[Print] [Close] |
Crushing or suffocation kills at least 78 Muslim detainees in
Thailand By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, Oct. 27
2004
About 1,300 were arrested after riot
and packed into trucks
PATTANI, Thailand - At least
78 Muslim detainees suffocated or were fatally crushed Monday, when
police rounded up 1,300 people and packed them into trucks after a
riot in southern Thailand.
On Tuesday, Islamic leaders accused the
authorities of overreacting and warned that the deaths could worsen
sectarian violence.
Monday's violence started after protesters
outside a police station demanded the release of six Muslim men
accused of giving weapons to Islamic separatists. In all, six people
were shot to death, apparently by security forces.
As rumors of
the suffocations circulated but before the 78 deaths were officially
announced, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra tried to blame the
casualties on dawn-to-dusk fasting in the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan.
"There are some who died because they were fasting, and
they were crammed in tight" in the trucks, Thaksin said. "It's a
matter of their bodies becoming weak. Nobody did anything to them."
But the death toll shocked moderate Muslim leaders. They accused
security forces of overreacting - a charge they have repeatedly made
as the government has failed to halt the violence. So far this year,
the unrest has taken more than 400 lives in the Muslim-dominated
south.
Although Thailand is overwhelmingly Buddhist, its
three southern provinces have a Muslim majority. Violence there has
been an old story for decades but has worsened this year. Residents
claim they are discriminated against by the central government.
As news of the disaster spread on Tuesday, six people suffered
gunshot wounds in separate attacks. The victims included an assistant
village chief and her husband.
The army earlier declared a
curfew in Narathiwat, with Thaksin calling the situation volatile.
The dead were among 1,300 people arrested after six hours of
skirmishing with authorities. Witnesses saw the prisoners stripped to
the waist. With their hands tied behind their backs, they were herded
onto trucks to be driven to army camps.
Military and Justice
Ministry officials said Tuesday that 78 of those transported on the
trucks died during the journey. Most suffocated in the crush of people
piled atop one another. Some were kept in the trucks for as long as
six hours.
Forensics expert Pornthip Rojanasunan of the
Justice Ministry said most had perished from suffocation and some from
dehydration. Army Maj. Gen. Sinchai Nujsathit said suffocations had
occurred "because we had more than 1,300 people packed into the
six-wheel trucks."
Lt. Gen. Pisarn Wattanawongkhiri said 25 army
trucks and others hired from private contractors had been used to
transport the detainees.
Like the prime minister, Manit Suthaporn
of the Justice Ministry said religious fasting had contributed to the
deaths. "This, combined with the heat - they were in the trucks for
five to six hours, and it was crowded," Manit said.
Neighboring
Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country with close ethnic and
cultural links to Thailand's southern Muslims. The Malaysian
government expressed concern over Monday's crackdown.
The
death toll was the highest since April 28, when police and soldiers killed
107 militants who attacked police posts with machetes in a vain
attempt to seize firearms.
|
_____________________________________________________________________ |
Opportunity is at hand. |
See what's out there by posting your resume on St. Louis
At Work, |
where you'll be matched with the most local jobs. |
Learn more here. http://splash.stltoday.com/stlouisatworkgetstarted/ |
_____________________________________________________________________ |
If you enjoy getting email about an interesting story,
|
you might like the 3 O'Clock Stir from STLtoday.com.
|
Sign up and you'll receive an email with 5 unique stories
of the day, |
every Monday-Friday, at no charge. |
Sign up at http://newsletters.stltoday.com |
_____________________________________________________________________ |
|