to scatter the crowd.

 

After subduing the rioters, police and soldiers kicked and in some cases smashed rifle butts into young men as they were forced to slither bare-chested across a road to the trucks that took them away.

 

Authorities claimed some protesters were armed. Thaksin said 20 pistols, seven assault rifles and three hand grenades were recovered at the scene.

 

Violence has troubled Thailand's southern provinces for decades, but has worsened this year. Residents claim discrimination by the central government. Most victims have been killed in drive-by shootings or bomb attacks directed at police and officials.

 

In the latest violence, gunmen riding on the back of motorcycles killed one person in Yala province and seriously wounded another four in two separate drive-by shootings Wednesday in Narathiwat.

 

Thaksin blamed the unrest on separatist leaders with ties to Muslims in northern Malaysia and Islamic teachers.

 

"The core separatists are commuting between Kelantan state of Malaysia and southern Thailand. The authorities will not bow to these members of the movement," he said Wednesday.

[limbo]

Shouldn't we forget that these people were weakened due to the Ramadan?

 

Wasn't that one of Mr. T's remarks?

[John_Betong]

Hi LaoHuLi,

 

>>> lacked enough trucks to properly transport the nearly 1,300 people arrested ...

>>> Authorities had to "pile them up on top of each other, and they died," he said.

>>> said the military used only four trucks to transport the detainees ...

>>> and that they spent more than six hours in the vehicles

 

"Only four trucks" for "nearly 1,300 people" for "more than six hours in the vehicles" !!!!!

 

That works out to be 325 per truck! I am speechless!

 

John Betong

[Flashermac]

Makes me feel like I'm back in the 1970s, when student demonstrators were treated like this. Now Muslim demonstrators -- and once again simply for protesting the arrest of others by the police. Who's next???

 

 

p.s. There definitely were some agitators in the crowd, reportedly wearing masks over their faces. But many of those arrested were simply curious bystanders. This government is doing exactly what the Islamic radicals want!

[Guest]

John_Betong said:

Hi LaoHuLi,

 

>>> lacked enough trucks to properly transport the nearly 1,300 people arrested ...

>>> Authorities had to "pile them up on top of each other, and they died," he said.

>>> said the military used only four trucks to transport the detainees ...

>>> and that they spent more than six hours in the vehicles

 

"Only four trucks" for "nearly 1,300 people" for "more than six hours in the vehicles" !!!!!

 

That works out to be 325 per truck! I am speechless!

 

 

John Betong

 

Totally agree .......... I will continue to monitor press releases on this side of the Pacific, as I expect some of these reports will not appear in Thai papers ............ at least right away.

[Guest]

This is just on the wires from Indonesia:

 

Indonesian press furious over detainees' deaths in Thailand

 

1 hour, 20 minutes ago

 

Asia - AFP

 

JAKARTA (AFP) - Indonesia's press has expressed fury over the deaths of 78 Muslim protestors in southern Thailand and warned that the incident would increase tension in the predominantly-Muslim region.

 

 

The English-language Jakarta Post blasted the Thai government's early attempts at explaining the cause of the death of the protestors on Tuesday.

 

"Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's remarks blaming the high death toll on detainees conducting the obligatory Ramadan fasting, drug use among protesters or that there were too few trucks due to a public holiday, is simply unacceptable," the Post said.

 

The Post warned that the incident would only further inflame unrest in southern Thailand "to a critical boiling point."

 

Thaksin promised an official investigation Wednesday after initially blaming the effects of fasting and drug use for the high death toll.

 

Most of the detainees suffocated while packed inside trucks transporting them to an army camp in Pattani province after being arrested in the wake of clashes Monday with security forces.

 

The Muslim-oriented Republika daily called Thai security forces' treatment of the detainees "savage, condemnable and a crime against humanity."

 

"The international community should condemn (the actions of Thai security forces) and demand accountability from the Thai government," the paper said.

 

Republika pointed out that unrest in southern Thailand stemmed from discrimination suffered by the minority Muslim community there.

 

The leading Kompas daily blamed security forces' "recklessness and foolishness" for the deaths, which it described as scandalous.

 

"The death of dozens of people on Tuesday will only further escalate tension in a dramatic way," Kompas said.

 

Islamic and human rights groups in Asia have expressed outrage at the deaths.

 

Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said Wednesday Jakarta was concerned by the escalating tension in southern Thailand "but we are confident that the government of Thailand will conduct an appropriate inquiry."

[zanemay]

LaoHuLi said:

 

Indonesia's press has expressed fury over the deaths of 78 Muslim protestors in southern Thailand and warned that the incident would increase tension in the predominantly-Muslim region.

 

WTF cares what Indonesian press is furious about, any more than what Al Jazeera is furious about? Crash airliners into buildings, put shoe bombers on planes, decapitate Thai farmers -- they're not furious about that. But the top boys in Thai government, the police and the miltary know the score. And they're furious, and their fury is legitimate and real. They know that what is at stake is their country. They are desperate to save it. They don't wallow in self-doubt like Westerners, they bite.

 

And, there is no way to "increase tension." The tension is as high as it can be for the Buddhist population, remember them, the sweet, funny, gentle people? They live in terror, having had a dozen schools burned in one night, arsenals looted, monks, farmers and teachers murdered. I bet you don't hear a peep out of the Indonesian press about that.