PHUKET: Villagers who say as many as 20 Rohingya boatpeople drowned or were shot in an incident sparked by the Royal Thai Navy today welcomed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's offer to investigate the needless deaths.
The villagers, now prepared to be named and to respond to an open inquiry, have also widened their allegations to claim that in recent months, Navy sailors have scuttled many Rohingya boats and taken hundreds of passengers to unknown destinations.
Today's fresh claim fuels allegations that members of the Thai military have been active participants in people-trafficking north and south of the holiday island of Phuket.
On Monday night at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand annual dinner in Bangkok, Ms Shinawatra intimated that she would investigate claims made about the Thai military. The latest allegations make such an investigation essential.
Phuketwan has spoken at length to eight members of the community of Hinlad village, near the port of Kuraburi on the Andaman Sea, and been supplied with video and still images that support their claims that defenceless boatpeople were shot or drowned in a breach of military discipline before dawn on February 22.
All of the people we spoke to today are loyal Thai citizens. As a group, they are disturbed by what they have heard and what they have seen lately.
Deputy village chief Aduwat Ahamad is a paramilitary for Thailand's Internal Security Operations Command, which oversees border security. But he said today he had told police and Navy officers: ''In the past, we closed one eye to the people-trafficking that has been going on in secret all along the coast. But I cannot stay silent with the deaths of innocent Muslims. My heart is broken by this slaughter.''
Others in the village said they shared Khun Aduwat's distress at the loss of the lives of the Rohingya. The men are mostly still missing - only two bodies were recovered and buried, one with suspected gunshot wounds to the head.
Four men who were on the Rohingya boat had been sheltered in the village since, with a fifth man who arrived on an earlier boat. All four men said they were among 20 men and boys who jumped into the water after a shot was fired into the air by a Navy sailor. The shot was intended to reinforce an order that the 20 men leave a large boat containing 130 people for a second, smaller vessel.
Fishermen report seeing other bodies among the mangroves around the village district. Red Cross Rescue Service leader Manat Aree told today of pulling in two bodies on February 26 and 27. The bodies were badly bloated and initial reports that one may have been a Westerner meant that all the leading local authorities were notified.
''We would have liked to fetch the other bodies but we could not because we had no money for fuel for our boat,'' Khun Manat said today. Other Red Cross workers provided Phuketwan with photographs of the rescue procedure and of the bodies.
The village Imam, Alit Damchor, said that many Rohingya had come ashore around the Kuraburi district because boatpeople telephoned friends and relatives to say that the people there were tolerant and generous.
''Our direction and the government's direction are totally different,'' he said. ''Our concept of how to treat the Rohingya is also vert different.''
Thais of all backgrounds, sea gypsies and Burmese mix easily around Kuraburi, a prosperous fishing port with none of the intolerance and race-hate within Burma that forces the Rohingya to put to sea on dangerous voyages in increasing numbers.
The Thai government's policy is for the military to ''help on'' boatloads of Rohingya towards Malaysia with food and other essentials - provided they do not land in Thailand.
However, allegations have surfaced that the military is taking the opportunity to be paid by people-smugglers who collect up to 60,000 baht for each person they transfer to Malaysia.
The five Rohingya men who disappeared from the village one night last week are now safe in Malaysia and looking forward to starting new lives, the men have told villagers by telephone.
Human Rights Watch, the New York-based international rights organisation, sent its own investigtors to the village. Today HRW called for an investigation. Phuketwan made a similar call last week.
THE ABC learns of claims that the Thai military shot Rohingya asylum seekers fleeing conflict in western Burma.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-08/accusations-thai-military-shot-fleeing-refugees/4562006/
A military vessel connects with a Rohingya boat
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Would-be refugees on a beach at Surin island
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The villagers, now prepared to be named and to respond to an open inquiry, have also widened their allegations to claim that in recent months, Navy sailors have scuttled many Rohingya boats and taken hundreds of passengers to unknown destinations.
Today's fresh claim fuels allegations that members of the Thai military have been active participants in people-trafficking north and south of the holiday island of Phuket.
On Monday night at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand annual dinner in Bangkok, Ms Shinawatra intimated that she would investigate claims made about the Thai military. The latest allegations make such an investigation essential.
Phuketwan has spoken at length to eight members of the community of Hinlad village, near the port of Kuraburi on the Andaman Sea, and been supplied with video and still images that support their claims that defenceless boatpeople were shot or drowned in a breach of military discipline before dawn on February 22.
All of the people we spoke to today are loyal Thai citizens. As a group, they are disturbed by what they have heard and what they have seen lately.
Deputy village chief Aduwat Ahamad is a paramilitary for Thailand's Internal Security Operations Command, which oversees border security. But he said today he had told police and Navy officers: ''In the past, we closed one eye to the people-trafficking that has been going on in secret all along the coast. But I cannot stay silent with the deaths of innocent Muslims. My heart is broken by this slaughter.''
Others in the village said they shared Khun Aduwat's distress at the loss of the lives of the Rohingya. The men are mostly still missing - only two bodies were recovered and buried, one with suspected gunshot wounds to the head.
Four men who were on the Rohingya boat had been sheltered in the village since, with a fifth man who arrived on an earlier boat. All four men said they were among 20 men and boys who jumped into the water after a shot was fired into the air by a Navy sailor. The shot was intended to reinforce an order that the 20 men leave a large boat containing 130 people for a second, smaller vessel.
Fishermen report seeing other bodies among the mangroves around the village district. Red Cross Rescue Service leader Manat Aree told today of pulling in two bodies on February 26 and 27. The bodies were badly bloated and initial reports that one may have been a Westerner meant that all the leading local authorities were notified.
''We would have liked to fetch the other bodies but we could not because we had no money for fuel for our boat,'' Khun Manat said today. Other Red Cross workers provided Phuketwan with photographs of the rescue procedure and of the bodies.
The village Imam, Alit Damchor, said that many Rohingya had come ashore around the Kuraburi district because boatpeople telephoned friends and relatives to say that the people there were tolerant and generous.
''Our direction and the government's direction are totally different,'' he said. ''Our concept of how to treat the Rohingya is also vert different.''
Thais of all backgrounds, sea gypsies and Burmese mix easily around Kuraburi, a prosperous fishing port with none of the intolerance and race-hate within Burma that forces the Rohingya to put to sea on dangerous voyages in increasing numbers.
The Thai government's policy is for the military to ''help on'' boatloads of Rohingya towards Malaysia with food and other essentials - provided they do not land in Thailand.
However, allegations have surfaced that the military is taking the opportunity to be paid by people-smugglers who collect up to 60,000 baht for each person they transfer to Malaysia.
The five Rohingya men who disappeared from the village one night last week are now safe in Malaysia and looking forward to starting new lives, the men have told villagers by telephone.
Human Rights Watch, the New York-based international rights organisation, sent its own investigtors to the village. Today HRW called for an investigation. Phuketwan made a similar call last week.
Television Report from ABC Australia
THE ABC learns of claims that the Thai military shot Rohingya asylum seekers fleeing conflict in western Burma.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-08/accusations-thai-military-shot-fleeing-refugees/4562006/
A military vessel connects with a Rohingya boat
Would-be refugees on a beach at Surin island
If what the village headman says is true, (and your report indicates that he has put his name to these allegations), then this is a truly terrible situation which warrants an international investigation, not a Thai investigation/cover-up.
As you may know, I currently live and work in Myanmar, but my home and businesses are in Phuket. As a former police volunteer, I travelled many times to the remote region between Phuket and Ranong after the 2004 tsunami.
Many, many villages and communities in that region are Muslim, and they clearly will be sympathetic to the plight of the Rohingya.
It's difficult for me, (because of my current location) to comment about the situation of these people in Myanmar.
But I have no qualms about putting my name to a demand for international investigation of these allegations.
Simon
Posted by Simon Luttrell on March 13, 2013 20:27