Graphic: AFPNearly 1,000 refugees were detained on a remote island in December before being towed out to sea and abandoned with little food or water, rights group says.
January 23, 2009
By Simon Montlake
Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
BANGKOK, THAILAND - Hundreds of Muslim refugees from Burma (Myanmar) are feared missing or dead after Thai troops forced them onto boats without engines and cut them adrift in international waters, according to human rights activists and authorities in India who rescued survivors. The revelations have shone a spotlight on the Thai military's expulsion policy toward Muslims it sees as a security threat.
Nearly 1,000 refugees were detained on a remote island in December before being towed out to sea in two batches and abandoned with little food or water, according to a tally by a migrant-rights group based on survivors' accounts and media reports. The detainees, mostly members of Burma's oppressed Rohingya minority, then drifted for weeks. One group was later rescued by Indonesia's Navy, and two others made landfall in India's Andaman Islands.
Photos of refugees on a Thai island show rows of bedraggled men stripped to the waist as soldiers stand guard. In a separate incident, foreign tourists snapped pictures of detainees trussed on a beach. Thailand's Andaman coastline, where the abuses took place, is a popular vacation spot.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has launched an investigation. Military officials have denied any ill treatment of refugees, while offering conflicting accounts of how they ended up lost at sea. The military has accused the Rohingya, who often travel via Thailand to Malaysia to work or seek asylum, of assisting a Muslim-led insurgency in southern Thailand.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is pressing Thailand for access to 126 Rohingya that it says are in Thai custody. These include 46 boat people reportedly detained on Jan. 16 and handed over to military custody. It said a second group of 80 Rohingya, which reportedly had previously been pushed out to sea and drifted back, had been transferred to the tiny detention island.
There was no sign Thursday of any detainees there, said a Western source in the area. Villagers said boat people had been held there by local guards under military command, before being towed out to sea by fishing vessels. Rickety vessels said to have carried the refugees were beached on the island, the source said.
Amid accusations of a military cover-up, the Thai government has promised a full accounting. "The military has agreed to a fact-finding investigation … [but] we're not dependent on their input alone," says Panitan Wattanyagorn, a spokesman.
That probe will expose Mr. Abhisit's weak command of the military, which sees the Rohingya and other undocumented Muslims as a threat, says Paul Quaglia, director of PSA Asia, a security consultancy in Bangkok. He says there's no evidence that the Rohingya, who speak a Bengali dialect, have joined insurgents in the Malay-speaking south, where more than 3,500 people have died since 2004.
"Abhisit is ... beholden to the military for getting his job – and keeping his job," he says.
Thailand has long been a magnet for millions of economic migrants as well as refugees escaping persecution in Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Human traffickers often play a role in transporting both groups, exposing those on the run to egregious abuses. Thailand has a mixed record on hosting refugees.
Most Rohingya, who are denied legal rights in Burma, begin their journey in Bangladesh, where more than 200,000 live in unofficial camps. A further 28,000 are registered with the UNHCR. From there, men pay smugglers for passage across the Indian Ocean to Thailand, usually as a transit stop to reach Malaysia, a Muslim country with a sizable Rohingya population. Some Bangladeshis also travel there.
In recent years, the number of boats crossing during the winter months has risen sharply. Between 2004 and 2008, the number of Rohingya detained by police rose to 4,866, up from 2,763, says Kraisak Choonhavan, a government lawmaker.
Some of these Rohingya have been repatriated to Burma. Others have paid smugglers to complete their journey to Malaysia, or become victims of traffickers, say rights activists. That appears to have changed as the military has got involved.
In security briefings, military officials repeatedly draw a link between Rohingya refugees and separatist violence in the south, says Sunai Pasuk, with Human Rights Watch, which has received reports of sea "pushbacks" since 2007. "This is not just an isolated incident. There must be a policy behind it," he says.
Mr. Kraisak, a deputy leader of the ruling Democrat party, criticized the violation of human rights. But he said the outflow of refugees from Burma was a problem that Thailand can't handle alone. "We have to confer on the international stage. Thais have been too tolerant," he says.
In interviews with Indian security officials, survivors said uniformed Thai personnel shot four refugees and tossed another into the sea before forcing their group to board a wooden barge. Some 400 crowded onto the barge, which was towed to sea for about 18 hours with armed soldiers aboard. They shared two bags of rice and two gallons of water, according to a transcript in the South China Post.
The barge drifted for more than a week. Of 300 people who tried to swim to shore, only 11 survived. An additional 88 were rescued by the Coast Guard.
January 23, 2009
By Simon Montlake
Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
BANGKOK, THAILAND - Hundreds of Muslim refugees from Burma (Myanmar) are feared missing or dead after Thai troops forced them onto boats without engines and cut them adrift in international waters, according to human rights activists and authorities in India who rescued survivors. The revelations have shone a spotlight on the Thai military's expulsion policy toward Muslims it sees as a security threat.
Nearly 1,000 refugees were detained on a remote island in December before being towed out to sea in two batches and abandoned with little food or water, according to a tally by a migrant-rights group based on survivors' accounts and media reports. The detainees, mostly members of Burma's oppressed Rohingya minority, then drifted for weeks. One group was later rescued by Indonesia's Navy, and two others made landfall in India's Andaman Islands.
Photos of refugees on a Thai island show rows of bedraggled men stripped to the waist as soldiers stand guard. In a separate incident, foreign tourists snapped pictures of detainees trussed on a beach. Thailand's Andaman coastline, where the abuses took place, is a popular vacation spot.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has launched an investigation. Military officials have denied any ill treatment of refugees, while offering conflicting accounts of how they ended up lost at sea. The military has accused the Rohingya, who often travel via Thailand to Malaysia to work or seek asylum, of assisting a Muslim-led insurgency in southern Thailand.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is pressing Thailand for access to 126 Rohingya that it says are in Thai custody. These include 46 boat people reportedly detained on Jan. 16 and handed over to military custody. It said a second group of 80 Rohingya, which reportedly had previously been pushed out to sea and drifted back, had been transferred to the tiny detention island.
There was no sign Thursday of any detainees there, said a Western source in the area. Villagers said boat people had been held there by local guards under military command, before being towed out to sea by fishing vessels. Rickety vessels said to have carried the refugees were beached on the island, the source said.
Amid accusations of a military cover-up, the Thai government has promised a full accounting. "The military has agreed to a fact-finding investigation … [but] we're not dependent on their input alone," says Panitan Wattanyagorn, a spokesman.
That probe will expose Mr. Abhisit's weak command of the military, which sees the Rohingya and other undocumented Muslims as a threat, says Paul Quaglia, director of PSA Asia, a security consultancy in Bangkok. He says there's no evidence that the Rohingya, who speak a Bengali dialect, have joined insurgents in the Malay-speaking south, where more than 3,500 people have died since 2004.
"Abhisit is ... beholden to the military for getting his job – and keeping his job," he says.
Thailand has long been a magnet for millions of economic migrants as well as refugees escaping persecution in Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Human traffickers often play a role in transporting both groups, exposing those on the run to egregious abuses. Thailand has a mixed record on hosting refugees.
Most Rohingya, who are denied legal rights in Burma, begin their journey in Bangladesh, where more than 200,000 live in unofficial camps. A further 28,000 are registered with the UNHCR. From there, men pay smugglers for passage across the Indian Ocean to Thailand, usually as a transit stop to reach Malaysia, a Muslim country with a sizable Rohingya population. Some Bangladeshis also travel there.
In recent years, the number of boats crossing during the winter months has risen sharply. Between 2004 and 2008, the number of Rohingya detained by police rose to 4,866, up from 2,763, says Kraisak Choonhavan, a government lawmaker.
Some of these Rohingya have been repatriated to Burma. Others have paid smugglers to complete their journey to Malaysia, or become victims of traffickers, say rights activists. That appears to have changed as the military has got involved.
In security briefings, military officials repeatedly draw a link between Rohingya refugees and separatist violence in the south, says Sunai Pasuk, with Human Rights Watch, which has received reports of sea "pushbacks" since 2007. "This is not just an isolated incident. There must be a policy behind it," he says.
Mr. Kraisak, a deputy leader of the ruling Democrat party, criticized the violation of human rights. But he said the outflow of refugees from Burma was a problem that Thailand can't handle alone. "We have to confer on the international stage. Thais have been too tolerant," he says.
In interviews with Indian security officials, survivors said uniformed Thai personnel shot four refugees and tossed another into the sea before forcing their group to board a wooden barge. Some 400 crowded onto the barge, which was towed to sea for about 18 hours with armed soldiers aboard. They shared two bags of rice and two gallons of water, according to a transcript in the South China Post.
The barge drifted for more than a week. Of 300 people who tried to swim to shore, only 11 survived. An additional 88 were rescued by the Coast Guard.
21 comments:
FUCK THAILAND..............THAILAND IS GOING DOWN FOR FUCKING WITH THE MUSLIMS..............
I remember for all of my life about thailand threw down the Cambodian refugees at phnom Dongrek while Cambodian people were escaping for their life from invading of vietnam into Cambodia in 1979.
Thailand is Thailand,we do any thing to protect Thailand border.
Thais need the Atomic bomb to be dropped on them to learn a lesson!
As budhists we will see what ones get from what the've done....
Wish the Muslims to bomb some more. I am not a pro terrorism but they should.
I can see that Thailand is fed up with being mob by immoral refugees.
As a signatory sovereigbty to Geneva Refugee Convention,Tailand is obliged to uphold the laws to protect and grant refuge to the refugees.
Understood Tai is Tai but Tai can be human too and human shares same obligation before the laws and life saving.
Buddhist Tai tortured,raped,robbed and killed Viet,Khmer,Lao-Hmomng,Tai dam during the chaotic period in the 70's,
80's...I was there and have heard and seen all.
Tai, a cold blooded nation and greedy, only cares for Dollar from UNHCR and military aids from UN /US in exchange to assist refugees then.
UNHCR provided fund for Tai to purchase healthy food for refugees,but Tai administrative provided rotten fishes, expired canned fish,rotten meat,low quality rice,dirty vegetables to hungry refugees.
Hypocrite as usual.
I strongly believe Human Rights Watch has a strong ground against Tai inhumane crime against refugees.
Group Petition needs to be filed with UNHCR to investigate Tai violations.
If any refugee want job, they should let Thailand run their province to create good job for them. That way, they don't have to leave home.
Thailand shouldn't mess with the muslims. Now when the muslims hear this. Thailand is dead duck. quack quack
if a country take care of its citizen, other people from other countries will also come like europe and america for example.
If not, people will rebell. So don't blame on the people.
This is nothing new for the Thias. They have no regards for human lives. The world should know the true act of what lies within the "smiling faces."
Abhis-shit, u can try to cover up all you want, but the world knows now. We all know how brutal these Thias are.
If you know it is bad, then why you constantly sneak in there for jobs?
Thailand can't provide decent job for all the women and children who end up making a living in Bangkok as prostitutes.
Land of Smiles while its King, Lek, Never Smiles,although,he's filthy rich.
He is claimed a Buddhist and sitting on $35-50 billion and still counting more under tax exemption privilege.
Thailand is land of the free. Do whatever you want.
Thais are Buddhism and peaceful people. But, they had done so many rapes, robberies, jailed, killings to Cambodian/Laos/Burmese refugees and labor workers. Now they are doing it again to Muslims. Shame to Buddhism teaching. Just like Christianity, there are many flaws to this religion.
This Thai Land compare to animal land nothing is diffidences Thai well known as refugees killer two decades ago and now still practice the inhuman acts,May Buddha reverse the curse to ThaiLand at this time?
Thailand is one country that does not recognize marriages of refugees in their refugee camps nor have they ever recognized births of refugees i.e. if a child was born in Khao I Dung camp, that child is not Thai citizenship, and marriages are not recognized as valid so those married in the camp do not have a legal marriage- and both the UN and the US don't recognize the marriage as being valid for that reason.
7:20pm, cuz people are desperate. And if it takes them to crawl into a lion's mouth to get food out of it, they will.
True, but if Cambodia can't produced enough jobs for people, wouldn't it be wiser to let Thailand do it. That way, no one will have to take any risk going into a lion mouth.
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