TALOH MANOH, Thailand - Villagers dug a mass grave Thursday to bury some of the 78 Muslims who died in military custody after a protest in Thailand's rebellious south, while authorities promised to tell diplomats "the truth" amid allegations of excessive force used to quell the demonstration.
At least seven people were killed, apparently shot by security forces, when a protest in Narathiwat province turned violent Monday. An additional 78 people died of suffocation or were crushed to death when they were packed tightly into military trucks following their arrest, officials said.
Some people waited on Thursday for information about their loved ones outside an army camp in Patani province, where most of the up to 1,300 detainees were being held. The arrests followed a melee outside a police station, where protesters had demanded the release of six Muslim men accused of giving weapons to Islamic separatists.
One veiled woman, who declined to give her name but said her husband had been arrested, wept as she told a police official: "We saw the corpses. They were black and bruised. Why? The government cannot do this."
Outraged Islamic leaders have warned that the deaths could ignite more sectarian violence in the south, the only Muslim-majority area in mostly Buddhist Thailand. More than 400 people have been killed in attacks there this year.
Foreign governments, including predominantly Muslim Malaysia, which borders the restive region, have expressed concern about the growing violence.
Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said his government had "nothing to hide." He called diplomats to a special briefing later Thursday at which they would be told "the truth" about Monday's events.
"We will reassure them the deaths were not the result of government policy," Sathirathai told reporters.
Thirty-seven people were also wounded in Monday's violence, said Dr. Pornchit Kantaratsamee, director of Pattani central hospital. They were being treated in three hospitals in the area. Nine had gunshot wounds and the rest suffered bruises and dehydration. Five were in critical condition, she said.
Thousands of Muslim villagers Thursday were to bury in a mass grave about 28 bodies that had not been claimed by family members.
An unsigned statement distributed Thursday by fax to government offices in Narathiwat warned: "Buddhists who want to save their lives should leave our land immediately, or we will kill one of you for every one of our brothers killed by soldiers."
Many of those who have died in the south in recent years have been security or government officials killed in drive-by shootings or small-scale bombings.
The violence continued Thursday. A 33-year-old Buddhist man who owned a fruit orchard in Narathiwat died after being shot six times by a gunman on the back of a motorcycle.
In Songkhla province, a gunman with an assault rifle on the back of a motorcycle shot and wounded a retired police officer as he opened his grocery store.
And in Narathiwat's provincial capital, officials defused a 22-pound bomb minutes before it was set to explode at a food stall where residents often gather to give offerings to Buddhist monks.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has insisted his security forces reacted appropriately in dispersing the riot but conceded that mistakes were made in transporting detainees from the scene.
Thaksin has expressed regret over the deaths and appointed a committee to investigate, saying the probe would yield valuable "lessons for the future."
Thaksin and other officials sought to blame the detainees' deaths in part on weakness due to dawn-to-dusk fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. But a government-employed forensic scientist said two or three of the detainees had broken necks.
Officials say the violence is part of a revived separatist movement that simmered in the south for decades before largely fading in the 1980s. Southern Muslims have long complained of discrimination by the central government, particularly in jobs and education.