Thursday, Oct 28, 2004
Thai Prime Minister admits to 'mistakes'
BO THONG (THAILAND), OCT. 27. Thailand's Prime Minister expressed regret on Wednesday over the deaths of 78 Muslim detenus 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 persons have been killed this year in a revival of a long-simmering insurgency.
The Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, acknowledged "there were some mistakes,'' and that authorities lacked enough trucks to properly transport the nearly 1,300 persons arrested in Monday's riot in southern Narathiwat province because it was a holiday.
Only four trucks
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 detenus, 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,'' Mr. Thaksin told the Senate, which had demanded an explanation for the deaths. But he insisted the military had used "the soft approach,'' and that soldiers "did not fire a single round into the crowd.''
At least seven persons also were killed in the riot, apparently shot by security forces, making the overall death toll 85. Mr. Thaksin and officials sought to partly blame the deaths on the detenus' weakness due to dawn-to-dusk Ramzan fasting, saying they died of dehydration or suffocation. But a forensic scientist with the Justice Ministry had said two or three of the detenus had broken necks. The detenus were among about 2,000 persons who clashed with security forces outside a police station in Narathiwat on Monday while demanding the release of six Muslim suspects.
Crackdown denounced
Islamic leaders in neighbouring Malaysian and Indonesia denounced the crackdown in Thailand, with some calling it a `holocaust' and "state terrorism.''
Local Muslim leaders accused security forces of overreacting - a charge they have repeatedly made as the Government has failed to halt violence in the area. - AP
Copyright © 2004, The Hindu.