US embassy cable - 04BANGKOK7421

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BANGKOK 007421 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/27/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, ASEC, PHUM, PREL, PTER, TH, Southern Thailand 
SUBJECT: RTG ADMITS DEATHS OF DETAINEES TAKEN AFTER 
DEMONSTRATIONS IN NARATHIWAT 
 
REF: BANGKOK 7391 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Robert Clarke.  Reason:  1.4 (d) 
 
1.  (U)  Summary:  Late on October 26, Royal Thai Government 
(RTG) officials confirmed that 78 demonstrators (of over 1300 
detainees) taken in custody after an October 25 clash with 
security units at Tak Bai Police Station in Narathiwat 
province died "in transit" to an army camp in Pattani.  These 
deaths brought the death toll from Tak Bai incident to 84 
when added to the six demonstrators killed by gunfire at the 
scene of the clash.  According to the RTG report, about 80 
percent of the 78 victims died of asphyxia and the remainder 
from convulsions.  Photographs taken at the site in 
Narathiwat where the demonstrators were loaded onto army 
trucks show them being laid on the truck beds and apparently 
piled several stacks high on top of each other.  Some Muslim 
and other observers have warned that the deaths of the 
detainees will lead to revenge and deepening violence in the 
South.  On October 27, Thaksin announced to the Thai Senate 
that he will convene an inquiry into the death of the 78 
Muslim protesters who were rounded up by police and military 
troops and crammed into trucks.  One unsubstantiated account 
claims that some of the detainees died from beatings suffered 
en route to Pattani.  End Summary. 
 
RTG OFFICIALS' GRISLY REPORT ON TAK BAI INCIDENT AFTERMATH 
 
2.  (U)  At a hastily arranged press conference in Pattani 
late on October 26, Dr. Pornthip Rojansunant, Deputy Director 
of the Justice Ministry,s Central Institute of Forensic 
Science (and the country,s most respected pathologist), 
Deputy Permanent Minister of Justice Manit Suthaporn and 
Major General Sinchai Nutsathit, Deputy Commander of the 
Fourth Army Region, announced that 78 detainees had died 
while being transported from Tak Bai Police Station in 
Narathiwat to Pattani, a distance of about 120 kilometers, 
the previous day.  On the morning of October 27, in an 
interview with Thai Channel 11, Dr. Pornthip repeated her 
initial explanation of the causes of death by stating that 
cursory autopsies indicated that about "80 percent" of the 78 
victims died of asphyxia or suffocation.  The remaining 20 
percent, she said, appeared to have died from "convulsions." 
Dr. Porthip also released frontal facial photos of the dead, 
which showed multiple bruises.  She stated that many of the 
dead had twisted limbs and some had broken spines, indicating 
they were crushed by the overcrowded conditions. 
 
3.  (SBU)  Porntip said she had not conducted an 
investigation of the trucks used (reported to be between 20 
and 25 to transport 1300 detainees).  Nor had she 
investigated the  procedures of detention and transport 
employed by the Police and Army.  However, pictures in the 
press taken from video footage show that the detainees, with 
their shirts removed and their hands tied behind them, had 
been piled face down in the trucks and stacked in layers of 
three.  The military trucks are designed to transport 
approximately 20 individuals normally seated in two rows on 
either die of the flatbed trucks.  During the press 
conference, officials did not state the time it took to 
transfer the detainees from Tak Bai to Camp Ingkhayyut 
Borihan in Pattani by this method during the evening of 
October 25.  However, several sources indicate that the 
transit time was between 4-5 hours along a 4-lane highway for 
a trip that normally takes about 90 minutes. 
 
THAKSIN ANNOUNCES INVESTIGATION 
 
4.  (U)  Prime Minister Thaksin flew to Narathiwat on October 
25 and praised the security forces for their actions in 
controlling the demonstration at the police station.  He said 
that the government had "run out of patience against elements 
instigating violence.  He added that security forces should 
forego the use of weapons in managing protests .  He 
reportedly said the security units at Tak Bai had taken the 
correct step in firing their weapons in the air.  "They did a 
great job.  They have my praise."  These comments were made 
before revelation of the detainee transport deaths.  On 
October 26, on initially hearing of the additional 78 
victims, he reportedly said, "It's about bodies make weak 
from fasting. Nobody hurt them."  On October 27, Thaksin 
announced to the Thai Senate that he will convene an inquiry 
into the death of the 78 Muslim protesters who were rounded 
up by troops and crammed into trucks.  Thaksin told the 
Senate that his government will set up a committee to 
investigate why the detainees were apparently crowded into 
trucks until they couldn't breathe.  Thaksin told the 
legislators that "We feel sorry. We tried to take care of 
them well. They should not have died. There will be a 
committee to investigate so that we can draw lessons from 
this." 
 
5. (C) A visiting NGO representative who met with Thaksin on 
October 27 said that the Prime Minister had admitted that 
"mistakes" had been made in the joint police-military 
transport operation.  He claimed that the phases that police 
had used to break up the demonstration (negotiations, then 
water hoses, and only then force) had been taken under his 
instructions.  On October 27, MFA Americas Director General 
Nongnuth, echoing Thaksin's earlier reaction, told us that 
the security forces had not realized how weak the detainees 
were from fasting, and in addition had used the wrong type of 
tarpaulin, a less air-permeable type, to cover the transport 
trucks en route. 
 
CONFUSION OVER ANNOUNCEMENT OF MASS DEATHS 
 
6. (C)  On October 27, Dr. Pornthip told the Embassy that the 
hastily arranged press conference on Tuesday, October 26 at 
C.S. Pattani Hotel was actually prepared for General Sirichai 
Tunyasiri, Director of the Southern Border Provinces 
Peace-Keeping Command (SBPPC) to give an official account of 
the event to the public.  But Sirichai didn,t show up at the 
scheduled time and, therefore, she and her superior, Deputy 
Permanent Secretary for Justice, Manit Suthaporn, and Fourth 
Army Deputy Commander Maj. Gen. Sinchai Nutsathit had to 
conduct the press conference themselves.  A source in the 
Thai military told the Embassy that  Prime Minister Thaksin 
wanted the medical team, not the military commander or the 
Director of SBPPC, to disclose this information to the 
public.  Mr. Anusart Suwanmongkol, owner of the C.S. hotel, 
observed that it was the first time that this kind of press 
conference (normally held inside the nearby 
Ingkayutthaboriharn military camp) was staged at a private 
hotel. 
 
7. (C)  According to Dr. Pornthip, she examined the bodies of 
the detainees on Tuesday, October 26, at 8.00 a.m. at Pattani 
Provincial Hospital, confirmed the total number of 78 deaths 
(not including 6 killed at the scene of the demonstration), 
and had reached her conclusions about asphyxiation being the 
primary cause of death.  She also told us that although all 
the bodies had bruising type wounds, there were no 
penetrative or gunshot type wounds.  As in her public 
interview, she refused to comment on details surrounding the 
loading and transporting of the 1,300 arrested demonstrators 
or the conditions in the trucks.  She maintained her version 
that she only came to the hospital to examine the bodies on 
the morning following the day of the incident.  She stressed 
that what she found upon arriving at the hospital were just 
the dead bodies of 78 protesters and was thus not in a 
position to comment on any circumstantial evidence or other 
details. 
 
8. (C) Poloff met October 27 with the news editor of the 
English-language daily, the Nation.  She told him that one 
source had claimed that the first truckload of detainees, 
reportedly filled with those identified specifically as 
"trouble-makers," had arrived at the Ingkayutthaboriharn 
military camp with its passengers either dead or dying from 
beatings.  This story has not been otherwise confirmed. 
 
REACTIONS FROM MUSLIM AND HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS 
 
9. (U)  Muslim groups and human rights organizations in 
Thailand have reacted strongly to this tragedy. Abdullahman 
Abdulsomat, Chairman of Narathiwat provincial Islamic 
committee described the government actions at Tak Bai as 
"totally insane... Certainly, this will escalate further and 
who knows what will happen next."  Nideh Waba, Chairman of a 
private religious schools association, reportedly warned that 
"Those militants... will fight back harshly with suicide 
attacks -- they (the government) have to kill thousands of us 
or hundreds of thousands of our brothers here to prevent us 
from standing up against this massacre.  This is totally 
unacceptable and the prime minister must take direct 
responsibility for the consequences,"  Even more ominously 
the Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO) published 
on its Thai language website a threat of revenge from the 
"Suicide Unit of Ramadan Sharif" for the incident and a 
threat against the Senior Muslim Representative in Thailand, 
the Chula Ratchamontri, if he makes any statements in support 
of the RTG's action at Tak Bai.  The PULO website features 
photos of the incident, mainly featuring handcuffed young 
Muslim males lying on the ground at the Tak Bai site with 
Thai troops and police standing over them.  Similar footage 
was shown for a few hours on government owned television 
stations on October 26. 
 
10. (U) Thai National Human Rights Commissioner Jaran 
Ditthapichai told journalists October 27 that the Commission 
will send a letter to PM Thaksin to express its strong 
concerns over the deaths and to demand that the government 
implement appropriate measures to solve the Southern problem 
carefully and peacefully. 
11. (U) On October 27, local Thai NGOs circulated material 
from the HongKong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) 
which charged that "this is another mass killing committed by 
Thai security forces in southern provinces. Before this 
event, the government's official figures showed that more 
than 400 people had been killed since this January.  The AHRC 
is gravely concerned that the Thai authorities' repeated use 
of violence against civilians badly affects the rule of law 
in the country, and further encourages impunity of the police 
and soldiers to get involved in further violence."  This 
statement was accompanied by an appeal to write PM Thaksin 
and other RTG ministers in protest. 
 
ESCALATING TENSIONS 
 
12.  (C)  Comment:  PM Thaksin has now promised to 
investigate the deaths of the detainees, but he does not seem 
to be moving quickly enough--or sympathetically enough--to 
avert widespread Thai Muslim anger over the Tak Bai incident. 
 Many observers fear that a lasting backlash is inevitable 
and will provoke further security clampdowns that generate 
further violence in the South.  Some fear a watershed 
hardening of Muslim attitudes that will attract outside 
radical groups that have apparently not been involved in 
Southern violence to date.  It remains to be seen how the 
majority of Thai non-Muslims will react, but many of our 
contacts have expressed shock at the tragedy and sympathy for 
fellow citizens who died after participating in a 
demonstration entirely within their constitutional rights. 
End Comment. 
 
 
 
JOHNSON