Human Rights Commission Ends Fact-Finding Trip to Investigate Muslim Deaths

November 1, 2004

Source: International Herald Tribune

Wire Service: AFP

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/31/news/thai.html

On November 1, 2004 Agence France-Presse reported, "Thailand's human rights commission ended a fact-finding trip Sunday to examine the deaths of 78 Muslims in custody as more testimony emerged on their fate. The four members of the independent National Human Rights Commission decided Sunday that they did not need to meet any of the 113 men the army said it was still holding and who would be prosecuted. Commissioners arrived in the largely Muslim South on Friday to investigate the incident a week ago in this seaside community of Narathiwat Province. At least 87 people died following a demonstration that the authorities dispersed using water cannon, tear gas and gunfire. The government said six were shot and killed at the protest, three others were found drowned in a river near the protest site, and 78 were crushed to death or suffocated after being piled into army trucks taking them into detention."