Posted on 10/27/2004 10:02:55 AM PDT by knighthawk
BANGKOK will "burn" as revenge for the death by suffocation of 78 Muslim men as they were being transported in Thai Army trucks this week, a group of Muslim militants threatened yesterday.
"The capital will be burned down in the same way the Pattani capital has been burned," the Pattani United Liberation Organisation, long thought to be militarily dormant after an insurgency in the 1980s, said in a statement on its website.
The threat supports fears the deaths -- by far the most shocking in 11 months of almost daily violence in the south -- will spark a massive militant backlash.
Families of the 1300 men who were bound and piled into army trucks after Monday's violent protest in Narathiwat province flocked to an army camp in neighbouring Pattani yesterday, in a desperate attempt to find their missing relatives.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he was sorry for the deaths, but blamed a public holiday and "mistakes" for the incident, which he said would be the subject of an inquiry.
"I can say the Government resorted to gentle measures and did not use force in suppressing the protesters. But mistakes happened during the transport of the arrested people," Mr Thaksin said.
"We are sorry for that, sorry they met an untimely death."
The men were arrested in Tak Bai village after a demonstration demanding the release of six Muslim detainees turned violent, leading police to use water cannon, tear gas and live ammunition.
Witnesses have reported seeing the men pushed up to five deep into standard six-wheel army trucks. The trucks were then covered with tarpaulins.
Mr Thaksin said a Buddhist holiday on Monday meant there were not enough trucks available to transport the arrested protesters.
The commander of the Ingkayuth Borihan army camp told The Australian yesterday the trucks began arriving at his camp at 9pm, almost six hours after they left Tak Bai in the neighbouring province.
Asked why forensic scientist Porntip Rojanasunant had given the time of most of the deaths as midnight, Colonel Arkom Pongporm said the men could have died in the trucks in the camp yard, because it took a long time to unload them. Some of the men died of broken necks, Dr Porntip said, but most suffocated.
Hundreds of families queued up outside the camp in a desperate attempt to find their missing men, and those who were able to leave with the corpses of their relatives drove them away in body bags on the backs of private utility trucks.
By midday, trails of dripping body fluids left behind by the departing vehicles served as a grim guide for families looking for the camp.
The remaining detainees are being held under martial law, by which they can be kept in custody up to five days without charge, while 33 men in hospital have also been denied access to their families.
Mr Thaksin's comments are unlikely to satisfy human rights groups, diplomats and neighbouring countries, who have expressed deep concerns over the tragedy.
Malaysia and Indonesia expressed concern about the men's treatment, and Thai Human Rights Commissioner Jaran Dithapichai described it as the worst human rights violation in 30 years.
Amnesty International called for an independent inquiry into the scandal, saying there was a "disturbing pattern of Thai security forces using excessive force" against Muslims in the south.
The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission said the high death toll was "most disturbing and utterly inexcusable", while The Nation newspaper, in a front-page commentary, called on Mr Thaksin to take a "long hard look at himself".
Additional reporting: Am Sandford
Ping
Islam - spreading peace and goodwill throughout the world.
I keep looking for the Pig fat reference in this story.
Now they gone and done it. Muslim revenge is a Theresa.
Why is it when Muslims die it makes all the papers and news reports, but when (as is usually the case) Muslims kill thousands no one hears a peep........
Because you are not looking for it? It makes the news in Thailand almost daily.
Sorry, I meant in the American / European media.... not in the local papers where it actually happens.....
Kind of like when some white trash lynches a gay person we see it in the media day in and day out for months, but never a peep of the two gay perverts who killed a boy by suffocation while they were torturing him in their sick sex games........
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