BANGKOK, 10 November 2004 — Thailand’s army said yesterday it was investigating a report that 40 people remained missing after a riot and the rounding up of Muslim protesters two weeks ago that left 87 people dead. Families claim the men have been missing since Oct. 25 when security forces broke up a protest at Tak Bai in the southern province of Narathiwat and piled hundreds of arrested men into army trucks, according to a Thai newspaper report.
Some 78 died from suffocation and crushing in the trucks along with nine others when troops and police broke up the riot with gunfire, tear gas and water cannon.
The army denied that it was hiding details of anybody who was missing. But an informed source in the region said: “According to army intelligence, there were about 20 people believed missing from the incident.”
The source said the 20 did not include the 22 victims who remained unidentified following the tragedy at Tak Bai.
Army officials said the missing men could have left the area and passed into neighboring Malaysia without telling their families.
“We don’t have anybody that is missing up until now,” army spokesman Col. Somkuan Saengpataranetr said. “We are trying to investigate but we have to ask the police to contact the families.” The bodies of the 22 unidentified men have already been buried but families were being shown photographs, according to the Bangkok Post newspaper.
The government has set up a commission to investigate the deaths of the 78, headed by a former parliamentary ombudsman, but a group representing Muslims in Thailand said it was setting up its own inquiry.
“We found that some of our information did not match the information from the government. We need to find the truth,” said Paisarn Promyong, deputy secretary of the Islamic Committee of Thailand.
Meanwhile, killings continued in the south of the country with a man and his wife shot dead as they traveled to work yesterday.
They were killed by two men riding a motorcycle in the region where more than 540 people have died this year in an insurgency that sparked back to life in January.
In another incident, a 60-year-old man was beheaded yesterday, police said.
The man, identified only as Kaew, was killed at 1:00 a.m. at his home in the southern province of Narathiwat, police said.
“The police are investigating and believe the attackers want to create more unrest in the south,” a police statement said.
